
VoCore2 Lite – A $4, coin-sized, open-source Linux computer - cpeterso
http://www.zdnet.com/article/move-over-raspberry-pi-here-is-a-4-coin-sized-open-source-linux-computer/
======
devy
VoCore team on their site[1] said that VoCore2 Lite is "very very close" to
cost. I concur, as the heart of that VoCore2 board - MediaTek MT7688AN SoC
chip costs between $2.79 and $3.35 (depending on the order quantity) on the
Alibaba wholesale site[2].

Congrats to VoCore team to make low cost IoT DIY projects possible and
affordable for students.

PS: If you weren't familiar with MediaTek, their SoC chip was the King of
Shanzhai culture[3] during early iPhone era.

[1] [http://vonger.cn/](http://vonger.cn/)

[2] [https://wholesaler.alibaba.com/product-detail/New-and-
origin...](https://wholesaler.alibaba.com/product-detail/New-and-original-IC-
CHip-MT7688AN_60377763139.html)

[3] [http://www.core-
corner.com/Web2/GsMaterialDB/HC_HBRC_9/2014-...](http://www.core-
corner.com/Web2/GsMaterialDB/HC_HBRC_9/2014-10-08/98lr9wq2_20140725.PDF)

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unwind
This looks kind of neat, if perhaps not super-accessible.

The pinout diagram has the best named pin in a while, "P0RN" is a classic
([http://vonger.cn/?p=2666](http://vonger.cn/?p=2666)). :) Btw that page seems
to lack a legend, I guess purple is Ethernet.

~~~
makomk
Yeah, it's Ethernet. P0RN is the negative half of the receive pair for
ethernet port 0.

~~~
monocasa
Well yeah, it'd have to be the receive on the Ethernet, it is porn after all.

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Symbiote
This is cool, but the $4 version isn't comparable with the Raspberry Pi.

The version with connectors and a case costs $39. The Raspberry Pi 3 with
connectors and a case is sold for $35 at the first US retailer I found.

~~~
rkangel
On the other hand, you don't always want all the connectors and you have to
spend $30. Being able to spend only $4 for the bare minimum is a nice option
to have.

~~~
tdkl
Precisely, they can both co-exist and are welcome.

This narrative with click-bait titles of someone having to loose that one has
to win is dumb and should die out.

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CalRobert
"Both versions of the VoCore2 have a power consumption of 74mA at standby, and
230mA at full speed. "

It's great to know how much current it draws, but that doesn't tell me how
much power it draws.

"How powerful is your new car?"

"Oh super powerful! It's got 3 inch diameter fuel lines!" ...

~~~
mattthebaker
Current is much more useful in engineering, because it is more constant for
this type of device than power. Power varies with supply voltage while current
normally does not.

Other than doing temperature calculations, power is not a very useful metric.
And for such calculations you would use a max power rather than average power
metric.

If you were optimizing a system for "power" use, it is much easier to work in
units of energy than power anyway.

~~~
programmer_dude
> Current ... is more constant for this type of device than power. Power
> varies with supply voltage while current normally does not.

Can you explain why?

~~~
Dylan16807
The chip is designed to run at a certain minimum voltage, and does so at a
certain current. Feeding more voltage does not change its general operation.
It throws the excess away as heat and keeps drawing the same current.

You can attach an external circuit to convert to the desired voltage and
therefore keep power draw constant. But that takes more space and costs more
money.

Throwing away excess voltage as heat is simply easier.

------
digikata
Increasingly, I tend to judge these systems from an availability of
documentation for the core SoC. It means if there's a specific problem I can
go digging into fix it myself, or that the open source community can dig into
the support better in general and you have fewer issues/better support in the
first place.

Esp with hobby development, I'd rather save time in having the system
documented then $5-10 bucks on the hardware cost.

------
voltagex_
Hey, it's the VoCore again. I've got one of the first ones... somewhere. It
comes exactly as it looks in the photo and was unfortunately far too small for
me to solder the headers on to.

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Retr0spectrum
I bought one of these things for £5:
[https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/unbranded/a5-v11](https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/unbranded/a5-v11)

It has slightly inferior specs, but it has ethernet, USB, and 150M WiFi built
in.

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simosx
These loud footsteps at a distance are from the ESP32 approaching.

(yeah, does not run the Linux kernel but it is going to be quite open this
time)

~~~
pjmlp
I think those devices are wasted running a full OS stack for a single purpose,
better have a nice baremetal runtime, unikernel style.

The problem being that for most use cases, for the price many of these boards
cost, the majority will just go with the Linux option and install something
like Yocto.

~~~
pantalaimon
The main selling point of Linux is portability and by that code reuse across a
wide array of use cases.

Sure you could build a hardware abstraction layer for different processors and
implement drivers on top of that, but you won't get the same
traction/networking effect of Linux anytime soon.

Same goes for software stacks (TCP/IP, USB, WiFi, file systems, etc) which
have been running on billions of devices before if you use linux.

The overhead of using Linux is in the range of 1-2MiB [1] so once your
application requires external Ram because it doesn't fit the on-chip SRAM, you
might as well use Linux.

[1] [http://www.emcraft.com/stm32f429discovery/what-is-minimal-
fo...](http://www.emcraft.com/stm32f429discovery/what-is-minimal-footprint)

~~~
pjmlp
Agree, hence why I mentioned that for the price those boards cost, going Linux
might be what the majority will do.

On the other hand I look at chips like the ESP32, and given that my coding
skills started on Z80 computers, 512 KB is more than enough and actually more
fun to use.

Given the set of high level programming languages I was using in those days,
there is plenty of juice to squeeze out of those types of MCUs.

------
olegkikin
$5 buys you Raspberry Pi Zero: 512MB RAM, 1GHz CPU, MicroSD slot, 40 I/O pins,
mini-HDMI, microUSB.

~~~
ohstopitu
just out of curiosity: where would I be able to get one? they seem to be
perpetually out of stock (at the $5 price point).

~~~
Mark_B
Says in stock on Adafruit
[https://www.adafruit.com/product/2885](https://www.adafruit.com/product/2885)

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anotheryou
How do you use it without storage? (can you use it without the connectors?)

If there was a mini-sd I could imagine: put some image on it that knows your
wifi, ssh in to it. So if i manage to solder in power and plug in my spare
antenna here it might work. Probably you can even just cut some wire of the
right size and program it next to your router, my directional antenna is not
much more (just some tin can for the directional part).

~~~
bronson
It has 8MB of NOR storage. Sure, you aren't putting Debian on there, but it'll
take your wifi creds.

~~~
jandrese
I think the intention is that you run something like DD-WRT on it. 8MB of
storage is a bit tight even for DD-WRT however, if I was looking at these
boards I would seriously consider splurging on the $12 model to avoid the low
storage headaches.

If I were building a hundred or more devices I'd do the work to make the $4
version work, but for a one-off it's not worth the headache.

The PCIe option is surprising. I'm not sure what I would use it for, but it
does open up some unusual possibilities.

~~~
kogepathic
> 8MB of storage is a bit tight even for DD-WRT however

8MB of NOR flash is totally standard for a vast majority of consumer routers.

OpenWrt/LEDE will happily fit on 8MB with around 4MB available as /overlay
(e.g. for additional packages or data).

> The PCIe option is surprising. I'm not sure what I would use it for, but it
> does open up some unusual possibilities.

You can use PCI-e for 5GHz WiFi (most common use for PCIe on this SoC line).
You can also buy SATA controllers or Gigabit Ethernet in mini-PCIe form
factor.

Most UMTS/LTE modems in mini-PCIe form factor are actually only utilizing the
USB pins in a mini-PCIe slot, so you don't actually need PCIe for those.

------
chrisacky
Can anyone recommend a device whihc has Wifi and supports MONITOR mode?

I can't find any information on this device, but essentially I'm looking for
something which:

\- Supports WIFI to connect the device to a network

\- Supports WIFI promiscuous mode _ALSO_ so that I can listen to PROBE
requests from devices in the area

\- Linux..

Seems like a really hard search?

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Have you tried searching for the use-case instead and seeing what hardware
other people use.

I've seen somewhere battery powered WiFi sniffing units, possibly on CCC.de or
mentioned in a blackhat conference video.

------
willvarfar
So specifically most comparable to a Raspberry Pi Zero? At least price-wise,
but not peripheral-wise?

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cheiVia0
Huh, looks like this is MIPS not ARM:

[http://www.datasheet4u.com/datasheet-
pdf/MEDIATEK/MT7688AN/p...](http://www.datasheet4u.com/datasheet-
pdf/MEDIATEK/MT7688AN/pdf.php?id=935554)

------
znpy
Just "bought" one from the indiegogo campaign.

Does anyone know when will they be shipping? No hurry, just want to know when
to shedule in my agenda to check whether it's shipping or not.

------
mkesper
I guess you're not able to run mainline kernel on it?

~~~
nickez
My experience with mediatek is that they are awful at publishing their linux
kernel source code.

~~~
mattthebaker
Generally, don't touch anything with mediatek or allwinner if you want it to
work at the end of the day. Their driver support is very bad. Funny personal
story, I turned down a contract almost four years ago that would have involved
getting 3D running on an Allwinner based board. Four years later and CHIP is
demoing an "Alpha" of 3D on Allwinner.

Meanwhile even hardware accelerated 3D and video decoding works on the
Broadcom SoCs in the Pi, and has for years.

Mediatek and Allwinner are cheap, but useless.

------
gravypod
Is there any on board ADC/DAC? Using this for data acquisition would be great.

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legulere
Does the PCIe support mean you could use NVMe ssds? Storage is the biggest
problem with most single board computers as it usually goes over USB or uses
unreliable SD cards.

~~~
dlss
Are there cheap NVMe cards? My only experience with NVMe is in the context of
~$250+ SSDs... which seems like an odd pairing with a $4 processor.

~~~
scq
Even more so if you consider that the SSD likely has a more powerful processor
than the VoCore.

~~~
imtringued
And PCIe 1.1 is going to bottleneck the SSD.

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noja
Apples and oranges.

