
Exynos based quad-core developer boards, starting at $69 - sharmajai
http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/main.php
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trotsky
Too bad none of these various hobbyist boards come with socs that support
gigabit and sata. my $400 512mb single core synology nas is very jealous.

~~~
tucosan
Exactly this. I wonder what the factor is that hinders gigabit ethernet and
especially multiple sata ports. My pogoplug actually has an onboard sata port
so it should be possible to integrate those without choking the arm board or
running up hardware prices.

~~~
mbell
It depends on the SoC used. Some will have 1 or 2 SATA controllers on board.
This board is based on the Exynos 4412 which I don't think has SATA
controllers on board (can't find a full datasheet). This means adding them
externally, not big deal right? But, 99% of SATA controllers today are built
to talk PCI-Express, and the Exynos SoC doesn't speak PCI-Express! We're
screwed...

Basically the same thing happens with gigabit Ethernet (and USB 3.0). Unless
the SoC has the controller on-board or has PCI-Express (few do) there really
isn't a way to plug the external controller into the SoC. 10/100 Ethernet is
slow enough that you can pump its data in and out of the SoC using a SPI port
and get most of the speed and many SoCs now have a 10/100 controller and USB
2.0 controllers on board. There is no spec limit to the speed of SPI but its a
single ended 2 wire protocol limiting its realistic usage to the several tens
of Mbit/sec.

The problem is that there is no commonly accepted, generic, very high speed
I/O protocol for embedded devices so if they choose not to implement PCI-
Express your left without a way to pump information into and out of the SoC at
fast enough speeds to support these new interfaces.

~~~
justincormack
Exynos has one sata according to block diagram I saw and the Arndale board
supports it. Ethernet is via USB. Mine hasn't shipped yet though...

~~~
mbell
Exynos is a brand name of the family, not a single product. The Arndale has
the Exynos 5250 SoC (dual-core A15) not the Exynos 4412 (quad core A9) which
is used on the board mentioned in this thread.

~~~
justincormack
Ah yes. 4412 does not appear to have sata or ethernet according to this
[http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.ph...](http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G134032695534)

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coolnow
Can someone clear something up for me? Are these chips comparable to the one
in the Raspberry Pi? And are these developer boards are vastly more powerful
than the Pi?

I'm not trying to start any arguments, i know the real purpose of the Pi and
the usefulness of it, especially with the GPIO pins but i was just curious.

~~~
stusmall
That core is considerably faster but I don't know about its graphics if it has
any.

~~~
coolnow
These sort of chips have their GPU included as well, don't they? If it's
anything like the Mali in the S3, i'd be really really happy.

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sriram_sun
Wouldn't mind a larger board that exposes a number of pins for GPIO, I2C, SPI
etc. from the SoC. I'm using the SoCs at www.gumstix.org with OpenEmbedded
Linux for rapid work related prototyping.

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neya
Just curious, is this stuff open source? Meaning, I use them for commercial
production and I won't be sued for just using these boards(assuming I don't
infringe on anything else)? Just curious.

~~~
ajross
That's not what open source means. But surely they wouldn't be legally able to
sell them if the devices were encumbered somehow; the hardware isn't any
different than what's in phones you can already buy.

But as far as open source goes: not quite. The Exynos runs linux, but with a
driver suite that is partially closed. You'll be able to run whatever versions
of whatever distros are supported, and not much else.

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baltcode
I see it starting at $89.

~~~
sharmajai
This is the one at $69:
[http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.ph...](http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G135341359084)

~~~
Dystopian
Make sure you also look at the 5V/2A adapter below if you don't already have
one ($9 - not terrible). The unit doesn't power via micro-usb.

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drivebyacct2
This is the SOC in the Nexus 10 right? Is someone working on a linux port for
the N10?

How's the video acceleration on this? I need to start a blog. I read like 2-3
hours worth of ARM news once or twice a week trying to track down the best
HW/SW/price combination for a simple dumb XBMC-upnp frontend.

The Rockchip devices have pretty crap support, though AMLogic released some
sources that might help. Allwinner is finally making progress via AW's CedarX,
though it's apparently still sufficiently buggy and they're back at the mercy
of Allwinner.

I've yet to see much about the Samsung setup though. I love the Exynos and
would very happily spend another $100 in an attempt to find the right thing.

That having been said, there are ~$50 versions of the HDMI stick that have
powerful Cortex A9s in them that make these look over priced.

~~~
18pfsmt
> _trying to track down the best HW/SW/price combination for a simple dumb
> XBMC-upnp frontend._

What's wrong with the Apple TV 2 with XBMC? Does it really need to be cheaper
than $100 which includes power supply, and a decent enclosure? I've considered
this a solved problem for a while.

~~~
thedrbrian
>What's wrong with the Apple TV 2 with XBMC? Does it really need to be cheaper
than $100 which includes power supply, and a decent enclosure? I've considered
this a solved problem for a while.

Apple. Some people have an irrational hatred of apple products plus they like
having something they hacked together which doesn't work quite as well as a
boxed product while also costing a little bit more.

~~~
drivebyacct2
What a uselessly insulting reply.

>Some people have an irrational hatred of apple products

James Bond is playing on my third Macbook in 3 years, I'm typing on an Apple
keyboard and helping my brother shop for an iPad mini.

>they like having something they hacked together

You got me.

>doesn't work quite as well as a boxed product

FUD. Keep telling yourself that while I have access to every Android app, plus
everything afforded to me in Linux. At worst, you have to know which one to
shop for that has decent support. It is annoying but it doesn't diminish the
value of XBMC once it is up and running.

>while also costing a little bit more

FUD. What else can I say, that's just a lie. There are literally dozens of
boxes with better specs for much less than the Apple TV.

