[Arm-netbook] Freescale iMX53 Quick Start board

[Gordan Bobic]

 On Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:46:11 +0200, Arnaud Patard (Rtp) 
 <arnaud.patard at rtp-net.org> wrote:
> Gordan Bobic <gordan at bobich.net> writes:
>
>> On Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:42:33 +0100, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
>> <lkcl at lkcl.net> wrote:
>>> On Sat, Aug 6, 2011 at 1:35 PM, David Given <dg at cowlark.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Are there any decent-looking Cortex A9 boards out or upcoming 
>>>> which
>>>> support ethernet and SATA? So far I've found:
>>>>
>>>> PandaBoard --- $180, ethernet, no SATA.
>>>>
>>>> Samsung Origen --- $250, no ethernet, no SATA.
>>>>
>>>> Igloo Snowball --- $209, ethernet, no SATA (but other than that a
>>>> very
>>>> nice looking device).
>>>>
>>>> Trimslice --- $199, ethernet, may have SATA (they mention it a lot
>>>> but
>>>> it's unclear whether there's an actual socket or not). Comes in a
>>>> box!
>>>>
>>>> Anything else worth investigating?
>>>
>>>  ok... yes, i can ask.
>>>
>>>  question (for everyone): if there existed a board which used a
>>> single-core 800mhz Cortex A9, maximum hard limit of 512mb RAM, but
>>> also had SATA-II and 10/100 Ethernet, would it be of interest, and
>>> how
>>> much would you pay for it?  similar spec / design / size / 
>>> interfaces
>>> as the pandaboard, origen etc. just with a single-core Cortex A9
>>> rather than dual-core.
>>>
>>>  the CPU i have in mind is the AML-8726-M (which is fantastic but 
>>> is
>>> hardware-limited to 512mb RAM) and i am in contact with an ODM/OEM
>>> whom i believe i could persuade to create such a board if there is
>>> sufficient interest in purchasing it.  i've already explained to 
>>> them
>>> that there are benefits to them i.e. Free Software Developers
>>> en-masse
>>> writing software based around the board etc. etc.
>>>
>>>  btw when responding please don't take the piss on a price you'd be
>>> happy to pay!  apart from anything it has to be enough to encourage
>>> them to go ahead with the board.  the beagleboard price (A8, 
>>> 720mhz,
>>> 512mb) is a fair guide.  unlike x86 systems the CPU isn't the major
>>> component cost with these embedded boards.
>>
>> All that effort just to get native SATA? I really don't think it's
>> worth it.
>>
>> What use case do you have in mind? Most of my ARM systems, even for
>> desktop use, get by really well on SD cards (SanDisk and Pretec if 
>> you
>> have a choice) and USB sticks (I find the ones based on the Kingston
>> controller handle random-writes particularly well), especially if 
>> you
>> switch to using nilfs2 for non-root fs and write a few lines of 
>> shell
>> for a cron job to handle killing/spawning nilfs_cleanerd.
>>
>> If you really need SATA, then there is this:
>> http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-guruplugdetails.aspx
>
> guruplug is kirkwood so armv5t(e) so it can't be used for an armhf
> buildd (which requires armv7)

 Do you really need HF for what you're trying to do, though?

>> Granted, it's in a box, but they are cheap and you can always
>
> and noisy ...

 Well, if noise is an issue you can get one of these instead:
 http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/p-22-sheevaplug-dev-kit-us.aspx

 No fan, thus silent, but you will have to solder on the eSATA 
 connector.

 Gordan