[Arm-netbook] OLIMEX A10 board

[Scott Sullivan]

On 05/26/2012 05:56 AM, Tsvetan Usunov - OLIMEX Ltd wrote:
>
> do not forget we do not target desktop but embedded device, running some
> web service, Lua, Python, PHP, JS etc scripting, GPIO control, LCD/Video
> graphics interface, G-code interpreting, etc.

I would buy this board even with only 512MB of memory. I've been keeping 
an eye out for a small system to embed in a DIY 3D printer(*). I need 
some graphics to display the control application, but otherwise it would 
be doing some simply GPIO and G-code interpretation. In the event I need 
a browser, I will find a minimalist one as it will only be going out to 
download 3D models from thingiverse.

At 512MB I would stick this behind each and every one of my LCD monitors 
and run remote X or VNC on a large server as a pervasive computing 
system (**).

I have a friend who builds modular synthesizers who would love a low-end 
EOMA-68 or OLIMEX A1x board to embed in the devices.

What I'm trying to say is that there is a market for these devices that 
doesn't have to pidgin hole them into Desktop land because of browser 
requirements.

As an additional example, at hacklab.to we have a home automation 
terminal running and HTML 5 app in chorme on a thin-client with 1.2GHz 
of speed, 512MB of ram and NFS root. And it preforms fine.

1GB would be nice, but 512 even now isn't intolerable and move then 
needed for huge raft of non-desktop applications. And there is also no 
reason that 1GB version couldn't be made if and when the price comes 
down or there is sufficient demand (beyond a single mailing list) for 
the 1GB version at a higher price.

(*) http://reprap.org/ and http://www.makerbot.com/
(**) A task I'm currently planning to give the Raspberry Pi.

-- 
Scott Sullivan