[Arm-netbook] small exynos5 pc (ARM Cortex A15, 2gb RAM)

[luke.leighton]

On 10/30/12, peter green <plugwash at p10link.net> wrote:
> luke.leighton wrote:
>>
>> but, the very interesting thing he mentioned was their plans to do a
>> $99 PC using the same CPU Board.
> :)
>>   as it would have SATA and so on as
>> well as 2gb of RAM i get the impression that they could well be
>> overwhelmed with enquiries and orders, just from the free software
>> community alone, so as a community can i please encourage people to
>> take it easy on them and let them do the official announcements etc.
>> so that, apart from anything, they can focus!
>>
>> the reason why i'm mentioning it on here, unofficially, is to gather
>> some informal input as to whether people would be interested in such a
>> device before contacting insignal again; what sort of features, uses
>> etc.
> My main interest would be as a buildbox due to the relatively powerful
> (by arm standards) CPU and large (by arm standards) ammount of memory.

 yes.  this was the main reason i mentioned it on debian-arm because
we still haven't really seen an affordable build box that has >1gb
RAM, making the packages with extra-large link phases just... doog
sloooow.

> For such uses i'd much preffer boxes that can be stacked on a shelf to a
> devboard that requires be to supply my own mounting and protection.

 yeahyeah, no i get it.  $99 and be able to do that would be great.
oh, i did ask about whether it would be suitable as a plug computer:
lee had heard of the freedombox, but the Exynos5 with RAM and other
bits comes out at around 5W, which is a bit much for a tiny plug
built-in PSU.

> On the hardware side for this use Native SATA is a big thing. Native
> ethernet would be great too but I dunno if that is ruled out by the CPU
> card design*. Having the SATA hard drive inside would be my preference
> but if it has to be in an ESATA case that isn't a showstopper.

 ey this is valuable input, peter.  if anyone else has anything like
this they'd like to see in the final product please do say.

> On the software side i'd want to see good support for debian/ubuntu. IMO
> android is fine for phones and tablets but it was never really designed
> to be a desktop OS.

 no, tell me about it. first thing i did for the odroid was a howto on
porting debian.  with insignal's support and... hang on, it's the same
CPU as in that samsung chromebook: the work's already been done :)  so
it would be an easy enough bring-up.

>>   what would people be prepared to pay for an initial run of 100 to
>> 200 units as a test-run, and so on.
>>
> I was already considering the arndaleboard at it's current price of
> arround $300 shipped,

 yeah that board's really designed as a demo / evaluation /
engineering board, isn't it.  this is more "i want brute horsepower
and i want ... yeah, the critical interfaces as you say".

 more USB ports?  it's a micro-PC after all.

> *I find it strange that the CPU document available for download from the
> seller's site mentions built in ethernet but the arndaleboard doesn't
> use it instead using a USB hub with ethernet chip can you shed any light
> on this?

 yeah this is rather curious.  i'll find out and get back to you.

 /peace

l.