News Raspberry Pi computer, is it rational?

[Notebook]

Some i/o boards are available, this looks useful:

http://piface.openlx.org.uk/

N.

 

[TMac3000]

...just name one graphics driver that is not proprietary.

Nouveau

 

[Urwumpe]

Nouveau

Is still not 100% open-source since it is about reverse engineering the interfaces of NVidia cards.

And the problem then: You also need NVidia hardware. Not really optimal.

 

[Artlav]

I don't really understand the point of these but thats maybe because I'm a sysadmin and not a programmer. Now give me something I can throw disks and network cards into and I'm happy.

Random case #1 - you want to know how to administer a cluster. You get 9 boards for $325, a hub and some wires - voilà, a mini-cluster with all the needed patterns.

Random case #2 - you need something to both control a piece of hardware with motors and sensors and at the same time process and store a large stream of information coming from the same sensors, all the while running off batteries inside a cramped unventilated box.

And so on. Uses are unlimited.

 

[Jarvitä]

May get this on one of the subsequent batches. All its weaknesses are really insignificant when you look at the price. The main use I can imagine for it is as a uC with a built-in development kit.

Random case #2 - you need something to both control a piece of hardware with motors and sensors and at the same time process and store a large stream of information coming from the same sensors, all the while running off batteries inside a cramped unventilated box.

It's battery powered?

 

[Artlav]

It's battery powered?

It have a place to attach power to. With W level power consumption it can run off AA batteries easy.
Also, they won't provide a power supply with the board, you'll have to make/get one on your own.

 

[Ghostrider]

Now, imagine a Beowulf cluster of these.

 

[Artlav]

Consider this: The first 10000 batch have already been sold out by now, and they are having "over 600 registrations of interest, visits or pre-orders every second" at Farnell alone.

Amazing to see such interest in a thing so opposite from an iPhone.

 

[Linguofreak]

nor is it a fully functional computer (ARM, severely underpowered).

You're just spoiled by Moore's law. It actually compares quite favorably to a 10-year old desktop machine that I have here at home.

I don't know what chip it runs, the BBC report says it runs UNIX/Debian?

EDIT: I'm probably getting confused between UNIX/LINUX, know nothing about either...

My cloth ears, he says" Debian/Linux"

N.

This might clear up some of the confusion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix-like

 

[TMac3000]

Is still not 100% open-source since it is about reverse engineering the interfaces of NVidia cards.

And the problem then: You also need NVidia hardware. Not really optimal.

Conceded:yes:
I remember trying to get an Nvidia card to work in Fedora 9 as my introduction to desktop Linux. It was absolute hell, but once I got it working, it was quite adequate.

But do you sort of have to reverse-engineer proprietary hardware to make an open source driver for it:idk:?

 

[garyw]

Random case #1 - you want to know how to administer a cluster. You get 9 boards for $325, a hub and some wires - voilà, a mini-cluster with all the needed patterns.

Virtual box or VMware would let you do this - for free.

 

[Tommy]

Conceded:yes:
I remember trying to get an Nvidia card to work in Fedora 9 as my introduction to desktop Linux. It was absolute hell, but once I got it working, it was quite adequate.

But do you sort of have to reverse-engineer proprietary hardware to make an open source driver for it:idk:?

I had no trouble getting my NVidia card to work on Gentoo a few years back - basic functionality (limited res, no hardware accel) worked "out of the box", and the NVidia driver used a script to install itself quite painlessly.

Virtual box or VMware would let you do this - for free.

Free, plus the cost of the computer running the virtual box.

Granted, this isn't the best example of how useful this device could be. I can think of at least a half dozen projects where this could be VERY handy (along with some basic electronics work). This could easily be used for a web capable home automation/security system, guidance/auto-pilot for an RC airplane or rocket, etc.

 

[Keatah]

angrybirds and facebook vs raspberry pi?

it's a no-brainer by no-brainers

 

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17311146

Not allright Jack?

N.

 

[tl8]

That was a little bit wrong.

The jack that was soldered in did not have over voltage protection.
It would have stilled work, but if there were large voltage transients, then it could damage the Ethernet controller.

 

[Notebook]

From the blog link:

This is because of a hardware parts substitution that was made in the factory by accident: specifically, where we’d specified jacks with integrated magnetics in the BOM and schematics, the factory soldered in non-magnetic jacks. No magnetics means no network connection.

I've never heard of magnetic/non-magnetic jacks, when did this start? Or is it lost in translation?

Edit:
I think they are talking about ferrite beads, which I do know of as rf components.


N.

 

[Notebook]

Not pushing this machine, but if anyone is interested:

http://www.element14.com/community/groups/raspberry-pi?CMP=EMC-RPiWelcome-March12

N.

 

[tl8]

Now waiting for CE certification.

Looks like the lawyers in RS and E14 got wind of the release.

 

[Artlav]

First note: To be delivered by april.
Broadcast: Delivery slips to may.
On the site: E14 apologized for false information.
Broadcast: Delivery slips till august.
On the site: E14 apologizes for false information.

What's next? Export control restrictions like with beagleboard?
And they initially said the thing would be available by the end of feburary.

Meanwhile, in China:

 

[Ghostrider]

It's not like we'll have to smuggle them out of the country like in the good ol' times, isn't it?

Because chasing after briefcases becomes kinda tiresome after a while.