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VIA launches $49 Android PC

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Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#51

Post by greggman »

haberman wrote: post #39

I just want an ARM box that I can run headless in my closet and keep on all the time to use as a build bot. First I bought a SheevaPlug ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SheevaPlug ) but that fried itself before long. Next I bought an Efika MX Smarttop ( https://www.genesi-usa.com/store/details/11 ), which works ok, but doesn't always boot reliably (I boot it headless most of the time, so can never get to the bottom of…

As a build bot? What are you building?

For me, a build bot has to be ultra powerful. The thing I'm usually building has 40k+ files and the linker dies unless I have more than 4gig of ram. This VIA or a Raspberry PI just isn't going to cut it as a build bot.

Of course there are tons of other uses.

Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#52

Post by greggman »

mjb wrote: post #37
iRobot wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 1989 I ran a Unix system with 1000 users on hardware less powerful than this, why this kind of horse power cannot run something as simple as a web browser says more about the inefficiencies inherent in current operating systems and programming methods than they do about the hardware.

> as simple as a web browser says more about the inefficiencies inherent in current operating systems and programming methods than they do about the hardware. No. This is simply not true, at least at the extreme you are suggesting. What I have open on my quad-core 8GB RAM desktop right now: two Eclipse sessions; One emacs server, with about 20 client windows; Firefox, with 30+ tabs; 20 or so console sessions; five PD…

Agreed, just that image of the VIA board takes 730k. That's over 11 Apple IIs and most people have multiple tabs each with multiple images, streaming video players, iTunes, etc. running.

Heck, just a unicode font that includes every character in the basic plane takes 22Meg! Did that guys 1989 unix box display Chinese, Japanese and Korean?

Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#53

Post by nextparadigms »

iRobot wrote: post #28
nextparadigms wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather pay more for a high-end Cortex A15-based ChromeBox. Browsing will be very slow on an ARM11 chip, especially if you use it in "desktop mode", which will make it feel even slower compared to using it in a mobile phone. Also, it better have a good GPU, otherwise it won't even support resolutions higher than 800x480 (this one might). But I do think ChromeOS devices should be somewhere in the $200 price range (…

In 1989 I ran a Unix system with 1000 users on hardware less powerful than this, why this kind of horse power cannot run something as simple as a web browser says more about the inefficiencies inherent in current operating systems and programming methods than they do about the hardware.

Web pages are a lot more complex these days than they were then.

Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#54

Post by haberman »

greggman wrote: post #51
haberman wrote: post #39

I just want an ARM box that I can run headless in my closet and keep on all the time to use as a build bot. First I bought a SheevaPlug ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SheevaPlug ) but that fried itself before long. Next I bought an Efika MX Smarttop ( https://www.genesi-usa.com/store/details/11 ), which works ok, but doesn't always boot reliably (I boot it headless most of the time, so can never get to the bottom of…

As a build bot? What are you building? For me, a build bot has to be ultra powerful. The thing I'm usually building has 40k+ files and the linker dies unless I have more than 4gig of ram. This VIA or a Raspberry PI just isn't going to cut it as a build bot. Of course there are tons of other uses.

> As a build bot? What are you building?

My library upb (https://github.com/haberman/upb/wiki). It is ~5k LoC and builds in 10 seconds on x86. 4gig of RAM is entirely unnecessary. It pays to be small. :)

Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#56

Post by zobzu »

The main issue of (amost) ALL these boards is the code. They always use a large part of proprietary bobs, which makes using them a pain. Even the Raspberry pi has the issue. In particular, if you've a recent GPU you're often doomed. Want video accel? Nope. Proper video support? Update to more recent libraries? Nope again.

Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#57

Post by cmer »

haberman wrote: post #39

I just want an ARM box that I can run headless in my closet and keep on all the time to use as a build bot. First I bought a SheevaPlug ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SheevaPlug ) but that fried itself before long. Next I bought an Efika MX Smarttop ( https://www.genesi-usa.com/store/details/11 ), which works ok, but doesn't always boot reliably (I boot it headless most of the time, so can never get to the bottom of…

You might want to look into getting an AppleTV 1. It can run OSX and most likely Ubuntu. They should be quite cheap now.

Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#58

Post by pinkeye »

haberman wrote: post #39

I just want an ARM box that I can run headless in my closet and keep on all the time to use as a build bot. First I bought a SheevaPlug ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SheevaPlug ) but that fried itself before long. Next I bought an Efika MX Smarttop ( https://www.genesi-usa.com/store/details/11 ), which works ok, but doesn't always boot reliably (I boot it headless most of the time, so can never get to the bottom of…

Try TonidoPlug2. It runs debian squeeze.

Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#59

Post by bri3d »

cmer wrote: post #57
haberman wrote: post #39

I just want an ARM box that I can run headless in my closet and keep on all the time to use as a build bot. First I bought a SheevaPlug ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SheevaPlug ) but that fried itself before long. Next I bought an Efika MX Smarttop ( https://www.genesi-usa.com/store/details/11 ), which works ok, but doesn't always boot reliably (I boot it headless most of the time, so can never get to the bottom of…

You might want to look into getting an AppleTV 1. It can run OSX and most likely Ubuntu. They should be quite cheap now.

The AppleTV 1 is a decent system, but it's an x86 machine, and the author seems to want an embedded ARM box.

Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#60

Post by cmer »

bri3d wrote: post #59
cmer wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might want to look into getting an AppleTV 1. It can run OSX and most likely Ubuntu. They should be quite cheap now.

The AppleTV 1 is a decent system, but it's an x86 machine, and the author seems to want an embedded ARM box.

Oh my bad. I thought he wanted an ARM box because they're usually much cheaper.
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