Will something like this run OpenELEC? There is a Raspberry Pi build for ARM, but the download page [1] says it's specific to the RP. I saw things like the Xtreamer Ultra but it's way out of my budget. Up to a couple hundred dollars is acceptable, but I don't need a full mini-PC. Low power and quiet is far more important to me than say a core i5 CPU.
Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux
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Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you sure about that? The block diagram shows an Ethernet PHY connected directly to the SoC, and it appears the i.MX6 has a built-in Ethernet controller.
I am going off the bottom of the page ( http://cubox-i.com ), where it says it is limited to 470 Mb/sec due to internal busses. 470 Mb/sec sounds too similar to USB 2 to not be USB 2. -- Actually did the right thing and looked at the datasheets involved: http://cache.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/data_sheet/IMX6DQ... and http://cache.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/errata/IMX6DQCE.p... This seems to be an internal limi…
If you want to really move network packets in embedded computing environments, you need a processor oriented a little differently, the iMX6 is an embedded multimedia processor, and for my 2cents, it's architected to do that job pretty nicely. There's trade between power savings and a faster peripheral bus. The Gigabit ethernet running at those specs I'm guessing pushes streaming video nicely (I'm guessing sized for about enough bandwidth for a compressed 1080p 60fps stream with a little bit of margin).
Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux
#53Will something like this run OpenELEC? There is a Raspberry Pi build for ARM, but the download page [1] says it's specific to the RP. I saw things like the Xtreamer Ultra but it's way out of my budget. Up to a couple hundred dollars is acceptable, but I don't need a full mini-PC. Low power and quiet is far more important to me than say a core i5 CPU. [1] http://www.openelec.tv/index.php/get-openelec/download
They run something like openelec (IE XBMC based).
Geexbox is usually what supports these things.
I use a mini-pc (a little asus eeepc box with a "who cares" intel cpu in it and a nvidia gt620m running openelec). The reason is actually simple: A lot of the embedded processors are much more finicky in terms of hardware decode.
I used to run geexbox on a TI OMAP4460, and it worked wonderfully, right until you hit a track with DTS or DTS-MA audio, and then because it was not hardware supported, it fell right down and couldn't even play at 3fps. Maybe with XBMC now having a new audio engine (This was in the XBMC 11 days) the world is different.
The hardware decoders were also not quite as resilient to restart and had occasionally random failures compared to the nvidia chipset , which were very annoying when watching movies. I have never had this happen on anything in the nvidia/amd/intel world, and anything that can't be hardware decoded, the intel can absolutely handle.
Given the very low idle state of the newer haswell chips, unless you had a strong desire to not be intel based, i'd see if i could find a mobile motherboard and run openelec on a 15w TDP mobile haswell (or at worst, an itx motherboard and core i3 haswell).
Basically, these boxes are fun if you want to futz, but just aren't really "living room ready" unless you have a very fixed set of source video/audio.
Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux
#54I have seen too many of the same thing to be supportive of this project. I see nothing here that hasn't been done, and still very little market, target application or vision.
Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you sure about that? The block diagram shows an Ethernet PHY connected directly to the SoC, and it appears the i.MX6 has a built-in Ethernet controller.
I am going off the bottom of the page ( http://cubox-i.com ), where it says it is limited to 470 Mb/sec due to internal busses. 470 Mb/sec sounds too similar to USB 2 to not be USB 2. -- Actually did the right thing and looked at the datasheets involved: http://cache.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/data_sheet/IMX6DQ... and http://cache.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/errata/IMX6DQCE.p... This seems to be an internal limi…
That's actually rather unfortunate—the original Cubox (/pro) based on the Armada 510/Dove has a GigE PHY which is completely capable of ~1000 megabits.
Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux
#56Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux
#57The downside is that the ethernet controller is run over USB. This is what kills performance drastically on the raspberry pi as well. USB is simply not a good protocol to run high speed network traffic over with low latency. The protocol is extremely chatty!
Hmm, I've noticed this on the Raspberry Pi, but I'm curious, do you know if this is a problem for desktop PCs as well? I recently built a mini-ITX PC sort of for fun as a change of pace and then realized that the apartment where I'm moving makes it somewhat annoying to run ethernet cables to my router, so now I'm looking at USB wifi dongles. The annoying thing is mini ITX boards generally only have one PCIe slot, and…
USB 2 will work just fine for Wifi dongles. You are not going to get anywhere near speeds high enough to saturate USB 2 with Wifi.
With GigE adapters for USB 2 though, it is pretty bad.
Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am going off the bottom of the page ( http://cubox-i.com ), where it says it is limited to 470 Mb/sec due to internal busses. 470 Mb/sec sounds too similar to USB 2 to not be USB 2. -- Actually did the right thing and looked at the datasheets involved: http://cache.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/data_sheet/IMX6DQ... and http://cache.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/errata/IMX6DQCE.p... This seems to be an internal limi…
If you want to really move network packets in embedded computing environments, you need a processor oriented a little differently, the iMX6 is an embedded multimedia processor, and for my 2cents, it's architected to do that job pretty nicely. There's trade between power savings and a faster peripheral bus. The Gigabit ethernet running at those specs I'm guessing pushes streaming video nicely (I'm guessing sized for a…
It's still a limiting factor, especially for someone trying to build a media server out of it for example like some people were already considering home NAS's...
Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux
#59I think MK808 is a much better deal at the same price.
A) slow last gen chip (rk3088), superseded by rockchip's RK3166: far slower than an i.mx6. B) no easy path to run linux, only really intended for Android stick use (Rockchip hasn't had an open source come to jesus meeting & won't- freescale makes docs avail). C) extremely limited I/o on the MK808 and all Android sticks- single USB + HDMI is it.
There are some interesting sticks out if the i/o limitation is ok but the MK808 is obsolete & slow.
Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux
#60I've been looking around for a device that can run Netflix + Pandora + XBMC but so far each device I've found has some compromise or another.
I am one of the early backers of the OUYA, and I can confirm XBMC and Netflix work great (don't know for Pandora). The only issue I have with the OUYA is the weak Wifi support in XBMC, which forces you to: A) link the device via ethernet B) Copy files via a USB connection to OUYA
Netflix on ouya does not stream in HD and has a touch UI that's pretty difficult to use on the ouya controller.