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Intel Compute Stick

intel.com

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Re: Intel Compute Stick

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows will run amazing on these and all things considered storage isn't an issue. They have really optimized for ultra small devices and id be willing to bet windows 8.1 on these would be super awesome actually. My daughters tablet with similar specs but only 1gb of ram is smooth as can be.

This raises an interesting question. How much memory does Mac OS X Yosemite need? How much engineering effort is spent on optimization and improving performance, as opposed to changing the look'n'feel and adding consumer-focused features?

Apple works hard on power efficiency. You don't get high battery life for free. Memory usage may get less attention, but, for example, they do 'swap' to memory by compressing pages (does it help? I wouldn't know. Read http://dfrws.org/2014/proceedings/DFRWS2014-1.pdf)

Edit: oops. That paper isn't evaluating performance, as I thought it would.

Re: Intel Compute Stick

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hardware like that makes me yearn for one with no wireless and a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports to use as a firewall and server. Unfortunately, general purpose hardware and operating system needs a fair amount of juice to route and inspect 1gbps of traffic. Best performance per watt I've found is the Edgerouter Lite but that has dedicated routing acceleration hardware to achieve what it does with the little mips pr…

There are ARM CPUs available that do network forwarding in hardware. Some even support iptables rules. I would be very surprised if a quad-core current-gen Atom could not do that in software, though. I could route 300Mbps through OpenBSD's pf on an AMD Geode.

There's a lot out there that can do NAT and some firewalling in software at large fractions of a gigabit/s for pretty cheap. But if you throw in QoS and queue management the CPU requirements get very high by the standards of MIPS and embedded x86. And unfortunately, none of the network acceleration hardware you'll find on any of those SoCs has anything like a hardware implementation of fq_codel or even RED.

The CeroWRT project has been searching for more than a year for a new generation of hardware to use as the platform for their development of better router software. There's nothing affordable that can keep up with the really fast DOCSIS connections available while doing anything intelligent on a per-packet basis.

Re: Intel Compute Stick

#174
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://techreport.com/news/27619/intel-compute-stick-is-a-14... $149

Ah. Thanks for the link. The 149$ version comes with Windows 8.1 Preloaded. The linux version is 89$.

For something less than an AppleTV, that is indeed appealing.

Re: Intel Compute Stick

#175
post #145

This looks awesome. Finally a piece of tech I actually want, and by Intel of all companies. The bigger consumer companies have been shuffling their feet, releasing arbitrary, very closed off pieces of tech that I don't really need. I really applaud Intel for making the tiny little PC I've been wanting for media and linux tomfoolery. The Chromecast was a no-go, and now with an apple tv, I'm feeling a little too enclos…

I find that Intel makes quite a few great products and initiatives. They just don't market it as loudly as others. The Intel NUC ( http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html ) is quite a versatile machine - smaller, better performance and value for money than mac minis, and more hacker friendly. It even has a cute unboxing experience (The box plays the intel jingle when you open it) Then there are initi…

> It even has a cute unboxing experience (The box plays the intel jingle when you open it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjdyudYdIPc

That's very cute, however if it's the box that actually plays the sound isn't it terribly wasteful, ecologically?

Re: Intel Compute Stick

#176
post #107

Hardware like that makes me yearn for one with no wireless and a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports to use as a firewall and server. It's fairly interesting to note what it's not: Android or Chrome OS. I suspect Microsoft will do quite well out of this, especially in the digital signage market, anywhere which is reasonably price sensitive but if developer time and cost can be reduced then they get a lot of leeway. Still,…

"Pre-installed with Windows 8.1* or Linux"

Why is there a star against the Windows 8.1?

Re: Intel Compute Stick

#177
post #175
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that Intel makes quite a few great products and initiatives. They just don't market it as loudly as others. The Intel NUC ( http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html ) is quite a versatile machine - smaller, better performance and value for money than mac minis, and more hacker friendly. It even has a cute unboxing experience (The box plays the intel jingle when you open it) Then there are initi…

> It even has a cute unboxing experience (The box plays the intel jingle when you open it) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjdyudYdIPc That's very cute, however if it's the box that actually plays the sound isn't it terribly wasteful, ecologically?

there are birthday card that do the same, it's very little extra stuff compared to the computer itself, I imagine.

Re: Intel Compute Stick

#178
post #145

This looks awesome. Finally a piece of tech I actually want, and by Intel of all companies. The bigger consumer companies have been shuffling their feet, releasing arbitrary, very closed off pieces of tech that I don't really need. I really applaud Intel for making the tiny little PC I've been wanting for media and linux tomfoolery. The Chromecast was a no-go, and now with an apple tv, I'm feeling a little too enclos…

I find that Intel makes quite a few great products and initiatives. They just don't market it as loudly as others. The Intel NUC ( http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html ) is quite a versatile machine - smaller, better performance and value for money than mac minis, and more hacker friendly. It even has a cute unboxing experience (The box plays the intel jingle when you open it) Then there are initi…

It's not just the NUC; don't forget the Minnowboard Max, which is also Intel-sponsored at least. It has slightly lower specs than this stick, but it's still far more powerful than the R-Pi and great for home automation work. I've got a couple here and I have no real complaints.

Re: Intel Compute Stick

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to http://techreport.com/news/27619/intel-compute-stick-is-a-14... it's micro usb right now but they're going to make it HDMI only eventually.

Do TVs these days come with high current USB ports? 500mA probably isn't enough.

Some do

Re: Intel Compute Stick

#180
This has already been done by some Chinese manufacturers, http://www.szapec.com/default.asp?id=1793, and the Meegopad (http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/10/15/meego-t01-hdmi-tv-sti...).

And given that the Intel's Linux version will only have 1GB of RAM, and maybe a slower CPU than a Windows version, these Chinese alternative could get quite a bit more attractive, given that their price will go down in time as well.

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