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Turbocharged Raspberry Pi 2 unleashed

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Turbocharged Raspberry Pi 2 unleashed

#191

Post by Narishma »

userbinator wrote: post #113
bayesianhorse wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For teachers one big issue is that you don't know if you can buy 100% compatible devices in a year's time in comparable conditions (price, bulk, availability etc). With Raspberry Pi you know you can.

I wouldn't be so sure about that - the article hints that they're trying to move away from the BCM2835, and in a few years' time the BCM2836 would probably suffer the same fate. In any case I don't think I've seen anything from them about how long they'll continue making Pis, since they depend on Broadcom to provide the SoC. On the other hand, AllWinner's answer about how long it will produce its SoCs... is surprisin…

They said they'll continue making the older models as long as people are buying them, so not anytime soon. The only model they have stopped making thus far is the original model A, which wasn't selling very well.

Re: Turbocharged Raspberry Pi 2 unleashed

#192

Post by pjc50 »

throwaway000002 wrote: post #186
pjc50 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you've missed what layer the education is targeted at: software, especially Python but also Scratch, SonicPi, and so on. The hardware stuff is at the "turn on LED with GPIO" super-introductory level. Edit: Eben Upton is also a real person?

Eben Upton and the foundation should rightly be lauded for the RPi Model A. That was 3 years ago. What purpose does this update serve? If it's the "developing world", then you haven't made the device any cheaper, and more functional competitors at similar price-points have existed for at least a year. As for the "developed world", I could have bought a Chromebox for $150 on Black Friday. I'm sure a school could easil…

The core target is unchanged - kids in the UK. The exact functionality level isn't nearly as critical as the standardisation of the system and its community support. Updating it keeps it competitive so people don't fret about being stuck on old technology.

What a Pi brings over a PC is ownership, stability, and freedom from the usual risks of breaking a PC. You can fiddle with any of the software on a Pi and always get it back by replacing the SD card. PCs are vulnerable to tinkering and inadvisibly installed software.

This conversation reminds me of http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ip... : "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."

Re: Turbocharged Raspberry Pi 2 unleashed

#193

Post by pjc50 »

throwaway000002 wrote: post #178
jvdh wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think it is feasible to release a similarly priced, similarly capable device with completely open hardware? The RPi has sold immensely to home users, but also in education. The foundation is also open to criticism and has shown in the past that they are willing to change their production when given the opportunity. They have moved most of their production to the UK for example, whereas the first boards were al…

To respond to jvdh, yes it is possible. Others have mentioned the more capable Allwinner based Olimex devices. And if this really is an issue of "Buy Britain" why isn't the device based on Bristol based Xmos silicon. Now there's something that's a really neat platform. In short, the RPi is an inexpensive enough device that a lot of hobbists can buy on a whim and proceed to install and reinstall various flavours of li…

The irony is that the Pi comes from someone who has exactly that kind of childhood hacking background who wants to replicate it for everyone else. It's the opposite of a "prison of no understanding". Holding out for free-to-RTL hardware is allowing the best to be the enemy of the good.

Re: Turbocharged Raspberry Pi 2 unleashed

#194

Post by derekp7 »

bayesianhorse wrote: post #104
tbrock wrote: post #72

Why would anyone buy this over the much more powerful ARMv7 odroid-C1 for $35 that has been out for months now?

The Raspberry Pi is a platform optimized for and bundled with its community. The Raspberry Foundation can produce/license any conceivable number of these devices at the same price point. The difference of for example $35 vs $70 doesn't matter very much for individual buyers. It does matter when dealing with educational budgets and a desire for predictable spending. Even when a school/hobbyist course requires students…

You know, one variation of the Raspberry Pi I'd like to see for the educational market, is a standard graphing calculator based on the Pi's internals. The reason: Even though I'm not convinced that graphical calculators really help students that much, many schools require them anyway. So why not take a (somewhat expensive) necessary device, and make it more functional when you plug in a keyboard/monitor?

I wonder what the price point could be of a device with a decent screen (somewhat better than the TI's), battery/charging, physical buttons, case, plus the Raspberry Pi?

Re: Turbocharged Raspberry Pi 2 unleashed

#195

Post by LordKano »

oddevan wrote: post #170
arbuge wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under the "Same" column, it looks like you need to add "Same price - $35". I stocked up on B+s over Christmas - oh well... The "at least 6x" performance claim should be "at least 3x" by the way, and even that is an estimate, not a guarantee. The 3x is on a single thread comparison, the 6x is on a somewhat synthetic multicore benchmark test.

> I stocked up on B+s over Christmas - oh well... Got one for Christmas. Bought a case and a second one since. I knew it'd get outspecc'd someday, just wasn't expecting it THIS soon...

I bought on on Dec-31. Three weeks later, the bundle that I bought dropped in price.

Amazon price-matched it and then less than two weeks later...

Re: Turbocharged Raspberry Pi 2 unleashed

#196

Post by tomaskafka »

bayesianhorse wrote: post #100

Any news if the Raspbery Pi 2 will have USB 3.0 ports? That seems to be a good selling point for the Odroid XU3 currently... USB 3.0 ports would mean better performance as NAS or multimedia recording solution, as well as alleviating some of the current troubles with usb performance.

Are they necessary? My Radxa (quadcore 1.7 GHz ARMv7) cannot exceed 6 MB/s read from HDD no matter how hard it tries with NTFS formatted disc (for comparison, Raspberry Pi A was doing about 600 kB/s max in a same configuration).

Both are far under USB 2.0 speed.

Re: Turbocharged Raspberry Pi 2 unleashed

#199

Post by AlyssaRowan »

aswanson wrote: post #28
schappim wrote: post #4

What's the same: - Same form factor as the model B+ (your enclosures and daughter boards should still fit). - Same full size HDMI port - Same 10/100 Ethernet port - Same CSI camera port and DSI display ports - Same micro USB power supply connection What has changed: - A new turbocharged Broadcom BCM2836 900MHz quad-core system-on-chip with performance at least 6x that of the B+. - 1GB of RAM Source: http://raspberry.…

What's the same: Broadcom is still the non-datasheet-releasing, our-chips-implementing-standard-phy-spec functionality are subject to manhattan-project secrecy, assholes.

They may be changing a little bit, slowly. They're not used to this sort of thing, at all.

This is actually a big step: this wasn't just SoC repurposed for the Pi, this SoC was created for the Pi2.

There are a lot of details missing about the VC4, that's true. They could still publish a lot more of those than they have. We should be given enough to start the ARMs, warm the caches, talk to the devices and manage, start a kernel, even without video. The architecture means that the GPU plays the host role, however, so Linux is pretty much postboxing things to it asking it to do things when it comes to the devices - this complicates things, because that means the GPU firmware is probably going to have to be a bit more than a simple shim to get by. They can't just open-source all their side of the firmware either - it's based on a commercial RTOS, ThreadX. That's why they hired a guy to do a rewrite.

Arguably still better than NVIDIA. Also better than MediaTek and the like - the usual way you get anything out of them is someone steals it (back).

Re: Turbocharged Raspberry Pi 2 unleashed

#200

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

icpmacdo wrote: post #107
programminggeek wrote: post #31

Am I weird for wanting to use this for really simple web hosting?

What server software would you ideally run on the PI 2? Would it be reasonable to have it use a home internet connection?

Node.js is probably already included. I'm running that on my BeagleBone Black.
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