Raspberry PI alternative: Cubieboard 1Ghz 1GB RAM • Hacker News Board

Re: Raspberry PI alternative: Cubieboard 1Ghz 1GB RAM

#41

Post by napierzaza » Thu, Oct 25, 2012, 1:34 PM UTC

hermanhermitage wrote: post #15

EwanToo wrote: post #4

One interesting thing about the Cubieboard is the SATA port, otherwise it's very similar to a lot of other ARM boards out there (e.g. Beagleboard, Pandaboard, etc). This makes it much easier to stick a low power SSD on the device, rather than rely on a hugely slow SD card. What I'm looking forward to next are Cortex A15 boards, the first CPUs are shipping (In the new Chromebook), so hopefully we'll start seeing them…

Another board is say: https://www.miniand.com/products/Hackberry%20A10%20Developer... With WiFi. Other alternatives are at the same site. I have a few Mali devices next up on the chopping block after I finish reversing the VideoCore IV.

Aaargh, that looked really good until I saw there were no GPIOs. You almost solved my problem. with GPIOs being standard in so many SOCs I am surprised how some just don't bother placings SILs or DILs so we can easily use them

Re: Raspberry PI alternative: Cubieboard 1Ghz 1GB RAM

#42

Post by jrockway » Thu, Oct 25, 2012, 1:38 PM UTC

ambrop7 wrote: post #31

justincormack wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IO performance on these CPUs is fairly poor, so gigabit is unlikely to actually be worthwhile.

On my TS-7800 [1] which has GigE and a 500MHz (!) CPU, Samba outperforms the Raspberry Pi (15MB/s vs 7MB/s). Note that on the RPi not even the whole 100Mb link is utilized despite the CPU being slightly faster in general (yes, I did some benchmarks) - and the CPU on the TS-7800 was actually designed for storage applications. So there may be something on to your claim, and it would appear that CPUs that include graphi…

That page says "Quantity 100 starts at $229." Does that mean one board is $2.29?

Re: Raspberry PI alternative: Cubieboard 1Ghz 1GB RAM

#43

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 25, 2012, 1:41 PM UTC

Nursie wrote: post #38

nitrogen wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Marvell-based stuff (e.g. SheevaPlug, DreamPlug, D2Plug, OpenRD, CuBox) mostly has SATA (not SheevaPlug) and gigabit Ethernet (though for some reason the GuruPlug Display only has 100mbit). It just tends to be a bit pricier, and mostly lacks an FPU or GPU. I look forward to the day when I can get a Cortex A9 or A15 board with a USB host good for the full 480mbit/s, SATA, and gigabit Ethernet.

I had a sheevaplug about three years ago. I was hoping things had moved on a bit since then... I also look forward to that day. We seem to be at the stage right now that we can have some but not all of those things. Soon, soon...

[deleted]

Re: Raspberry PI alternative: Cubieboard 1Ghz 1GB RAM

#44

Post by nullc » Thu, Oct 25, 2012, 1:43 PM UTC

This is good news— the rpi is really an embarrassing system. It is shockingly slow compared to other small arm systems clock per clock. A lot of people seem to be trying things on it that would be fine on almost any other arm SBC but fail on rpi…

There are many alternatives which are much faster but none are within a factor of two of the rpi's price, so people keep buying the rpi and walking away disappointed.

Re: Raspberry PI alternative: Cubieboard 1Ghz 1GB RAM

#45

Post by DannyBee » Thu, Oct 25, 2012, 1:46 PM UTC

pja wrote: post #18

andybak wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price.

And the power consumption.

Yeah. My little pandaboard, if i'm not powering the USB ports at full bore, doesn't take more than ~7 watts while doing full 1080p video decode of a movie over the network.

The same on one of these ITX boards would take probably 25-30 watts, minimum.

Re: Raspberry PI alternative: Cubieboard 1Ghz 1GB RAM

#46

Post by wladimir » Thu, Oct 25, 2012, 1:50 PM UTC

hermanhermitage wrote: post #15

EwanToo wrote: post #4

One interesting thing about the Cubieboard is the SATA port, otherwise it's very similar to a lot of other ARM boards out there (e.g. Beagleboard, Pandaboard, etc). This makes it much easier to stick a low power SSD on the device, rather than rely on a hugely slow SD card. What I'm looking forward to next are Cortex A15 boards, the first CPUs are shipping (In the new Chromebook), so hopefully we'll start seeing them…

Another board is say: https://www.miniand.com/products/Hackberry%20A10%20Developer... With WiFi. Other alternatives are at the same site. I have a few Mali devices next up on the chopping block after I finish reversing the VideoCore IV.

I have a few Mali devices next up on the chopping block after I finish reversing the VideoCore IV

Hehe. Reversing a GPU is a lot of work. From my experience it usually involves zillions of commands, state bits that subtly change handling, and different instruction sets for different kinds of shaders and other sub-processors... (even figuring texture formats can be lots of work) I can't even imagine starting such a project again, though it was fun, wish I'd still have the time...

I wish you the best luck of course!

Re: Raspberry PI alternative: Cubieboard 1Ghz 1GB RAM

#47

Post by dangrossman » Thu, Oct 25, 2012, 2:01 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #42

ambrop7 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On my TS-7800 [1] which has GigE and a 500MHz (!) CPU, Samba outperforms the Raspberry Pi (15MB/s vs 7MB/s). Note that on the RPi not even the whole 100Mb link is utilized despite the CPU being slightly faster in general (yes, I did some benchmarks) - and the CPU on the TS-7800 was actually designed for storage applications. So there may be something on to your claim, and it would appear that CPUs that include graphi…

That page says "Quantity 100 starts at $229." Does that mean one board is $2.29?

No, it means the price is $229 each if you order at least 100. Without the quantity discount, it's $269 each.

Re: Raspberry PI alternative: Cubieboard 1Ghz 1GB RAM

#48

Post by jmaygarden » Thu, Oct 25, 2012, 2:05 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #42

ambrop7 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On my TS-7800 [1] which has GigE and a 500MHz (!) CPU, Samba outperforms the Raspberry Pi (15MB/s vs 7MB/s). Note that on the RPi not even the whole 100Mb link is utilized despite the CPU being slightly faster in general (yes, I did some benchmarks) - and the CPU on the TS-7800 was actually designed for storage applications. So there may be something on to your claim, and it would appear that CPUs that include graphi…

That page says "Quantity 100 starts at $229." Does that mean one board is $2.29?

I don't think so. Bulk pricing usually lists the per unit price. The quantity is denoted since you can get better pricing for larger quantity orders. For example, I may get a microcontroller for $4 when I order 10k, but you'd pay $25 if you just ordered one from DigiKey.

Re: Raspberry PI alternative: Cubieboard 1Ghz 1GB RAM

#49

Post by hermanhermitage » Thu, Oct 25, 2012, 2:06 PM UTC

wladimir wrote: post #46

hermanhermitage wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another board is say: https://www.miniand.com/products/Hackberry%20A10%20Developer... With WiFi. Other alternatives are at the same site. I have a few Mali devices next up on the chopping block after I finish reversing the VideoCore IV.

I have a few Mali devices next up on the chopping block after I finish reversing the VideoCore IV Hehe. Reversing a GPU is a lot of work . From my experience it usually involves zillions of commands, state bits that subtly change handling, and different instruction sets for different kinds of shaders and other sub-processors... (even figuring texture formats can be lots of work) I can't even imagine starting such a p…

Wladimir, I respect your view here - I agree with everything you write. My field of expertise is more ISA encodings, overall functional block architecture and decompilers. Once I hold the encodings, I point at the blob and say there is your source & specification. ie Binary blobs + ISA encodings = specification to me.

Re: Raspberry PI alternative: Cubieboard 1Ghz 1GB RAM

#50

Post by ibrow » Thu, Oct 25, 2012, 2:11 PM UTC

nullc wrote: post #44

This is good news— the rpi is really an embarrassing system. It is shockingly slow compared to other small arm systems clock per clock. A lot of people seem to be trying things on it that would be fine on almost any other arm SBC but fail on rpi… There are many alternatives which are much faster but none are within a factor of two of the rpi's price, so people keep buying the rpi and walking away disappointed.

I completely disagree with you calling it an "embarrassing system". I've had my Pi for a couple of weeks now and been happily tinkering with it. For the price I am utterly amazed with it (in fairness, I'm a bit of an old git and amazed that you can buy a 2TB HD for less than £100 so I may not be the best judge here).

Whilst it may not be the quickest thing out there, it is a start, and I think this is the most important thing about the Pi - it is a statr. It is so cheap it will get people interested in and tinkering with this kind of technology. As a result more people will move into this space, surely the Cubieboard is testament to that. (As well as the Parallella[1] which sadly I don't think will make it's Kickstarter goal)

[1] http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adapteva/parallella-a-su...