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Raspberry PI alternative: Cubieboard 1Ghz 1GB RAM

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

#51

Post by stan_rogers »

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.

Somehow people keep missing the point: Raspberry Pi is meant to be a nearly-disposable kids' learning toy first and foremost. The object of the game, from the beginning, was to get a programming sandbox into as many small hands as possible—in families that couldn't afford a "real" computer, or couldn't/wouldn't allow kids to try potentially damaging things on the family machine.

It's nice that it can, incidentally, play other roles, but those other roles are not it's purpose. It's not an "embarrassing system"; low cost, "universal" peripherals (common televisions as the "monitor", for example), enough portability to get the unit to and from school are its primary concerns. It's an OLPC for the western world, a BBC Micro reborn for the modern age. Y'all rabbits might like these Trix, but they're for kids.

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

#54

Post by 3amOpsGuy »

fsiefken wrote: post #40

I am looking for a portable i386 compatible chip&board instead of ARM for running windows programs (wine doesn't work on arm), does anyone have tips?

Intel are just about to release the "NUC" Next Unit of Computing. Looks pretty reasonable, but significantly more powerful and thus expensive than a PI.

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

#55

Post by subsystem »

stan_rogers wrote: post #51
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.

Somehow people keep missing the point: Raspberry Pi is meant to be a nearly-disposable kids' learning toy first and foremost. The object of the game, from the beginning, was to get a programming sandbox into as many small hands as possible—in families that couldn't afford a "real" computer, or couldn't/wouldn't allow kids to try potentially damaging things on the family machine. It's nice that it can, incidentally, p…

"in families that couldn't afford a 'real' computer, or couldn't/wouldn't allow kids to try potentially damaging things on the family machine."

How many of those families are going to buy a rpi, have the knowledge to teach set it up and teach their kids, etc? What's going to get kids programming is a really cheap "normal" computer, just like it always has.

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

#56

Post by michaelt »

fsiefken wrote: post #40

I am looking for a portable i386 compatible chip&board instead of ARM for running windows programs (wine doesn't work on arm), does anyone have tips?

There's a few companies that make "pico-ITX" boards that run x86 processors [1]. Mostly low powered chips like Atom, but you can get Core 2 Duo boards if you've got the cash. Prices started around $300 last time I checked.

[1] http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/meng/wmr/projects/uav/...

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

#57

Post by ivix »

davidw wrote: post #25
Nursie wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? It surprises me that Pi compatibility is a criteria for stuff, though I know it's popular. Are we talking pin-compatibility? AFAICT the Pi is just another linux on a single board device. It's low cost but otherwise fairly unremarkable.

I'm not even sure what "compatibility" means in this context. You can run executables for one on the other? But you can swap out the OS on the Pi, so... I'm just confused.

This kind of thing is what has really annoyed me about the Pi 'movement'. "Raspberry Pi compatible" means nothing. It's a totally standard ARM based linux computer, of which there are a huge (and growing) number.

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

#58

Post by stan_rogers »

subsystem wrote: post #55
stan_rogers wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow people keep missing the point: Raspberry Pi is meant to be a nearly-disposable kids' learning toy first and foremost. The object of the game, from the beginning, was to get a programming sandbox into as many small hands as possible—in families that couldn't afford a "real" computer, or couldn't/wouldn't allow kids to try potentially damaging things on the family machine. It's nice that it can, incidentally, p…

"in families that couldn't afford a 'real' computer, or couldn't/wouldn't allow kids to try potentially damaging things on the family machine." How many of those families are going to buy a rpi, have the knowledge to teach set it up and teach their kids, etc? What's going to get kids programming is a really cheap "normal" computer, just like it always has.

Schools were and are the primary target. Just go back and read the story behind Raspberry Pi[1]. The point always was to get back to the days of the BBC Micro and a general introduction to computing fundamentals (as opposed to mere "using the applications" training) for British kids (although kids in other places can benefit as well), based on the notion that broad exposure would mean a larger cohort of people to draw upon as adults in the tech sector (commercial and academic) in later life. Full-featured computers in schools are expensive for this sort of task, and not everybody can take their work home with them to expand upon it—or even just to do homework. At around the price of a textbook, the Raspberry Pi makes that at least possible.

The low price, suggested curriculum, etc., are a big part of making it work. Or is it your contention that computing should be restricted to people who can afford a "proper" computer?

[1] http://www.raspberrypi.org/about

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

#60

Post by adestefan »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #59
adestefan wrote: post #52

Realize that the A10 does not have mainline kernel support and part of that reason is because the code is so bad no one wants to even try to get Linus to add it.

But it looks like this board uses the A8.

The Allwinner A10 is a SoC that uses an ARM Cortex A8 as the CPU, a Mali 400 GPU, Ethernet, SATA, etc. Yes it's confusing. It's like calling a hypothetical Intel Core based SoC the Foobar Core 10.

Apple called their ARM SoC the A4 and then Allwinner probably designated their SoC the A10 to play off that marketing.

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