[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: [Arm-netbook] Freescale iMX53 Quick Start board

On Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:46:11 +0200, Arnaud Patard (Rtp) <arnaud.patard@rtp-net.org> wrote: 
Gordan Bobic <gordan@bobich.net> writes:


On Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:42:33 +0100, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
<lkcl@lkcl.net> wrote:

On Sat, Aug 6, 2011 at 1:35 PM, David Given <dg@cowlark.com> wrote:
Are there any decent-looking Cortex A9 boards out or upcoming which 
support ethernet and SATA? So far I've found:

PandaBoard --- $180, ethernet, no SATA.

Samsung Origen --- $250, no ethernet, no SATA.

Igloo Snowball --- $209, ethernet, no SATA (but other than that a
very
nice looking device).

Trimslice --- $199, ethernet, may have SATA (they mention it a lot
but
it's unclear whether there's an actual socket or not). Comes in a
box!

Anything else worth investigating?


 ok... yes, i can ask.

 question (for everyone): if there existed a board which used a
single-core 800mhz Cortex A9, maximum hard limit of 512mb RAM, but
also had SATA-II and 10/100 Ethernet, would it be of interest, and
how
much would you pay for it? similar spec / design / size / interfaces 
as the pandaboard, origen etc. just with a single-core Cortex A9
rather than dual-core.
the CPU i have in mind is the AML-8726-M (which is fantastic but is 
hardware-limited to 512mb RAM) and i am in contact with an ODM/OEM
whom i believe i could persuade to create such a board if there is
sufficient interest in purchasing it. i've already explained to them 
that there are benefits to them i.e. Free Software Developers
en-masse
writing software based around the board etc. etc.

 btw when responding please don't take the piss on a price you'd be
happy to pay!  apart from anything it has to be enough to encourage
them to go ahead with the board. the beagleboard price (A8, 720mhz, 
512mb) is a fair guide.  unlike x86 systems the CPU isn't the major
component cost with these embedded boards.


All that effort just to get native SATA? I really don't think it's
worth it.

What use case do you have in mind? Most of my ARM systems, even for
desktop use, get by really well on SD cards (SanDisk and Pretec if you 
have a choice) and USB sticks (I find the ones based on the Kingston
controller handle random-writes particularly well), especially if you switch to using nilfs2 for non-root fs and write a few lines of shell 
for a cron job to handle killing/spawning nilfs_cleanerd.

If you really need SATA, then there is this:
http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-guruplugdetails.aspx


guruplug is kirkwood so armv5t(e) so it can't be used for an armhf
buildd (which requires armv7)


Do you really need HF for what you're trying to do, though?


Granted, it's in a box, but they are cheap and you can always


and noisy ...


Well, if noise is an issue you can get one of these instead:
http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/p-22-sheevaplug-dev-kit-us.aspx
No fan, thus silent, but you will have to solder on the eSATA connector. 

Gordan
Reply to: