[GLLUG] Fw: Re: Raspberry Pi has a competitor?

[Charles Ulrich]

On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 3:19 PM, Rocky Lichen <rockylichen at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> According to http://rhombus-tech.net/faq/#index11h2
> "Satellite TV 'Conditional Access Modules' are in PCMCIA form-factor, meaning that the connectors, housings and assemblies are all still mass-produced" and "the pricing on parts is still good in mass-volume quantities."

So it's just a convenient peripheral connector or will you have to
plug it into something else to make full use of it? That's what I'm
unclear on.

> Note that the Rhombus-Tech Allwinner is just about the same size as the Raspberry Pi.
>
> According to http://opensource.com/life/12/1/linux-hardware-race-tiniest-and-cheapest-15-cheap
> the Allwinner is GPL-compliant open hardware, while Raspberry Pi has yet to make a decision on HW openness.

GPL compliant, yes, but the physical design won't be open hardware.
The FAQ states that they're contracting with a firm in China to
develop the board, so it won't be open hardware in the Arduino sense.

I _thought_ the raspberry pi would be open hardware (schematics, parts
list, board layout), but I can't verify since their site is blacked
out for SOPA day and google isn't helping right now. The RaspPI will
have at least one binary firmware blob, I believe for the GPU.

> As for how they can do it cheaper, prices are falling so rapidly in the smartphone-ish device space that if you start later and develop faster . . .

I've seen too many hardware projects that promised a very attractive
price for the end unit, but then after the prototypes are built, the
cold reality of mass manufacture, transportation, taxes, distribution,
and other costs sets in.

> The second link above also discusses the CuBox, which is already shipping.  It costs a whopping $129, but includes case, p/s, ethernet, eSATA, Ubuntu on microSD, etc., in a 2" cube.

That's ridiculously tiny! But personally, I'm more interested in cheap
and power-efficient than small.

Charles