There are many embedded boards but this one will be more feature complete while costing as much as Raspberry Pi:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dpt-board-linux-and-wifi-becomes-easy
Software: OpenWRT. Hardware specs: 400MHz MIPS processor, 64MiB DDR2 RAM, USB 2.0, UART, 16MiB flash memory, WiFi g/n 150Mbps with on board antenna, 20 GPIO ports, 2x 100Mbps ethernet, 7 high-power (500mA) outputs, 3 ultra-protected inputs (0 — 50V resistant), 5 normal 2.5 volt IO ports with software I2C, SPI capability, power consumption: 0.36 Watt
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Yet-another "Raspberry Pi Killer"
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(Score: 2) by DECbot on Tuesday July 29 2014, @06:07AM
Might work well as a router. I'm still looking for development board specs to move in the other direction; dual core, 2+GB of ram, SATA, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, and USB. I'd like to move my 30 watt file server to something much lower powered, but I'd like to keep SATA and my 10/100/1000 Ethernet and the raspberry pi price tag. Probably not going to happen, but I can dream.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Tuesday July 29 2014, @08:22AM
I just purchased a NUC DN2820 for a similar purpose. It will (hopefully soon) act as HTCP and owncloud-server. I plan to run it with debian or XBMCbuntu. A small script will sync relevant data-folders to an external USB disk. USB 3 should be fast enough for a daily backup; even USB 2 should backup 1TB within 5h to a blank hard-drive, and usually I'd use rsync for incremental backups.
The Intel NUC costs 133$ at Amazon; you will need an additional 2.5HDD or SSD and a RAM module. In my case I have these parts as spare parts laying around. 133$ is not exactly the price range of the raspberry pi, but also not really expensive.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by karmawhore on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:04PM
Considering the NUC you have comes with a nice enclosure, wireless + antenna, a VESA mount, and built-in IR sensor, the total price is not *too* far off the Pi (assuming you would then buy all of those things for the Pi separately). Whatever difference there is would be more than worth it for the ability to run the OS of your choice. But that's assuming you need all that in the first place. The Pi is obviously aimed at a different market.
=kw= lurkin' to please
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:49PM
The NUC is no where near the cost of a Pi. A Pi is $35, case is about $9, uSD card another $8 (8-16GB) and a USB WiFi adapter is another $12-$20. The cheapest NUC is $150, does not include memory and needs a hard disk. Granted the NUC is quite a bit more powerful running a dual core Celeron @ 1.1GHz and has Gigabit, dual HDMI and RAM to 16GB. By the time you stuff it with components you are probably breaking $200 easily.
Horses for courses: what is your target application? If you are doing arduino like work and using Linux to do more powerful stuff like webcams, networking etc then the Pi is what you want. If you want a low power, compact desktop in a tiny box that can run Windows then a NUC.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:55PM
Apparently, people tend to use the Pi for things it was not meant to be :-) The project goal was to provide a small device for hardware development. Still, if you type "raspberry pi" in google, the second proposed completion is "xmbc". Nothing wrong with that, I have a raspberry and I'm nearly contented with it's function as HTCP. However, I have a second machine always on for home-cloud services and network share (content for raspberry); unfortunately that one is too noisy for the living room, doesn't have HDMI, has a poor graphics card and is too power-hungry, and this is a waste. I miss the fun I could have meddling with the Pi, my HTCP can't play some formats (because the CPU is just too slow), I have to machines draining power.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by karmawhore on Tuesday July 29 2014, @01:15PM
That's what I was getting at. You can build out a Pi to do lots of different things, but the cost starts to balloon, and performance starts to become a real issue. I have one running OpenELEC, and that's fine for what it is, but it's nothing close to a good HTPC. Trying to use it as a fileserver at the same time is just masochistic.
It's sold as a hacking platform, so it's no surprise people would take on projects it wasn't "meant for," but if the end product is what you're after -- and not the process -- at some point it makes more sense to just buy the device you need.
=kw= lurkin' to please
(Score: 3, Interesting) by urza9814 on Tuesday July 29 2014, @02:11PM
Nonsense! It takes a bit of fiddling, but it does actually work pretty well! I have no problems playing a 1080p video while pulling down backups from my web server over FTP while serving PHP pages and downloading files via bittorrent and also downloading videos from YouTube :) I've got a custom-made web-based Pi HTPC system with far more features than XBMC or any other HTPC software I've ever seen, and it's very rare that I ever have a problem with it. And when I do it's almost always because I screwed up the code ;)
(Score: 2) by etherscythe on Tuesday July 29 2014, @06:23PM
Seriously? Mine sits at 90%+ CPU usage just playing music off a USB SSD with the background visualizer turned off. Maybe the USB interface is the problem? Then again, the Bello skin may be getting in the way too.
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday July 29 2014, @02:04PM
If you're having problems with codecs or playback performace with XBMC, try Omxplayer. I find it plays a much greater number of formats than XBMC (this hasn't always been true, but a few somewhat recent updates have done wonders.) Problem of course is there's no library or interface for Omxplayer, so you've gotta roll your own. I hacked up a web-based solution in PHP so I can run everything from my laptop/phone/whatever :)
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Tuesday July 29 2014, @07:13PM
I don't think that will work. Most ARM based HTCPs can play only those video formats supported by their graphic hardware due to performance restrictions. Anyway, I already ordered my NUC, so the decision stands.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by hubie on Tuesday July 29 2014, @02:09PM
Given what you know now, would you recommend a Pi for a home theater system, or something else?
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Tuesday July 29 2014, @07:17PM
It still depends on your personal needs and budget. I already got some videos which the Pi couldn't play, or some movies getting stuck for some seconds. Therefore I ordered the NUC and hope it will be better. Luckily my budget allows for it. However, if you can put up with two seconds lag once per movie, the Pi is a cool device and budget-wise hard to beat.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 1) by axsdenied on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:17PM
Have a look at Hummingboard. The top end model ticks all your boxes apart from 2GB of RAM.
http://www.solid-run.com/products/hummingboard/linux-sbc-specifications/ [solid-run.com]
(Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday July 29 2014, @01:19PM
mmm, that's a sexy board. Lightweight on the GPIO but there are plenty of ways to make more.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 5, Informative) by evilviper on Tuesday July 29 2014, @06:10AM
That's nice and all, but 64MBytes of RAM is a far cry from the 512MBytes of the Pi. And I see nothing about DVI/HDMI video output, let alone with MPEG-1/2/4/etc. decoding on the GPU.
If it's aimed at WiFi APs/routers, you need to throw a 4+ port switch on one of those ethernet ports, include the case and power supply as well, for about $40. Those D-Link DIR-632's were similarly priced, and sold out very quickly once DD-WRT worked on them.
Of course the GPIO pins are nice, and the power ports for motor control will help somebody, but it's nothing like a Raspberry Pi, and the comparison has gotten old.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday July 29 2014, @07:18AM
0.36 watts?
This has to be a typo... its not a Raspberry PI killer...
It's an Arduino killer....
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Tuesday July 29 2014, @07:19AM
It looks like a scam, or at best a very bad idea. The flexible funding option is usually a sign that the people behind it have little intention of delivering. They didn't ask for enough money either. If they want to deliver boards for $20 they are going to have to go for very high volumes, and even then it's doubtful.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday July 29 2014, @07:56AM
I am working on a PCB myself - and I cannot come anywhere close to that price point.
I can't even get just the bare PCB made for that.
At least I have not seen a place in the USA that will do such a thing.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by pe1rxq on Tuesday July 29 2014, @09:37AM
Look outside the USA....
PCB production can be dirt cheap, especially if you are willing to wait a few weeks for them to arrive.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:11PM
I have heard this exists.
Have any links of any you have done business with and can recommend?
Thanks!
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Informative) by kaszz on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:37PM
a) Use as few layers and small dimensions as can
b) Don't make mistakes in the design...!! (use prototypes and test them hard)
c) Make use of a high volume order, ie >1000 units
d) Find a Chinese manufacturer (unless global market place has changed)
e) Be willing to wait for delivery (ie weeks)
And then it comes to assembly which you don't want to do by hand with >1000 units.
This is how you get PCB manufacturing really cheap.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Urlax on Tuesday July 29 2014, @11:42AM
The guys that designed this (a father and son team) are active on the (dutch) forum CO.
this is his announcement for the capaign:
http://www.circuitsonline.net/forum/view/120827 [circuitsonline.net]
(Score: 2) by Jaruzel on Tuesday July 29 2014, @07:17AM
What I like about this board is that it comes in two parts, the blue bit and the green bit. I would be more interested in just the blue bit. One of the main things that bothers me about the Pi is that I'm restricted by where all the ports are. By just having the the blue bit of this kit, I can build my own custom enclosure and put the ports and other I/O exactly where I need them (or not at all).
That said, it seems that this thing was built for 'remote node' type applications, such as monitoring, or for other single use apps, which may limit its actual usefulness.
It's definitely does not have the same use-case scenarios as a Pi so yeah, people should stop comparing the two.
SoC != Pi clone.
-Jar
This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 29 2014, @09:46AM
There are quite a few missing spaces. Lists,like,this,make,a,poor,reading,experience.
(Score: 2) by LaminatorX on Tuesday July 29 2014, @11:29AM
Fixed, thanks you.
(Score: 4, Informative) by kaszz on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:56PM
* Software: OpenWRT
* Processor: MIPS processor @ 400 MHz
* RAM: 64 MB DDR2
* Connection: 2x 100 Mbit/s ethernet
* Connection: USB 2.0
* Connection: UART
* Connection: 20 GPIO ports
* Connection: 7 high power (500mA) outputs
* Connection: 3 ultra protected inputs (0-50V resistant)
* Connection: 5 normal 2.5 volt I/O ports with software I2C and SPI capability
* Permanent storage: 16 MB flash memory
* Communication: WiFi g/n 150 Mbit/s with on board antenna
* Power usage: 0.36 W
If the "2x 100 Mbit/s Ethernet" is directly wired we have something really interesting. If it's the Raspberry-Pi variant with Ethernet via USB it's more flaky and ain't worth bothering with.
All this for 35 USD? (dunno if one needs the green board, details here [linuxgizmos.com]?)
This means unlike other attempts the price is decent. Linuxgizmos hints the processor is a AR9331 (1x MIPS 24k core).
I find the (technical) details scarce and how the pricing is going to be accomplished not shown in a way to get any confidence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 29 2014, @02:55PM
Wait, there are 24000 cores?
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday July 30 2014, @12:48AM
Yeah, Intel is behind as usual. 8 cores.. huh. Now 24 000 cores .. now we are talking! ;-)
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday July 29 2014, @01:57PM
Looks VERY cool for running routers or firewall systems. Perhaps someone can figure out how to get PFSense on here. But this is definitely NOT a "Raspberry Pi Killer." -- if for no other reason than the fact that the Pi has 512MB RAM, where this only has 64MB. The Pi is getting pretty popular as a home theater system lately, but there's no way in hell you could do that with one of these things.
This fits a totally different niche than the Pi -- one people have been *trying* to cram the Pi into, with very little success. Which is excellent :)