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posted by n1 on Saturday April 05 2014, @10:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the something-tells-me-this-isnt-totally-open dept.

Intel has released the "Minnowboard Max", an open source, single board computer available for $99.

Not to be outflanked by rivals, Intel has released the $99 Minnowboard Max, a tiny single-board computer that runs Linux and Android. It is completely open source you can check out the firmware and software here and runs a 1.91GHz Atom E3845 processor.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 05 2014, @11:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 05 2014, @11:27PM (#26864)

    NetBSD!

    Filter error: /blockquote

    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday April 05 2014, @11:32PM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday April 05 2014, @11:32PM (#26865) Journal

      The product page [mouser.com] says "Operating System: Open source Angstrom Linux Distribution (Yocto Project v1.3 compatible)"

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday April 05 2014, @11:38PM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday April 05 2014, @11:38PM (#26866) Journal

        OK, sorry, I just notice that that one was for their older board. However the FAQ for the new one [minnowboard.org] says:

        Q: Is MinnowBoard MAX Yocto Project Compatible?
        A: MinnowBoard MAX is in the process of applying for Yocto Project Compatible status as of April 2014.

        Therefore I'd expect the new board also to run Linux.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
        • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday April 06 2014, @12:53AM

          by frojack (1554) on Sunday April 06 2014, @12:53AM (#26887) Journal

          This isn't even the smallest board Intel makes.

          There is the Intel Edison [intel.com], the size of a micro-sd card.

          Featuring:
          Intel Atom SoC based on leading-edge 22nm Silvermont microarchitecture including a dual-core CPU and single core MCU.
          Integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth* LE, memory and storage.
          Support for over 30 industry-standard I/O interfaces via a 70-pin connector.
          Support for Yocto Linux, Arduino, Python, Node.js and Wolfram.
          An open source community software tools enabling ease of adoption and inspiring third-party app developers to build apps for consumers.

          --
          No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Sunday April 06 2014, @01:40PM

          by Hairyfeet (75) <bassbeast1968NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday April 06 2014, @01:40PM (#27058) Journal

          Why doesn't it run Windows as well? Its an X86 quad core so you'd think it would run Windows as well as Linux and Android. Its a shame that it doesn't as one of the few places a friend of mine has found Windows 8 works VERY well is the realm of carputers and a board this small could be paired with an SSD and hidden in the dash really easily.

          While this might be great for the Pi crowd for the rest of us I can't wait until the new AMD Jag boards are abundant in the channel. After all its based on the same chip in the PS4 and Xbone so its multimedia ought to be REALLY nice and from what I've seen it looks like the quads will be in the $125-$150 range and the duals in the $60-$100 range. The boards appear small enough to fit into the mini console style cases while still having the post holes to be a drop in for any mATX cases. I've been using the previous gen Bobcat board a LOT and its a hell of a chip, and the skinny so far is that jag a good 25% faster while using equal to or less power.

          Does anybody know if they are gonna be releasing this chip in mATX boards? Because I can personally think of a LOT of uses for a 10w quad core at 1.9Ghz, HTPCs/DVRs, file servers, upgrades for older office boxes, if they could get the price right there is a hell of a lot you could do with a quad that low powered.

          --
          ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
  • (Score: 1) by gishzida on Saturday April 05 2014, @11:39PM

    by gishzida (2870) on Saturday April 05 2014, @11:39PM (#26867) Journal

    A. Nonymous Coward Marketing, a nonymous division of Intel.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by n1 on Sunday April 06 2014, @12:18AM

      by n1 (993) on Sunday April 06 2014, @12:18AM (#26878) Journal

      Not surprised this comment happened and I understand why it did. I'm pondering on how we can have any hardware related announcements that arn't in the "groundbreaking but years away from actual production" category. We can't just focus on the security issues and bad news or should we?

      Intel got two for one, paid techcrunch and got soylent for free. I personally found it interesting and thats my only defense. I'm an AMD fan and they pay as well as SoylentNews! The Anon Coward I can't speak for...

      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday April 06 2014, @01:31AM

        by frojack (1554) on Sunday April 06 2014, @01:31AM (#26900) Journal

        I think we just have to let those comments slide by.

        Either that or we can never discuss any new product, or any new software or any new anything.

        We could perhaps refuse to accept them from ACs. That might be well worth considering.
        After all, if you aren't willing to risk your karma and a bit of hate mail to submit a story, your story probably isn't worth reading.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @02:52AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @02:52AM (#26926)

          Don't sacrifice anonymity to address a problem that is already controlled by the editors.

          If new product announcements are that toxic to the people here then the editors can stop posting them.

          If, like me, most people are interested in new technology products and want those stories here, then we can keep posting them.

          Either way the anonymity of story submission doesn't enter into it.

          • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday April 06 2014, @05:58AM

            by frojack (1554) on Sunday April 06 2014, @05:58AM (#26972) Journal

            Apparently "anonymity of story submission" DOES enter into it, or you wouldn't be posting about it. At least not anonymously.

            --
            No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @02:18PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @02:18PM (#27064)

              As an AC for life I resent that comment. I'm not either of the prev ACs. It's not like everybody has an account.

              • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday April 08 2014, @06:22AM

                by maxwell demon (1608) on Tuesday April 08 2014, @06:22AM (#27986) Journal

                Let me add that one of the main reasons why I am here and not on Pipedot is that this site allows posting without account and Pipedot doesn't (unless they changed that; it's a while since I last checked). And yes, that's despite me (obviously) having an account here.

                Also, back when I joined Slashdot, I used it for a considerable time without account before I got one. If it had required an account to begin with, I probably would never have registered one. Me getting an account on a site which doesn't allow usage without an account is the exception rather than the rule.

                --
                The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 1) by gishzida on Sunday April 06 2014, @01:38AM

        by gishzida (2870) on Sunday April 06 2014, @01:38AM (#26903) Journal

        This is one of those Wikipedia kind of things: "Help us make your news story better by making sure it comes from a source other than the manufacturer / publisher / seller's marketing department. 3rd party articles or reviews preferred. We do not accept "product placement stories" unless they are from *known* members of the community. Sorry but as a matter of policy We do not accept product placements from Anonymous Cowards. Go to Beta."

        Imagine taking the word of this kind of thing as gospel... The pricing info in the Manufacturer's link says $99 but when you pop over to Mouser its $189. [also some of the option pricing is unclear from the original site and none of which I saw at Mouser].

        Would you release a story for a "homeopathic microprocessor which used Aeonic Energy to enhance your thurbligs" from an anonymous source? It should not make a difference -- if the article is from the manufacturer we should be wary unless there is supporting information. This article fails that test.

        regards...

  • (Score: 1) by Marty on Saturday April 05 2014, @11:42PM

    by Marty (1644) on Saturday April 05 2014, @11:42PM (#26868)

    Looks promising - has USB3 + GbE - but its not available until June.

    The $129 option has a dual core at 1.33Ghz and 2GB DDR3.

    This could be a good option for XBMC or low spec file shares.

  • (Score: 2) by d on Sunday April 06 2014, @12:15AM

    by d (523) on Sunday April 06 2014, @12:15AM (#26877)

    So where can I download the schematics of Intel Atom?

  • (Score: 1) by hamsterdan on Sunday April 06 2014, @12:36AM

    by hamsterdan (2829) on Sunday April 06 2014, @12:36AM (#26883)

    Not listed on the specs page. E3815@1.46 for 99$ and E3825@1.33 for 129$

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @01:09AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @01:09AM (#26893)

    The big news is that, at $99[1], it isn't as heinously priced as their initial attempt at $199 [googleusercontent.com] (no orig link[2]) [google.com] (despite having ancient chipsets). /sarc
    They seem to think there is a market for this still-overpriced kit. I don't see that.

    An item I found on their previous try WRT openness. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [jiscinvolve.org]
    ...and that's PowerVR (the least-open and most-horribly-supported video gear ever).

    [1] ...and Intel is still clueless about pricing outside the USA and the USD.
    Seriously, a price of 99 even when that is euros? [softpedia.com]

    [2] I'm not linking directly to the other site any more. If the link is broken because Dice Holdings is still screwing around, I advise you to substitute a valid 12-character string for the bogus one following q=cache:

    -- gewg_

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @09:56AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @09:56AM (#27013)

      Speaking of backdoors..

      FPGAs are notorious for potentially being compromised at the "not-so-open-sourced" silicon level.

      Open or not, the Minnowboard still sounds kinda fishy.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Subsentient on Sunday April 06 2014, @02:06AM

    by Subsentient (1111) on Sunday April 06 2014, @02:06AM (#26915) Homepage Journal
    --
    "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday April 06 2014, @04:47PM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday April 06 2014, @04:47PM (#27105) Journal

      Thanks for the link, I somehow missed that story.

      So, my next computer likely won't be an Intel.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 1) by bornagainpenguin on Sunday April 06 2014, @05:01PM

      by bornagainpenguin (3538) on Sunday April 06 2014, @05:01PM (#27109)

      http://soylentnews.org/articles/14/03/15/1912255.s html [soylentnews.org]

      "Now, beginning with the new 2014 power efficient mobile "Merrifield" processor generation, this functionality will be used to lock the processor for certain OS'es or OS versions. Whether there will be a SDK or use of this 'functionality' will be kept a secret, still is undecided, Kuypers said."

      Well, they were hoping we might..... oooh! New shiney!

  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday April 06 2014, @11:28AM

    by VLM (445) on Sunday April 06 2014, @11:28AM (#27027)

    One interesting tradition in hardware hacking products is to only talk about the processor, and talk about it detail. Yet ignore the peripherals.

    If I'm writing Perl/Python/Scala/bash script on a raspPI or this new minnow I don't care about 3 sig figs of processor speed and all that really matters is it boots my choice of OS not theirs so I'm familiar with it and handle security updates etc.

    Whats really interesting about the minnow is having 4 times the memory of the first rev A pi, built in SATA, and gig ethernet. So its a much better platform for a "portable experimental cluster" than a pi-cluster because of its peripherals, not because of the 3rd sig fig in its clock oscillator.

    I would imagine it would make a heck of a mythtv frontend or backend. If only it had two ethernets, then it would make a versatile firewall and/or general network appliance. Right now I use Soekris boxes if I need two ethernets and rasb-pis if performance is not exactly an issue.