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from the things-expand-to-exceed-the-space-provided dept.
Hackaday has a story about a simple non-scientific calculator that packs an Alwinner A50 tablet SoC and the Android operating system:
As shipped they lack the Android launcher, so they aren't designed to run much more than the calculator app. Of course that won't stop somebody who knows their way around Google's mobile operating system for very long - at the end of the review, there's some shots of the gadget running Minecraft and playing streaming video.
But it does beg the question as to why such a product was put into production when the same task could have been performed using very cheap microcontroller. Further, having done so they make it a non-scientific machine, not even bestowing it with anything that could possibly justify the hardware.
Embedded has more generic related post about overengineering in embedded systems:
Embedded systems have traditionally been resource-constrained devices that have a specific purpose. They are not general computing devices but often some type of controller, sensor node, etc. As a result, embedded systems developers often are forced to balance bill-of-material (BOM) costs with software features and needs, resulting in a system that does a specific purpose efficiently and economically.
Over the last few years, I've noticed many systems being built that seem to ignore this balance. For example, I've seen intelligent thermostats that could be built using an Arm Cortex-M4 with a clock speed of fewer than 100 MHz and several hundred kilobytes of memory. Instead, these systems are designed using multicore Arm Cortex-M7 (or even Cortex-A!) parts running at 600 MHz+ with several megabytes of memory! This leads me to ask, are embedded systems developers today overengineering their systems?
I think there are more systems today that are designed with far more memory and processing power than is necessary to get the job done. To some degree, the push for IoT and edge devices has driven a new level of complexity into embedded systems that were once optimized for cost and performance. In addition, connectivity and the need to potentially add new features to a product for a decade or more into the future are leading developers to overestimate their needs and overengineer their systems.
While leaving extra headroom in a system for future expansion is always a great idea, I've seen the extras recently move into the excess. It's not uncommon for me to encounter a team without understanding their system's performance or software requirements. Yet, they've already selected the most cutting-edge microcontroller they can find. When asked about their part selection based on requirements, I've heard multiple times, "We don't know, so we picked the biggest part we could find just in case". Folks, that's not engineering; that's design by fear!
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Thursday March 16 2023, @04:52PM (2 children)
That makes sense. Even though I saw whole *pallets* of CRTs destined for the Chinese recycling programs, you figure there are still vast numbers of them. I still see them getting illegally dumped sometimes. It might be worthwhile to research and take notes on what's hot. I still see them at thrift stores once in a while.
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(Score: 2) by toddestan on Friday March 17 2023, @03:47AM (1 child)
Pretty much anything Sony. JVC D-Series. Some Toshiba and Mitsubishi sets. Generally, the smaller CRTs seem to be more desirable than the massive sets that take up half your living room. Smaller sets with higher quality inputs like S-video and component are especially desirable. Also, any professional video monitors, many of which aren't technically televisions (no built-in tuner).
What's less hot are the late HD CRT televisions, which suffer from input lag and poor support for SD content, and stuff like projection TVs which were junk even when they were new.
It's kind of interesting to see what was considered junk just a few years that you had to pay to get rid of are now considered collector items. It could be that there's just not that many left after years of them getting unceremoniously trashed. On the other hand there could still be a large number of them lurking in people's closets and attics that'll start making an appearance once word gets around that they are worth money, flooding a market that I suspect isn't actually all that big.
CRT computer monitors are also an interesting case. They don't see to be as in demand as the CRT televisions, but on the other hand they seem to have survived in much smaller numbers, making them harder to find for the people who are looking for one.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Saturday March 18 2023, @03:44AM
Just for grins and giggles I checked up on the ol' 1702 Commodore monitor.
I actually had one. Prices were low $200s, but then there was also a complete C-64
setup w/1541, the CPU, *and* the monitor and a printer for about $450 out there,
so I still don't feel bad about getting rid of all that. It might have all gotten jarred
in to oblivion with all the moves I did from the 90s to now.
We had an old black-and-white Philco when I was a real little kid, a set with not
just a CRT but vacuum tubes also. That sucker still worked in the 80s and I hooked
the C-64 up to it one time for the same kind of reason--seeing a computer hooked
up to vacuum tube tech, there was just something so wild about that, spanning
history. It's one of those fond little geek moments I look back on. We yard saled
the Philco, probably $10, let's check that... about $400 maybe. I don't see one that
looks exactly like ours. I know we didn't have a Predicta. That's one weird looking TV,
which is probably why they're asking $2700 for it.
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