[HN Gopher] My SBC Collection
___________________________________________________________________
My SBC Collection
Author : chmaynard
Score : 60 points
Date : 2023-12-31 12:12 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (multimedia.cx)
(TXT) w3m dump (multimedia.cx)
| TruthWillHurt wrote:
| No one remembers the GuruPlug, or better yet - the GuruPlug
| Server Plus, When RPi 1 just came out this little gadget ran x86
| Linux (!) and had hdmi out that could handle 1080p video, a feat
| that only RPi 4 can repeat.
| Gys wrote:
| I was curious and searched it. Seems not everybody was that
| impressed: https://wtarreau.blogspot.com/2010/05/guruplug-
| server-plus-d... [2010]
| rijoja wrote:
| Thank you, I was thinking about it yesterday, but I couldn't
| remember the name of it!
| userbinator wrote:
| I think you may have mixed up some memories. GuruPlug family is
| ARM-based.
| rwmj wrote:
| Right, it was ARMv5 too which meant toolchain support was
| somewhat lacking and it didn't support non-aligned memory
| access which meant some programs that were written with x86
| assumptions tended to segfault randomly.
| numpad0 wrote:
| I wonder which one is the one GP had in mind, DM&P
| Vortex86-based ones or VIA thin clients?
| forty wrote:
| I have a collection quite similar (in size and content) to the
| author, but I must have started a bit earlier as I have a bit
| more of the first RPIs and also a Dream plug (which is another
| successor to the sheeva plug, like the guru plug)
| francis_t_catte wrote:
| the Sheevaplug, Guruplug, and Dreamplug are what really got me
| into embedded computing and linux. I still have my Sheevaplug
| in storage, and a Dreamplug in service as my internal DNS
| server. the Marvell Kirkwood SoCs they were based on were quite
| long lived, eventually being rebranded as lower-end Armada
| chipsets.
|
| P.S. if anyone wants to tinker with that ecosystem, there's
| still quite a number of people dedicated to packaging up Debian
| for them, and if you're okay with some soldering to get UART
| access, you can get a brand new $18 Dell Kace M300 to try out.
| in a lot of ways, I still prefer them to any newer single-board
| computers, despite my pretty significant collection at this
| point.
| Levitating wrote:
| My favourite will always be the C.H.I.P. by Next Thing Co[1].
|
| I still have one. They were priced towards 9 dollars, had on-
| board bluetooth and wifi when the Pi didn't and was significantly
| smaller. Sadly the company couldn't make it work. They also had a
| "Pocket C.H.I.P." which was a small display and keyboard you
| could plug your C.H.I.P. in.
|
| Some company did buy their work and is planning to sell the
| boards and some variants as as the Popcorn Computer, but it has
| lost quite a lot of its charm.[2]
|
| [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIP_(computer) [2]:
| https://popcorncomputer.com/
| pi-rat wrote:
| Those were great. I turned one of mine into a 4G enabled garage
| opener some years ago, battery backup and everything.
|
| Was a real pain to find an archive of the flashing utility and
| images.
| Levitating wrote:
| There's a discord[1] where people can point you to the old
| flashing utilities and images. Some of the old members of NTC
| are around as well.
|
| [1]: https://discord.gg/kq8GknJzrZ
| CraigJPerry wrote:
| A few years ago there was a kickstarter for
| https://parallella.org/
|
| I think mine arrived like a year late as I recall but the
| hardware really appealed - a zynq dual core arm + FPGA - these
| are more popular now but back then this was the first I heard of
| these chips. The board came with the verilog for the hdmi out
| implemented on the fpga- as I recall there were some challenges
| building a bitstream like they provided from their source but it
| was so long ago I don't recall the specifics, it did eventually
| work. I never succeeded at evolving their hdmi out into an hdmi
| in though, it turned out to be way more complicated to bring in
| an hdmi signal than to generate one - I'm not even sure if it'd
| be possible on the size of fpga provided.
|
| Anyway that was all a sideshow - the real deal was the epiphany
| chip. I'm going from memory here so I could have this wrong but
| as I recall each core had a little ram and a fabric connecting it
| to other cores, so you could choose to use it like gpu compute -
| although that model wasn't a great match because each core could
| branch independently without any real hassle but that then opened
| up the puzzzle of how to keep each core fed. Another strategy
| could be the deep pipeline approach like you'd take with an fpga.
| Treating it as you would a multi core cpu never really made much
| sense to me because of bandwidth limitations of the fabric.
|
| It used to overheat quite easily but I just soldered on a tiny dc
| fan to the incoming barrel jack and that did the trick for me, if
| a little loud.
|
| Anyway, a cool little chip. I still have the code as far as I got
| with my image recognition application, I was reading road speed
| signs and vehicle registration plates from images, I think I know
| what project I'll have a play with this week!
| kjs3 wrote:
| _I recall each core had a little ram and a fabric connecting it
| to other cores, so you could choose to use it like gpu compute_
|
| The CellBE chip used in the PS3 was like that: a full PPC
| 'main' processor and 8 'Synergistic Processing Element' which
| were (oversimplifying) stripped down processors with a lots of
| registers, small amount of local memory and an interconnect.
| Interesting idea, but in the end, not very easy to program
| effectively.
|
| I do do remember seeing the Parallella and thinking 'hm, baby
| CellBE'. What did you create with yours?
| saidinesh5 wrote:
| As a slight tangent, does anyone know any tiny soc modules with
| USB C display out, and can decode h264/h265 video at 120fps?
| greggsy wrote:
| Orang Pi Plus supports DP Alt Mode [1]. You'd have to read
| through the spec sheet to confirm fps performance. Seems like a
| niche feature tbh.
|
| [1] https://www.cnx-software.com/2023/05/10/orange-pi-5-plus-
| sbc...
| Rediscover wrote:
| That seems not a niche feature from my view...
|
| Maybe it's a feature that isn't often advertised (amd64
| machines excepted). I find it frequently in the datasheets
| (and then verifying with schematics and testing).
|
| Another non-advertised thing is "real" LVDS on the same
| physical pins as MIPI-DSI. Again, datasheets+schematics.
| ThatPlayer wrote:
| Datasheet the for RK3588 used says H265 will do 8k@60fps. I
| assume lower than 8K resolution will be able to do 120fps,
| but don't know how that translates.
|
| https://www.cnx-
| software.com/pdf/Rockchip%C2%A0RK3588%C2%A0D... Page 7
| xor42 wrote:
| A bit off topic, but I have recently acquired a PCB which uses a
| Conexant CX92755. It is kind of supported by the Linux kernel,
| but I am completely unable to find a user manual / proper
| datasheet for this chip. If someone happens to have it stashed
| somewhere, I'd be super grateful as it would give me a few week
| ends of hacking with the board.
| sitzkrieg wrote:
| its a big fat arm cortex a8, i would say good luck on an
| english one if you hadnt looked already. at least are
| devicetree overlays and patches out there :/
|
| https://lwn.net/Articles/628896/
| rcarmo wrote:
| I started out with Linksys NSLU2 (even ran my site off one for a
| lark), then moved to ODROID, Raspberry Pis, etc. These days I've
| got a few Rockchip variants around, and it's pretty amazing to
| consider how things evolved over the years (even without
| mainstream Linux support for some of the chips I've used).
| squarefoot wrote:
| The NSLU2 was pretty slow as a NAS, but the community that grew
| around it turned it into a really interesting platform for
| hacking, and I just love that Linksys back them didn't try to
| prevent hackers from repurposing it with alternate OSes etc.
|
| Here's an archived copy of the then hacking page devoted to the
| NSLU2.
|
| https://web.archive.org/web/20160320041744/http://www.nslu2-...
| spacecadet wrote:
| Fun post. I have also accumulated a huge collection of SoCs, SBCs
| and OTS/Custom/Production PCBs that came about from Client
| projects over the last 16 years. I love this space, if a project
| comes up, I usually support it.
| squarefoot wrote:
| The number of affordable still very powerful SBCs has grown to
| the point we probably need something like the rosettacode (.org)
| site, but aimed at comparing ways of obtaining the same tasks in
| a few chosen languages but on different hardware, for example how
| to flip a gpio, how to send a pwm signal to a mosfet, how to read
| this or that sensor, how to draw on graphics LCDs, communicate
| with RF modules, etc. followed then by a list of boards and
| method to accomplish the task on all of them using similarly
| named functions and variables when possible to make comparison
| easier. In some cases the code will likely be identical, while
| some lower level or optimized stuff will need to be more specific
| for a given hardware. A site like that could quickly become a
| place to go when looking for ideas and/or compare different SBCs.
| Opinions?
| kjs3 wrote:
| Sounds closer to the OSDev Wiki[1] than Rosettacode, but sure,
| that's a pretty nifty idea. I would gauge how many people are
| SBC collectors/hoarders before I went looking for a seed round
| tho. I'd guess outside of RPi's, Arduinos and a handful of
| other big names, there's a pretty small community that is
| really playing with multiple boards much less different
| processor archs regularly who could maximize a service like
| this. Most people I know focus on one or a small number of
| platforms, either because of budget or cognitive burden, but
| that's anicdata so who really knows.
|
| I will of course suggest my obligatory pet peeve: for boards
| where it's applicable, indicate "can it run a stock kernel or
| does it rely on out-of-tree, vendor or community
| supplied/supported blobs" before I waste a lot of time reading
| further.
|
| [1] https://wiki.osdev.org/Expanded_Main_Page
| throwup238 wrote:
| _> indicate "can it run a stock kernel or does it rely on
| out-of-tree, vendor or community supplied/supported blobs"
| before I waste a lot of time reading further._
|
| Seconded. At this point, unless a client is explicitly paying
| (a lot) for a specific processor, custom BSPs with outdated
| kernels are an absolute showstopper. I won't even bother
| evaluating the platform any further.
| squarefoot wrote:
| For SBCs that can run Linux, such information can be found
| on Armbian and DietPI forums where usually they discuss
| porting and availability of kernels and/or other software.
| kjs3 wrote:
| Let me add a requirement: Do I have to google the shit
| out of multiple forums to find out what it can run and
| how to keep it running? Also a waste of my time.
|
| P.S. - SBC here means more than Arm.
| 0cVlTeIATBs wrote:
| I also have a bunch of SBCs lying around waiting to be used, and
| also an ODROID HC2 which has been in use for years. I only
| dislike that it's not powerful enough for encryption--LUKS +
| samba could not read/write at disk speeds and was unreliable in
| my testing.
|
| Really wish there would be an upgrade to the HC2 with about three
| to four times the performance.
| pehtis wrote:
| Have you seen H3+ ? it looks like its an HC2 with a more
| powerful CPU. I just received one and my plan to install
| OpenBSD on it some time this week.
| someplaceguy wrote:
| Can anyone recommend an SBC with >=16 GB of RAM that has been
| confirmed to run stably with the mainline kernel?
|
| Edit: to be clear, I specifically need ARM CPUs. Headless is OK
| (although a basic console over HDMI would be nice). To answer
| myself, an Orange Pi 5 might fit the bill but I'm not sure how
| stable it runs at 100% continuous load (on a mainline kernel).
| bloggie wrote:
| Most of these SBCs top out at 8 GB (if you're lucky). you might
| be better off looking at a NUC-style tiny computer with x86
| processor. There are some available on Amazon. https://www.bee-
| link.com/computer-73493777
| dmm wrote:
| If you need that much ram, maybe consider n100 machines. For
| ~$180 you can a complete system with case, power supply, 16GB
| ram, 500GB ssd. The m.2 storage and amd64 distro compatibility
| makes it worthwhile to me.
|
| Here's one example but many more are available on amazon and
| aliexpress: https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-Desktop-Computer-
| Support-Ethe...
| layer8 wrote:
| Yep, the N100 is now the go-to in that performance range.
| Though personally I'd spend a bit more and get a fanless
| version, like e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Mini-PC-Firewall-
| Appliance-Lake-N100/....
| nurettin wrote:
| Odroids were amazing. At some point I had 16 of them spread out
| in various homes plugged behind routers scraping Amazon. They all
| reverse tunnelled their ssh ports to a public beacon for access.
| This went on for years until I didn't need them anymore. I still
| remember zeroing the sd card of odroid14 remotely because the
| owner had to move out and forgot about it. Sad times.
| tamimio wrote:
| No nvidia jetson (nano Xavier etc.)! Add it to your bucket list.
| eek2121 wrote:
| I too am an SBC hoarder. It has gotten bad. :D
|
| I bought the original Raspberry Pi 2b as part of a homebrew NAS.
| Later I bought the Pi 3, Pi 4, Pi Compute 4 + board, Pi 5, 2
| RISC-V boards, and a bunch of other boards. I don't have a need
| for them, I just enjoy collecting them.
|
| Currently the only one I'm using is a Pi 5.
| kjs3 wrote:
| Admitting you have a problem is the first step in recovery.
| eric__cartman wrote:
| I don't know why, but throwing away computers has always felt
| wrong to me. I have this small device, built on countless
| years of research and development that would have been
| unthinkable not too long ago and it's going straight into a
| garbage bag. Goodbye to all those semiconductors built on
| extraordinarily precise manufacturing processes and full of
| rare earth metals I guess. Now I got a new device with more
| memory and computing power that'll perform just as bad in a
| few years for the same tasks because a lot of software sucks
| ass.
| W-Stool wrote:
| Where did you find the Pi5 for purchase? I can't find one of
| these in the USA for purchase anywhere.
| StayTrue wrote:
| https://www.pishop.us/product/raspberry-pi-5-8gb/
| krallja wrote:
| Wow, almost all of my SBCs are 8-bitters. uKenbak, Digirule 2U,
| PAL-1, 6502 Membership Card, dozens of ATMega boards. Plus the
| VIP2K, Altaid 8800, and 1802 Membership Card are all technically
| 2-board computers, but that's only so they can fit in an Altoids
| tin.
|
| EDIT: Timex-Sinclair TS1000, Commodore 64, VIC 20, Apple IIc,
| Apple IIgs, Macintosh SE, Macintosh LC II... do these count?
| 1letterunixname wrote:
| Nice.
|
| I have an OrangePi 5 (w/ SSD), a Lichee Pi 4A RISC-V (POE+modded
| case), and 6 RPi 4B (4 powered by POE+ booting from SSDs on
| powered USB hubs).
|
| AmateurTip: Don't get a ROCKPro64 because they're paperweights
| due to a dead fork of Linux. ]:
|
| And assorted non-Linux MCUs: ESP8266/32/32+LoRa, Arduino
| UNO/Mini/Nanos, MSP430, STM32, BASIC Stamp, and various PICs.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-01-01 23:01 UTC)