Via announces $49 PC with Android OS

[tone007]

Woo, Atom for the (crushing) win.

[dammy]

If I'm reading that one correctly, it seems to not come with a video interface ($50 additional for a DVI-D board.)

Which would make the EFIKA-MX a far better deal.

[phoenixkonsole]

halelujah!
Efika MX is a far far better deal than a pi. Especially if someone plans to use AROS.

http://www.powerdeveloper.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2168&highlight=broadway

Instead of pi or the via thing i am really excited about the "USB-Stick-PC'S"...
Basically all you need to have an "Amiga-on-a-stick"

[Hattig]

ARM11 is not better than ARM8? Whats the deal with that....

ARM11 (ARMv6) is better than ARM8 (ARMv4 IIRC).

However you are talking about ARM Cortex A8, which is better than ARM11.

Think of Cortex as being like "ARM12", and the letters behind being different implementations. FYI there is ARM Cortex A5, A7, A8, A9 and A15, in increasing order of performance and cost. These all run the ARMv7 ISA (A7 and A15 run ARMv7a IIRC, they are completely ISA compatible, and are designed to run in tandem, low power apps run on the A7, high power on the A15, and the overall result is significant power savings).

There's also ARM Cortex R series (embedded) and ARM Cortex M series (really embedded).

ARMv8 is coming along, and we should see things next year. It has a 64-bit mode that is very PowerPC like. Chances are a fine thing that Hyperion will do a release of AmigaOS 4.x for ARM though, with full SMP and MP, etc (might as well do this when releasing on a new non-compatible ISA).

[commodorejohn]

halelujah!
Efika MX is a far far better deal than a pi. Especially if someone plans to use AROS.

You think? It's three and a half times the cost, runs at 1.14x the clock rate (or likely 2.2x the speed, counting its better core,) and has 2x the RAM at the same speed. I haven't gotten a chance to compare a Pi's video performance, but I definitely remember the Efika MX's GPU being weaksauce. Not what I'd call a better deal at all, and that's not even getting into the fact that the Pi team are making all the documentation they can available, while Genesi doesn't really have any interest in hobbyist hackers at all.

[minator]

There are more powerful dual Cortex-A9 based boards out there:

http://www.origenboard.org/

http://pandaboard.org/

http://www.igloocommunity.org/



You can also buy entire Cortex-A8 based tablets for £70 off ebay, the low end tablets used to be rubbish but they've improved a lot now.

[Digiman]

No thanks, I can get VIA 1ghz x86 compatible boards for £50. This means WinUAE and every other emulator in the world via XP.

[Iggy]

No thanks, I can get VIA 1ghz x86 compatible boards for £50. This means WinUAE and every other emulator in the world via XP.

Approximately $78.32. Still more then $50. And you'd have to run Windows.

And i can put together a better X86 motherboard and CPU for only slightly more.

[bloodline]

What people always forget about something like the Raspberry Pi is that is falls into the impulse buy category... £20 for a computer, sure why not... £30, well ok... £40, that's not really pocket money and I would need to justify spending on that... £50, whatever I buy for £50+ isn't going to be powerful and isn't really very cheap...

[Iggy]

What people always forget about something like the Raspberry Pi is that is falls into the impulse buy category... £20 for a computer, sure why not... £30, well ok... £40, that's not really pocket money and I would need to justify spending on that... £50, whatever I buy for £50+ isn't going to be powerful and isn't really very cheap...

bloodline has a very valid point.
That's why when I saw the Sylvania VIA powered Windows CE netbook going for only $39 I snapped one up (in fact, I contacted them the next day and asked for a second).
Its a cheap, out of pocket expense.
When we start approaching $100, I'd give it more consideration.

[takemehomegrandma]

What people always forget about something like the Raspberry Pi is that is falls into the impulse buy category... £20 for a computer, sure why not...

...and then you find out that it's not *really* usable as a computer because of its limitations, so it just ends up in that pile of unused stuff in your garage.

[Iggy]

...and then you find out that it's not *really* usable as a computer because of its limitations, so it just ends up in that pile of unused stuff in your garage.

I don't have a garage, so anything I can't use goes up for sale on Ebay.
So its not wasted funds.

[bloodline]

...and then you find out that it's not *really* usable as a computer because of its limitations, so it just ends up in that pile of unused stuff in your garage.

Doesn't matter... If an Impulse buy product turns out not I meet your needs, it doesn't matter, it only cost a few quid... If I spend £50 on something that turns out to be unsuitable... I've screwed up...

[Iggy]

Doesn't matter... If an Impulse buy product turns out not I meet your needs, it doesn't matter, it only cost a few quid... If I spend £50 on something that turns out to be unsuitable... I've screwed up...

And I've got some great buys that way.
My fist G4 Power mac (a Quicksilver) was purchased for $19.95.

Turned out that it just needed its processor card re-seated.

[partycentralpartygirl]

You think? It's three and a half times the cost, runs at 1.14x the clock rate (or likely 2.2x the speed, counting its better core,) and has 2x the RAM at the same speed. I haven't gotten a chance to compare a Pi's video performance, but I definitely remember the Efika MX's GPU being weaksauce. Not what I'd call a better deal at all, and that's not even getting into the fact that the Pi team are making all the documentation they can available, while Genesi doesn't really have any interest in hobbyist hackers at all.

The Genesi unit is aimed at developing nations not the hobbyist market so it is understandable they have no interest in the hobbyist market. The Genesi unit is a complete computer inside a case, the price is reasonable when taking this into account. Nevertheless they are sold out of the A8 unit forever, a new A9 unit will be coming out in the next little bit for approximately the same price.

As a general usage computer the new unit will easily spank the Pi & Via offerings due to the nature of the improved A9 chip. Whether or not the graphics chip is up to par on the new unit will be as good as the Pi's is another matter, but with it being designed to run a Linux distro optimized for schools in developing nations it is likely the video chip is an afterthought.

[Iggy]

The Genesi unit is aimed at developing nations not the hobbyist market so it is understandable they have no interest in the hobbyist market. The Genesi unit is a complete computer inside a case, the price is reasonable when taking this into account. Nevertheless they are sold out of the A8 unit forever, a new A9 unit will be coming out in the next little bit for approximately the same price.

As a general usage computer the new unit will easily spank the Pi & Via offerings due to the nature of the improved A9 chip. Whether or not the graphics chip is up to par on the new unit will be as good as the Pi's is another matter, but with it being designed to run a Linux distro optimized for schools in developing nations it is likely the video chip is an afterthought.

Perhaps you've got a point, the Genesi machine may be aimed at the third world. If so, its not aimed well. A laptop with an integrated display makes more sense. I can buy an Intel Atom based laptop for about what the Genesi system would cost when a basic monitor, keyboard, and mouse are incorporated. And, instead of running Linux, I can run Windows.

And, for us in the hobbyist market, leave it to Genesi to move from the A8 to the A9 as the market prepares to move from the A9 to the A15.