Why I didn't buy a Pi

[takemehomegrandma]

I have Cortex M3 and M4 devices, but I've never bought a Pi.
I think tonight it occurred to me why.
Its too expensive.
Crazy?
Not really.
I'm typing this on a Sun Ultra 20 workstation I purchased recently for $19.95.
Its processor runs about three times faster than the Pi (and if I want, I can run Solaris).
I have also arranged to buy a 650MHz Sun Blade 150 system for $8.99.
Its only slightly slower than the Pi and gives me a chance to check out a new ISA.

So, what good buys have you guys made lately?

Jim

IMHO, the Efika MX was a much better buy than the Pi. I have both the "Smarttop" and the "Smartbook". Costed a bit more than the Pi (not that much though), but it offered *considerably* more in terms of performance, features, maturity and functionality.

[takemehomegrandma]

Yep i agree but it is a discontinued product. Cubieboard is fine (on par with efika) and brings sata with it.

Interesting piece, the number of options for low cost ARM systems of these kind seems to be increasing all the time! Interesting times ahead!

[takemehomegrandma]

ARM with SATA still is not that common.
And the few boards I  have seen only control two devices.

Not a very big problem IMHO, as long as there is a big enough SSD on board and optionally a memory card slot. I have removed the HDD's on my PC, instead I have a big and fast SSD and all the bulk data (music, movies, photos, work stuff, etc) on a mirror-raid NAS that can be reached from all my computers. Works like a charm!

If we had ARM systems with an expansion bus, then adding additional controllers would be easy.

Let's see what comes out of this new "Hierofalcon" ARM CPU from AMD (to be sold under the AMD Opteron brand):

• Up to eight 64-bit Cortex-A57 cores (28nm)
• Up to 2GHz
• Dual channel DDR3/4 memory
• a cryptographic co-processor
• 10Gbit/sec Ethernet network connections
• PCI-Express 3

[takemehomegrandma]

I can find computers in skips more powerful than the Raspberry Pi... But if all you want in a computer is CPU power, then I don't know watch attracted you to the Amiga :-?

For some of us the usefulness equation is more complex:

(software support + performance + smallness+ quietness + modern connectivity) / (power consumption + price + limit of available replacement units)

GPU's can (if you want) boost general performance considerably in all applications where parallel computing makes sense through CUDA / OpenCL.

A lot is happening on the ARM/GPU front currently. Here is "Logan" (Quad ARM Cortex-A15 + low power companion core) with the "Kepler" GPU:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx0t-WJFXzo

[youtube]Vx0t-WJFXzo[/youtube]

Nobody can say that this isn't impressive!

It would be cool if someone made a non-handheld system based on this. All ARM, all highly integrated, cool, silent, low watt etc.

[takemehomegrandma]

Dave had a lot of influence on the 2000 as well.

But he has been a little too free with his opinions and misconceptions, and he's no Jay Miner.

Then there is that dreadful C128 that people keep mentioning. A 2 MHz Z-80?
You do realize that that is outperformed by a 1 MHz 6502 (which in itself is not that hot a cpu) don't you?

The C128 was actually quite cool IMHO, and it was very complex. It was "three computers in one", and it was a dual CPU system that had both a Z-80 @ 4MHz (its 2MHz effective speed was because it had to pause and let the VIC-II chip get access to the system bus) *and* a 8502 (an improved 6502 that ran in either 1MHz or 2MHz depending on the current mode the computer operated in). The 128D had even a 6502 present (in its disk drive, which actually was a computer by itself just like the external 1541/1581).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_128

http://hackaday.com/2013/12/09/guest-post-the-real-story-of-hacking-together-the-commodore-c128/

[takemehomegrandma]

Instead of three crappy cpus, why not use one decent one?

Well, it was going to be an 8-bit computer, and it was going to have full C64 compatibility which certainly limited the CPU options, but it was also to be a sequel to the C64 (bigger, better, more) so a CPU with double clock frequency was developed (with a "slow mode" for C64 and VIC compatibility) and the CP/M needed the Z-80.

Sure, it was a hack, and the specs was never something the market had demanded/wanted (but neither something that was decided by the developers). The whole computer is improbable, it shouldn't exist. But it does and they got it together pretty well under rather extreme conditions, and it's working (although it was supposed to be able to run CP/M with the VDC chip as well, which would enable the full 4MHz of the Z-80). It's something highly unique, and IMHO it was sort of a suitable end for the 8-bit home computer era, the C128 ended it (some time overdue) with a big bang of extravaganza.

A Commodore 65 shortly after the first Amiga models should probably have made better sense than the C128, and it could possibly have sustained the 8-bit home computing platform a bit longer (1990 was too late IMHO), but this is in retrospect, and it's easy to be "wise" when looking back with all the answers at hand.