SAM440 EP Flex

[niklasni1]

Looks very interesting. Especially if the price is right. The mini-ITX version is a bit too expensive, I think, though I'd promised myself one if I found a job for the summer...

I'm actually interested in this regardless of, if I could put FreeBSD on it I'd still find a use for it, though I suspect I'm a minority of one on that count. I like the power consumption, and I like the fact that it's not an 8086-derivative (for old time's sake).

[niklasni1]

You know, I'm not sure... but the mini-ITX version is just over 600 euros including VAT and shipping... and that's just the MB. I'd hope something like 400 euros (just enough to put it in the "less than a Mac Mini"-bracket) but I don't know if that's realistic.

I'll probably end up getting either this or a NatAmi dev board if I find the money, though..

[niklasni1]

I'm damn certain that I could build you a PC using Amithlon for half that and still give you performance far and above what the SAM (a nice concept though it is) could possibly hope to offer.

If I was interested in 'performance' I could build such a thing myself (or pick up one for free from somebody who's bought a newer one and thinks two years old is 'obsolete') - but as Hakim Bey said it, our sole criterion for judging a weapon or tool is its beauty...

[niklasni1]

600 euros. I think that's about 1000 US dollars. I'm also under the impression that it's made at least partially in Italy which for a whole host of political reasons I'm not going to get into here is something that I do want to pay extra for.

My point is, I'm not just a OS geek (I actually have very little interest in running AOS4) or a nostalgia junkie who wants to keep playing Cannon Fodder. I'm a computer geek. I collect weird computers, many of which I don't really use for anything remotely productive except compile four line C apps to look at the machine code or just expanding them as far as they'll go.

I want an interesting computer, something alternative and fun - that's really what I mean by 'beauty' in this context.

The PowerPC CPU, the power consumption combined with the PCI slots (show me a <10W PC system with three pci slots) and the FPGA are all very much in line with my idea of a perfect computer, even if the performance is limited. I find it interesting and I want to see what I can make with it.