New $9.00  1Ghz Linux computer - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: nixfu
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 07, 2015, 06:53:03 pm
content: Interesting. $9 for 1Ghz ARM, 512MB Ram, 4GB onboard Flash storage, USB, Video Out, built-in 802.11N, and bluetooth, and runs debian linux.http://makezine.com/2015/05/07/next-thing-co-releases-worlds-first-9-computer/

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2015, 07:53:53 pm
content: Guess Allwinner had some stock leftInteresting board though.

author: Wilksey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2015, 09:16:16 pm
content: Neat board, you (the likes of you or I) couldn't buy the RAM chip for that price! Let alone get a board made with enough layers to take the BGA fan out!I think Olimex have some open source hardware projects with ARM chips, they sell the chips also.

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2015, 09:57:17 pm
content: Those shipping dates are a bit insane ... a full year from now.How do those modular boards for the CPU&DRAM/NAND even make sense, that can't possibly be cheaper can it? These super low costs are only really interesting if you have some continued availability and unlike with Olimex I just don't see that happening.

author: chickenHeadKnob
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2015, 10:15:35 pm
content: The price point is attention grabbing. I thought Allwinner A13, A10 are end of life. They mention R8 chip for production run but I can't find out what is inside an R8. Is it multi-core? I found one Allwinner site with an R8 pasted on a package but couldn't make heads or tails of the translated marketing chinglish.

author: Tinkerer
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2015, 10:17:08 pm
content: Now, can we finally couple computing power with servos and all that to have a robotic house?

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2015, 10:41:31 pm
content: Trying to work out their business model, I am not sure there is one, or at least not one that will allow for growth let alone fund their manufacturing effort. Maybe the deal is that they make money from the add ons like HDMI shields.Not sure about the processor, is it some sort of Cortex R? There is no R8 IP.

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2015, 11:07:20 pm
content: allwinner = GPL violations, no gpu driver, no video decoder driver, no documentation, and general hostility towards Linux community that made it successfulRecently they boasted finally opening their Cedar(h264) driver, turned out they produced thin shim and binary blob CONTAINING GPLed code ... fuckers :/

author: rollatorwieltje
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 08, 2015, 06:11:35 am
content: Quote from: Howardlong on May 07, 2015, 10:41:31 pmJust like many startups these days, set up a company with borrowed money, create hype around your product on social media, start a crowdsourcing campaign (yay investors that don't want a return) and use that to pay off part of the initial loan (this step is optional), sell the product for near or under cost price, then sell the company for millions. Then the next owner realizes the only asset is the user base and the company is burning money like no tomorrow.

author: smjcuk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 08, 2015, 06:23:13 am
content: Let us not forget the underpants gnomes:https://youtu.be/tO5sxLapAts

author: autobot
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 08, 2015, 11:04:35 pm
content: My guess is that with the A13(55nm) they got into some deal with allwinner, for allwinner to test demand or something. But the point is to build the R8 , which would be 28nm, fully integrated(cpu+bluetooth+wifi, including ram on top, maybe even some version with GPS) ,be extremely cheap($3) and still make money for allwinner.Personally i think that points to a future of embedded design where it won't make much sense to design variety of boards because all of them would be using the same chips.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 11, 2015, 05:20:40 pm
content: The KS campaign seems very dubious. These kinds of small, cheap controller boards grow like weeds in Shenzhen. Without any KS money. They won't get any $ from me.

author: drstrangedoge
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 11, 2015, 11:58:15 pm
content: I've read a few articles about these guys and this new board, and I'm actually kind of sold on the idea (but out of principal I'll still wait for actual release). Their last product was a raspberry pi based animated gif camera, which seemed pretty much destined to fail until the raspberry pi people came out with the more compact compute module. With the chip, they did the same thing with the guys behind the uber-cheap but still fast processors powering some of the top selling tablets and phones in china. They've mastered the art of making early-bird deals on the newest, cheapest stuff. This is basically the board they wanted for their GIF camera. It's got more power than arduino but not as clunky or expensive as even the pi compute. It could still not work out for various reasons, but I'm hopeful cause I want at least a dozen of them.

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 12, 2015, 03:22:50 am
content: It's not that I paricularly fear they won't deliver ... but what's the point in investing a lot of effort into making a board like this work for some embedded application if the availability will just disappear after the kickstarter?

author: Hypernova
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 12, 2015, 04:51:12 am
content: Quote from: Marco on May 12, 2015, 03:22:50 amIf the demand keeps up no reason why they won't keep selling it through normal channels after the KS.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 12, 2015, 05:14:58 am
content: Quote from: Hypernova on May 12, 2015, 04:51:12 amYeah, that is assuming some normal supply-chain business relationship. If they got some kind of "early-bird" deal, how long is that going to last? It just doesn't offer much to reassure customers of a long-term, reliable business model.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2015, 09:37:57 pm
content: Quote from: Hypernova on May 12, 2015, 04:51:12 amThere is zero, probably negative margin on this as it is. If anything it's loss leader. Plus there's a bunch of guys to keep fed and watered in the Bay Area, it all tells me that even if they do produce a product that sells at $9 it won't and can't last without making money on something else, do the math(s) for yourself, even in 10k volume without assembly the BOM cost is more than $9. And nobody's been paid a salary yet. It's like buying a $19.99 printer and thinking you've saved money.

author: miguelvp
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2015, 09:53:57 pm
content: Definitely a loss leader so they can grab media attention, and hopping everyone gets at least a battery & vga adapter or even the HDMI one.$10 for the LiPO same for the VGA adapter and $15 for the HDMI one.$40 for the PocketC.H.I.PNote that the $9 board alone has a cap of 10,000 units with only 188 left as I write this.