AtomicPI $35 x86 Single board computer - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: chickenHeadKnob
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2019, 11:51:17 pm
content: New x86 sbc with 2 G RAM and USB3,has 16G emc cheap for the feature set, needs 4 Amps at 5VOfficial website:https://dlidirect.com/products/atomic-pi

author: wilfred
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2019, 12:22:07 am
content: Someone had to do it I suppose. Not quite sure why though. It is about half the speed of the desktop C2D E8400 I'm typing on. Not saying it needed to be fast but that's pretty slow. I can barely watch 1080p30 video.X86 is borne of a time when cycles were slow and complex instruction sets were a way around that. ARM processors can do more with less power. I shall be watching to see what use case makes this compelling. It surely can't be x86 compatibility.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 01, 2019, 12:52:53 am
content: Quote from: wilfred on May 01, 2019, 12:22:07 amThey can't. ARM is more power efficient only at light loads. When it comes to computation heavy tasks x86 is better. That's why you don't see ARM based servers.QuoteYour PC obviously don't use hardware acceleration since it struggles at 1080p. I'm pretty sure x5-Z8350 can do 4k video just fine. If you try decoding high-res video on ARM without using hardware acceleration, you'll be disappointed.QuoteIt can be quite compelling for many uses.

author: chickenHeadKnob
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2019, 02:55:08 am
content: Quote from: wilfred on May 01, 2019, 12:22:07 amI am pretty sure this isn't intended as a desktop replacement. The target is the same as R Pi market minus the for education segment. I have a repurposed HP Chromebox G1 with 4G RAM, Haswell Celeron and internal flash drive. It is noticeably better/faster than a R Pi with file transfer and web browsers. I use the chromebox as a lab data logging machine in lieu of a Pi.Additional note: I replaced the chrome-os right away with Gallium linux. Hit a small snag right at the start. Most online guides for rooting your chromebox are tailored to the asus chromeboxs and have the wrong root password for the HP. The password "test0000" lets you reflash the bios with a UEFI bios and get rid of the shit google software forever.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2019, 09:14:54 pm
content: If it had SATA would be great for a NAS. Although you could get away with using the USB3 port potentially.Odd/interesting company selling it as well.

author: ttt
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2019, 07:30:39 pm
content: Quote from: thm_w on May 01, 2019, 09:14:54 pmI don't think this SOC has native SATA support. But a Mini PCI-E socket would have at least allowed for some useful extensions like a SATA PCI-E card. Would have added $0.55 to the BOM and allowed 500MB/s transfers (PCI-E 2.0 x1).As it stands now this board is severely limited I/O performance wise. The eMMC flash storage is limited to 140MB/s read and 50MB/s write speed max. It probably does not even get up to that. It's no alternative for existing industrial SBC boards of which there are plenty on the market.Cheap though.