ODROID-X is like a quad-core Raspberry Pi for $129

[stevenleeg]

I like where we're headed with these sorts of devices coming out. There appears to be some serious demand for powerful and tiny computing devices that are cheap enough to almost be considered disposable. This makes them perfect for weekend projects that require a little more umph than a typical Arduino can handle (and in some cases, like the Raspberry Pi's, they can even be cheaper).

I'm excited to see what the future brings in this nook of the technology/hobbyist industry.

[themgt]

I think a way to bridge Arduino shields up to a normal general purpose computing environment at a reasonable cost (e.g. http://omer.me/2012/05/introducing-ponte/) will be the true killer app for hardware hacking. Being able to write lua/python/ruby/etc to talk directly to hardware & sensors will be incredibly powerful

There's no way long-term Arduino is going to stay at it's current specs & environment, any more than TI-89 calculators could

[digikata]

For embedded computing, the thing that makes a board nice to work with is good documentation (board schematics and full datasheets/reference manuals), access to the hardware, and consistent behavior. In the $20-$200 range, there's lots of choices with more power than an Arduino. I understand there's excitement about Raspberry Pi because it's particular performance is closer to what ~$200 range boards were delivering for Raspberry's @25/$35. That's really a very nice achievement, but I'm cautious to see what degree of access to hardware will be possible over time. It might be well worth an extra cost, or giving up some performance if I'm getting additional time to do cool stuff vs. spending time reverse engineering capability that could have been accessed by reading datasheets.

[outworlder]

It is nice that there are more development boards cropping up. But in this case, it is not such as big deal as the Raspberry is.

What is a big deal is the price of their LCD modules. They are very cheap compared to what most development kits offer. It is strange that in this 'Retina' world, there are still crappy LCDs being sold by more than $200 (assembled monitors, no matter how small, costing many times that amount).

Granted, these lCDs only seem to work with ODROID-X. Anyone knows of a decent LCD module that will work with a Raspberry Pi and doesn't require sacrificing your firstborn? That's for mobile applications (like a carputer), otherwise I'd just hookup an old monitor.

[joezydeco]

LCDs are generally cheap...if you buy them in large quantities. Small quantities are a bit harder, especially when they go in and out of production on short notice like they do.

The other cost factor is building the interface between the LCD and the CPU. Usually you're designing a custom flex ribbon and interface board along with a power supply for the backlight. Not many of these cheap LCDs use LVDS, they're all still on old-school parallel TTL.

[yardie]

Yes, just like a Raspberry Pi except without GPIO headers, and 4X the price.

A great Nettop PC but a RaspberryPi it is not.

[wmf]

4X the price for 8X the performance could be a good deal for some people.

[luv2code]

it actually has a plethora of ports, they're just all in that one 50 pin header. GPIO, SPI, I2C, UART, etc...

[joshu]

you can get close enough through various adapters. really not a significant difference.

[whyenot]

This is a long shot, but in one of the videos on the hardkernel.org site they show the ODROID-X working with four miniature web cams. Does anyone know what brand of webcam they are? They look like they would work very well for a project I'm working on to record pollinators visiting flowers.

[joshu]

I think they are normal sized cameras.

Look at the opencv hardware list for stuff that is highly linux compatible.

[yuvadam]

Hmm, no obligatory info on how the "quad-core" affects power consumption vs. the Raspberry PI.

[gcb]

http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.ph...

"Normally ODROID-X consumes about 1A [at 5V] in most cases. But it can go up to 3A if you use some USB hard disk drives in parallel."

[ChuckMcM]

Nice, looks like a fun little box. Although its another data point in the 'how-the-heck-is-ouya-going-to-cost-99-dollars' question. I wonder if Samsung is more forthcoming on how to program the GPU than either Broadcom (RPi) or TI (Panda/Beagle) are.

[wmf]

No, Mali is just as closed as PowerVR.

[mtgx]

This is more like a development board. These are usually at least $100, or $200 like the ones from TI.

Manufacturers pay only $20 or so for the ARM SoC that goes into their devices.

[chj]

Wait, isn't that Nexus 7 only selling at 199$ with same cpu cores plus a nice touch screen?

[nl]

Funny how this gets a great reception, but people think the Ouya will fail.

The Ouya is roughly the same power as this, $30 less, in a nice case with an out-of-the-box consumer experience.

[zerohp]

This is a real product that has been built. The manufacturer is shipping at the end of July and has several other arm boards to their credit.

Ouya doesn't have anything more than some marketing.

[rektide]

There's some intent in Ouya to whore themselves out as some kind of developer platform, when all that is wanted, desired, or necessary is a solid stable reference Android platform for developing games on. Ouya seems to want to inject themselves as "something more," without making any statements about what is short about Android at large, aside from a lack of a passable GPU in the Google TV world.

[bluesnowmonkey]

Don't forget the controller and software. The concern is that they promised too much, not too little.

[joshu]

are there any arm boards that are supported by ubuntu/debian/etc out of the box?

i bought a couple of boards and they all run their own minor variants.

[rektide]

Sure, Openrd/sheevaplug/dreamplug/&all, the marvell series, run Debian with ease.

[nivertech]

Does ODROID-X ARM Mali GPU supports OpenCL?

[mtgx]

This one no, but the next-gen Mali T604 one, does, as well as OpenGL ES 3.0, I believe.

[wmf]

No.

[rektide]

Four times the cores, four times the cost!

[duaneb]

Is there no link or am I just blind?

[stevenleeg]

Nothing a quick Google search can't solve:

http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/main.php

[wmf]

Scroll down to "More at Liliputing and Hardkernel". This is the new linking "etiquette".

[drivebyacct2]

Not to be a sour-puss but there are a large number of these boards available now. It's exciting, but there really are quite a few of them. I think XBMC may be entering an even newer phase of awesome with the ubiquity of these.

edit: How does one find out what video codecs are supported accelerated by the Mali 400?

Also, wow, that's a cheap wifi module.

[j-kidd]

Yea, I am not sure if "quad-core Raspberry Pi" is that much of a selling point. CuBox is much more interesting with:

- gigabit ethernet

- e-sata port (with port multiplier)

- infrared receiver

- out of the box, already comes with a box

- comprehensive wiki for a development platform

By the way, a 150 Mbps wifi dongle is sold for about 5 USD here (I too was surprised by how cheap the wifi module is, and went to check the price list).

[chubs]

I was just thinking that yesterday: lots of small android/allwinner A10 based RPI competitors coming out, eg this one which i really want, after failing miserably at getting my rpi to do anything useful: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ak802-mini-android-4-0-network-...

Its priced about the same as a rpi when you consider that it includes wifi and a power supply.

[eande]

Agree on the $9 cheap WiFi module, but it seems not to be FCC certified and that has a strong impact on pricing.

[gcb]

put that into a ms natural keyboard, a LCD screen in the center, call it Fuchi Cyberdeck I, and sell it to me for 10x more!