CompuLab Utilite: A Tiny, Low-Power, Low-Cost, ARM Linux Desktop
As with all of the other CompuLab PCs we have reviewed in the past at Phoronix, the Utilite build quality was excellent. The Utilite was designed meticulously to maximize the connectivity and features of the PC while sticking to an incredibly small form-factor -- roughly the same size as the earlier Atom Poulsbo and Tegra 2 systems. CompuLab advertises the Utilite as being suitable for industrial installations and being a "commercial grade product" and this is certainly no marketing gimmick with its excellent build quality. Dealing with this ARM Linux PC is also a heck of a lot better than dealing with all of the ARM single-board development platforms that are either uncontained or within a simple plastic case, certainly not like the metal enclosure found with the Utilite.
During testing, the outer housing of the Utilite never got too hot. I'm confident there shouldn't be any thermal-related issues given the max power draw of the entire system is eight Watts at load. With all of the other CompuLab devices reviewed over the years, I've never encountered any hardware problems and all of those systems continue to run great in our labs and are frequently being benchmarked.
The officially stated power draw for the Utilite Pro (with quad-core i.MX6) is 4 to 8 Watts, which is excellent and all contained within a 135 x 100 x 21 mm enclosure. If needing an even lower powered device, the Utilite Value system has a peak power use at 6 Watts with its single-core i.MX6 SoC. The Utilite is fan-less and so with the SSD it’s a noise-free computer.
For those wishing to do a dual-head configuration of the i.MX6, the HDMI 1.4 connector can output a max resolution of 1920 x 1200 as can the DVI-D connector that's also in an HDMI connector form. The i.MX6 uses a Vivante GC2000 for 3D acceleration and it supports OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 along with OpenVG 1.1 and OpenCL EP. There's also video acceleration for VC1, RV10, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263, H.264, and DivX hardware decoding. The Vivante GPU requires a binary Linux driver for support, which is installed within CompuLab's Ubuntu image for the Utilite. While not yet ready for end-users, there is the open-source Vivante Mesa driver that's still under active development and this reverse-engineered, open-source Etnaviv project has been going on for some time.
In terms of the upgradeability of the system, the 2GB of DDR3-1066MHz system memory is soldered onto the system. For storage there is a micro-SD socket. The SATA SSD would likely be a challenge to upgrade but this step wasn't attempted since the solid-state drive was working out wonderfully in all of our testing.
With regard to the Utilite software support, CompuLab continues being friendly with various Linux distributions and open-source projects at large. Ubuntu Linux and Android are the full-featured, supported operating systems but the Utilite should also be able to run with Fedora Linux, Arch Linux, and other distributions supporting the Freescale i.MX6 ARM Cortex A9 platform. More details on the Utilite software support can be found via the Utilite Computer web-site.