MediaTek Announces An Interesting Deca-Core ARM Dev Board

[pal666]

I didn't say that there was a required spec

of course you did "ALL of the other 96boards compliant products"
while in reality compliance does not require mainline kernel support
maybe you wanted to say "3 other released boards", but you didn't
btw, conventional linux distros do not work with random blobs

[droidhacker]

of course you did "ALL of the other 96boards compliant products"
while in reality compliance does not require mainline kernel support
maybe you wanted to say "3 other released boards", but you didn't

And there we go, PROOF that you ARE retarded.

[wizard69]

I agree, but ARM seems to be completely uninterested. You can't even get them interested in Chromebooks.

Maybe they think they couldn't compete well against Intel in some of these markets, which is probably true.

I'm not sure ARM is uninterested but rather needs a license owner willing to do the right chip. What is really sad about this sad example of electrical engineering, is that all that effort could have went into a general purpose chip that can be imp,emended in everything from a phone to a laptop. Apple has proven it is possible with current technology. Why no one has implemented something similar to an A style chip is beyond me.

In in a nutshell this chip is a wasted engineering effort.

[chithanh]

barrel-type power supply and no linux support? I'll go with raspberry pi. Pity odroid C2 shipping cost is $16. If not, it can be another alternative.

Another alternative is the Mini M8S Android TV box, which basically has the same hardware as the ODROID-C2 (AmLogic S905, 2 GB RAM) minus the GPIO and just 100 Mbit Ethernet, plus some extra stuff (8 GB eMMC, WiFi/Bluetooth, infrared remote). Currently on Flash sale at Gearbest for $32.49 with free shipping.

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_334004.html

The MXQ Pro+ with Gigabit Ethernet, Dual-band Wifi and 16 GB eMMC costs $39.99

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_354313.html

[Ardje]

I guess official desktop Linux support was meant.

I think raspbian support was meant. In any other way the original statement makes no sense except for a pi fanboy, as we had to dump our pi's for better supported boards.

[starshipeleven]

I'm not sure ARM is uninterested but rather needs a license owner willing to do the right chip.

Mali GPU is an ARM design and ARM implemented weird restrictions like that the blob is SoC-specific and cannot be simply used wherever. (not licensing, it just does not work)

I'm probably speaking out of my backside, but I'm suspecting that making a non-SoC-specific blob and move SoC-specific stuff in the opensource kernel interface for it wouldn't be THAT hard, nor THAT bad for businness.

Why no one has implemented something similar to an A style chip is beyond me.

Afaik, Freescale does. Look at the Wandboards for example. GPU is a Vivante and it has some kind of opensource driver (not for 3D yet I think, and not as good as freedreno anyway).

Others would be Allwinner and Rockchip that make various interesting more-pc-like SoCs, but the prevalence of Mali shit GPU makes them not fun to work with if you need a display and aren't using Android.

[sverris]

If there was a good USB3 on it, then the ethernet problem could be easily solved with a USB network adapter. As it stands though, USB2 will suck for ethernet.

As far as the "no linux support", ALL of the other 96boards compliant products DO support conventional desktop linux, and that is currently on THREE different SoC's;

Actions s900 w/PowerVR G6230 (it isn't clear whether it has working GL under debian),
HiSilicon Kirin 6220 w/ARM Mali 450-MP4,
Snapdragon 410 w/Adreno 306 (DEFINITELY working GL under debian -- uses Freedreno).

If the manufacturer of this is working with 96boards (and not just using the spec, which is fine too), then you CAN anticipate debian on it.

Thats right.

http://www.96boards.org/blog/reference-software-platform-16-03-release/

So, there is a rather good chance for decent Linux Support, especially 96boards Debian variant, I suppose. Of course, as for GPU-drivers and -functions, lets wait and see...

[Michael_S]

Another alternative is the Mini M8S Android TV box, which basically has the same hardware as the ODROID-C2 (AmLogic S905, 2 GB RAM) minus the GPIO and just 100 Mbit Ethernet, plus some extra stuff (8 GB eMMC, WiFi/Bluetooth, infrared remote). Currently on Flash sale at Gearbest for $32.49 with free shipping.

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_334004.html

The MXQ Pro+ with Gigabit Ethernet, Dual-band Wifi and 16 GB eMMC costs $39.99
http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_354313.html

What I want is something at about $100 that has 3+GB of RAM, 802.11n or better wireless connectivity and GbE, and enough graphics power to handle streaming .mkv rips of my Blu Rays.

I want to be able to watch my films on Kodi in the living room, and my Raspberry Pi 2 with Kodi can handle my DVD rips but not my Blu Ray rips, even when it's reading the ripped files off of a local USB flash drive. I have a ten year old desktop with the computing power to handle it that I could stick in the living room, but I'd rather not use 150 watts of 2006 computing power and noisy fans to handle streaming content that my 2013 Android phone can manage on 5 watts.

It's possible a Raspberry Pi 3 might manage it, but since the RPi 2 wouldn't even start the video and stutter through a few frames I'm pessimistic.

If I can't find a better solution, an Nvidia Shield console with Kodi and the television remote should work. But that's still $250 and I have no interest in the other Nvidia Shield console features.

[starshipeleven]

What I want is something at about $100 that has 3+GB of RAM, 802.11n or better wireless connectivity and GbE, and enough graphics power to handle streaming .mkv rips of my Blu Rays.

It may or may not be out of your budget depending on how much stuff you have around, but have you considered a QC5000-ITX/PH mini itx fanless board from AMD?

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/QC5000-ITXPH/?cat=Specifications

I can usually find it for around 80 euros, there is also a crappier version that comes off at 60 or so. There are plenty of small cases +PSU for cheap, and even if you add some ram and a tiny cheap SSD drive to that you're likely to stay lower than the Shield while still blowing it away.

That's what I usually tell to people looking for a good mediacenter for relatively high-end usage (bluray). Being an HTPC it's also easy to repurpose.

Other than that I can only nudge you to look for Minix Android mediacenters, they are currently the best around in PR department and do provide firmware updates for an unbelievably long time to fix all the fixable (up to 2 years!!!! Great!!! Amazing!!! Outstanding!!!), and their own custom and integrated Kodi, so they get reviewed (to the contrary of most other players). They don't have 3+ GB of ram but for Android 2GB is usually more than enough.
Thus specimen for example, is on Amazon at 130$ bundled with an airmouse/keyboard:

https://www.avforums.com/review/minix-neo-u1-android-media-box-review.12167

[starshipeleven]

GOD STOP UNAPPROVING MY POSTS!!!! THANK YOU.

What I want is something at about $100 that has 3+GB of RAM, 802.11n or better wireless connectivity and GbE, and enough graphics power to handle streaming .mkv rips of my Blu Rays.

What is currently waiting for approval above was:

-you looked at QC5000-ITX/PH board? it's at 80 euros and for less than 200 euros you can build an ass-kicking HTPC with it.

-Minix Android media centers, best in town imho, they have a site and a forum, they update their devices for a long time (for Android products, so that's up to 2 years), and are also Kodi official sponsors. Since they have a known name and get reviewed so you know what you buy. An example https://www.avforums.com/review/mini...x-review.12167