[time-nuts] single board PCs

Jim Lux jimlux at earthlink.net
Mon Jan 7 01:56:31 UTC 2013


On 1/6/13 5:43 PM, Chris Albertson wrote:
> There is not "hottest ticket".  It depends on what you need.  The TI
> "launch pad" is less then $5 shipped which makes it really popular.
Somehow I suspect the MSP430 launchpad won't run windows/Linux and 
Matlab, eh?


  If
> you need loots of compute power and have an $85 budget and can stand a 9"
> square PCB buy an Intel Atom motherboard it comes with dual core Atom CPU
> soldered down and will run a full-on Linux server.

Sure.. the budget is even higher.. when you're paying the developers 
$100/hr burdened rate, I'm more than happy to spend a few hundred bucks 
more to make the development/operating environment something easy and 
familiar.

This isn't a "gonna make 10,000 copies and need to squeeze out every 
penny".. it's a "stick a PC inside so software development is like doing 
it on your desktop machine"



  If you just need a
> small computer with a nice display

No display.. as mentioned, sole interface is via network.

any Android phone works and of course
> Androids all run Linux.  Arduino is nice because the software is set up for
> some one who know ZERO about computers and programming but is still quite
> powerful and yo can run the programmed Arduino off a 9V battery

Dude.. Arduinos don't run Matlab or Labview..  Arduinos (of which I am a 
big fan) are an "embedded microcontroller", not an "embedded PC"..

I want something that people who are used to working and developing 
software on a desktop can use for a embedded box.



>
> Of those for your use, just buy the miniITX/miniATX with a USB or SD "disk
> drive".  Cost is under $100 and they burn about 20W of power.  The
> little launch
> pad chip will goes for months (years?) on AA battery power.
>
> I think as a general rule ofthumb the bigger the computer the less cost for
> make the software.

Precisely why I want a "PC" not a microcontroller.  This is a situation 
where the developer cost is hugely bigger than the processor cost.

But which miniATX?  There's tons out there.. and that's the source of 
the question..


Phones are out of the question..

I'm not building an NTP server, but something else of comparable 
complexity, hence the question.  Folks who have built NTP servers 
(recently) using off the shelf stuff will have gone through the exercise 
of finding boards that work, etc.




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