(Development/Hacking/IoT) Single Board Computers


pmprog

DNF (Did Not Finish)
Joined
Apr 25, 2011
Messages
4,150
Thought I'd make a quick thread with a few SBCs I've found that I've thought are looking quite interesting. Feel free to list any others you may know that might be interesting


https://onion.io/omega/


Tiny ARM board with onboard storage and WiFi, with expansions.


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/139108638/lattepanda-a-45-win10-computer-for-everything?ref=category_popular


Atom-based with WiFi and onboard storage; Comes with Windows 10, hopefully there will be Linux drivers for all the components too. Not actually available yet though


http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=205&No=941&PartNo=1


FPGA/ARM combo board. I'd like to get into FPGAs a bit more, but so far my attempts to make anything using the Chameleon64's FPGA have all failed.


It's a shame the FPGA and ARM don't have a shared memory block, it would be great to be able to push data back and forth between the two cores quickly


And a list of LinuxGizmos


http://linuxgizmos.com/ringing-in-2015-with-40-linux-friendly-hacker-sbcs/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Kano be considered, looks like a nice thing to get for youngsters as an introduction to computers and programming, I guess like the Pi did.


http://row.kano.me


The kit comes with k/b, case, some manuals with no doubt some projects to follow and create a game. Looks really nice I think, but it does seem aimed at kids more than the ones you've listed


benefits-kit-4.jpg
 
Kano be considered, looks like a nice thing to get for youngsters as an introduction to computers and programming, I guess like the Pi did.


http://row.kano.me



But the Kano is just a Pi - judging by those photos. Not really a single board computer


Quote from their site

What’s inside the Kano Computer Kit?



...
A Raspberry Pi 2


...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
ah ok, my ignorance sorry.


I only heard of it the other day and that was because it was displayed as one of the YouTube adverts I was seeing and it caught my attention to click through


...I think only 2 adverts have ever done that
 
i thought pine64 seemed interesting, but it's not on the market just yet.

Saw that one on KS too. I didn't really get why they thought it was a "supercomputer" though. It's a 64bit ARM with 2GB RAM. Whilst I think it's the first 64bit ARM processor I've seen, I don't think that makes it a supercomputer. The RAM certainly isn't breaking any boundaries
 
Because it was meantioned a few posts ago:


Can somewhone please explayn me the diverence between a Rasperry Pi and an Single Board Computer??


I tought a RPI is also a Single Board Computer because it runs Linux, have some Ports to connekt thinks (Keyboard Mouse Printer USB Discdrives to make Computer things (Wrote text, print etc)..


And it have just one Board where everything needed to do computer things ist drauf...


Also the Pandora is a Singleboardcomputer because everything is one one single board and it can used for computer things..


Only the Pyra isnt a Single Board Computer because its computing components are on a diverent CPU Board which conekts to the main PCB whit the Keyboard Contakts, Cardreaders etc..
 
Because it was meantioned a few posts ago:


Can somewhone please explayn me the diverence between a Rasperry Pi and an Single Board Computer??


I tought a RPI is also a Single Board Computer because it runs Linux, have some Ports to connekt thinks (Keyboard Mouse Printer USB Discdrives to make Computer things (Wrote text, print etc)..


And it have just one Board where everything needed to do computer things ist drauf...


Also the Pandora is a Singleboardcomputer because everything is one one single board and it can used for computer things..


Only the Pyra isnt a Single Board Computer because its computing components are on a diverent CPU Board which conekts to the main PCB whit the Keyboard Contakts, Cardreaders etc..



A single board computer doesn't *have* to run Linux (it's probably just the easiest to put on though).


Yes, the Raspberry Pi is a single board computer, but I didn't really think it was worth listing as it's already pretty well known.


Yes, technically the Pandora is a single board computer, but you don't really buy it as a board - it's in a package, sold with a case, display, battery etc. If you look at the LinuxGizmos link, you'll notice that most SBCs are literally a single pcb board with connectors.
 
Was debating mentioning the Apple I and II series (not the GS, which I have never looked at the guts of, but I don't consider it a real II).  Weren't many of the earliest consumer computers single board?  For that matter, what about smartphones and such  (I can't remember)?


Sorry for the almost off topic post, please feel free to ignore it as I am interested in the actual topic being discussed.
 
Weren't many of the earliest consumer computers single board?  For that matter, what about smartphones and such  (I can't remember)?

Yeah, but I was more referring to the dev boards rather than "products", you know SBCs you can use to make stuff... Rather than a smartphone board that you can't really do anything with because it's already packaged.


I've adjusted the title that will hopefully be a bit clearer
 
Yeah, much as I dislike the acronym, having IoT (i.e. Internet of Things) make it clearer what the subject of this thread should be; small self-contained boards that you can put into things that *aren't* computers.


A few years ago I supported the Kickstarter campaign and obtained a couple of Galago ARM boards.  Those, IIRC contain ARM M0 (thumb only) chips running at a couple dozen megahertz, combined with a hardware debugger, which was a neat idea for embedded dev, but unfortunately I never really came up with a decent idea to use them, so they're currently languishing in my bits cabinet.










I don't think they're available to sale any more - I was unable to find the old parts shop that used to exist, for example.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I suppose I should really add Teensy to the list.


https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/


Whilst it isn't doesn't have an OS (I think it was primarily focused at emulating HID devices), it's still an ARM processor (well, later versions) and has lots of GPIO pins. I bought mine to make a USB joypad which appeared as a keyboard. I wrote the code, but never constructed the physical device
 
no mention of zikzak yet? sniff ;) z80 and stm32 single board with vga :)



tonnes of good low and high level sbc's around or roll your own.. if you want bare chips like stm32 or atmel or msp, or full Linux feady, all covered. Its a great time to be a hacker :)
 
Just received two odroid-xu4 :


http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G143452239825


Four A-15 and four A-7, seen as real 8 cores.


There's some binary blobs on an unpartitioned drive space :


http://odroid.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=en:xu3_partition_table


http://odroid.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=en:xu3_building_u-boot


The eMMC is faster than SD.


It reads 1080p videos easily and basic tests show real horsepower.


The blobs enable virtualization by default but i didn't play with that yet.
 
Just received two odroid-xu4 :


http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G143452239825


Four A-15 and four A-7, seen as real 8 cores.


There's some binary blobs on an unpartitioned drive space :


http://odroid.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=en:xu3_partition_table


http://odroid.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=en:xu3_building_u-boot


The eMMC is faster than SD.


It reads 1080p videos easily and basic tests show real horsepower.


The blobs enable virtualization by default but i didn't play with that yet.

glshim is suported on those boards. Should be interesting to make heavy things running (like speed dream, freeorion or maybe flightgear).
 
I don't know yet about 2D/3D support.


I presume it's supported in the official Ubuntu image, but as usual my first goal is to run Slackware. I'm currently tweaking hns makesd script.


Which glshim is supported ?
 
no mention of zikzak yet? sniff ;) z80 and stm32 single board with vga :)



tonnes of good low and high level sbc's around or roll your own.. if you want bare chips like stm32 or atmel or msp, or full Linux feady, all covered. Its a great time to be a hacker :)

Last I remembered, you were multi-board; though that's probably my bad memory. Are you near a point where it's available? and is there a devkit yet?


I certainly have an idea for a great hacker SBC I'd love to make, but I certainly don't think I'm smart enough to design it myself, and it'd probably cost way to much to get somebody else to develop it for me - especially as I don't really have a solid use-case in mind for it, it just has some features I've not found elsewhere that I'd love to play with.
 
I don't know yet about 2D/3D support.


I presume it's supported in the official Ubuntu image, but as usual my first goal is to run Slackware. I'm currently tweaking hns makesd script.


Which glshim is supported ?

Mine is supported (use -DODROID, check my github), and I think it's available in some official distribution, but I'm not sure.
 
zikzak is.a sbc for last few revisions; last pcb was all header pins for jacks (vga, joystick etc) but working on a pcb update with the jacks all on-board; ordered 20 of each part so I can assemble a few for test and in case anyone happens to want one :)


I am tempted to build an Arduino library for it so that whole community might take interest..


see www.zikzak.ca for out of date info :)


some videos in end of that thread on the boards here.. its quite capable of 320x200 or even poorly at 800x600...


on my phone here so can't write much
 
Back
Top