Looks quite interesting, although they are still asking for funding. (The x5-Z8300 is a new and relatively powerful quad-core Atom CPU for tablets.) They say they've just got their first engineering test sample of the "UP", and the photographs do appear to be of a real board.
As you say, it looks interesting. I didn't notice any power consumption figures, though just that it uses a single 5v supply.
Being slightly picky, I'd have preferred an SD card slot or a SATA socket to the 16 GB of soldered-on memory: if this card is going to sit on a desk as they suggest, it could do with rather more than 16GB of non- volatile memory. The RTC is a nice touch, though not really necessary. Is
1GB of RAM enough for Win 10? Not that I care, because if I had one, it would be running Linux, though even that a bit more RAM, or the possibility of adding it would be nice.-- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org |
The Z8500 family Atoms are designed for things like tablets. I picked up a 7in Win8 Bing Edition tablet with one of the these quad core Atoms inside. It came with 1GB RAM and 16GB eMMC. It runs Win8 OK, I don't like the UI but it is usable with the touch screen. However, it so lacking in storage space that running Windows update is painful. But as
The devices Intel were offering earlier this year supported either 1GB or 2GB of RAM max and all the tablets came with eMMC as the primary storage. I bought it because it was so cheap it was worth it to experiment with the hardware's potential. I wanted to see how well these
1.83GHz Atoms worked. I have a dual core HT Atom 330 @ 1.6GHz based mini PC here which runs Linux. The tablet's Atom has significant more CPU horsepower than the Atom 330. Also I wanted a small, lightweight thing to run SDR# (SDR Sharp) a Windows C# Software Defined Radio application and it can do that very well.I don't have a Pi2 so I haven't compared the Pi2 to the Atom in the tablet but I feel the Atom will still have more raw computing power. In the end the tablet I have will get flashed with something more useful and usable than Win8 Bing Edition.
As for this board on Kickstarter. It looks interesting for updating existing Pi projects if you need more CPU or have x86 code to run. I admit to only scanning the page about it and didn't see the price. It can't be too much because the market is full of cheap hardware. Something which caught my eye at the Embedded Linuxcon the other week was the Arrow Dragonboard which is a quad core ARM A53 (64bit) based system with 1GB DDR, 8GB eMMC, SDcard, USB host x2, USB device, HDMI, Adreno graphics core, 802.11bgn, Bluetooth 4 and has integrated antennas, Runs Lollipop and Linux and is only $75 retail. That's a lot of hardware for not much money.
Win10 will probably run in 1GB. Whether it would be as pleasant as running it in 4GB is debatable.
On Sun, 18 Oct 2015 18:33:42 +0000 (UTC), Martin Gregorie declaimed the following:
I could swear the page image showed an SD card slot (along with four USB host slots and Ethernet).
--
Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber AF6VN
wlfraed@ix.netcom.com HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/
board-
four
There's a rather flat-looking socket on the bottom surface under one of the USB2 socket stacks, but its labelled "USB3" in one picture. There's a also a comment elsewhere in the text saying that it can be configured as either a 5th USB2 socket or the only USB3 socket.
That is how they justify the claim of having 5 x USB2 + 1 x USB3 when the photos show only 4 obvious USB2 sockets on the top plus the one rather indeterminate piece of metal on the bottom. I initially thought the photos showed just 4 x USB2 and no USB3. It took some careful reading to realise that its only a semi-cheat. There are in fact five USB sockets in all but one of them doubles as either USB2 or USB3.
-- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org |
And 2W for the CPU - guess something like 5W before you start adding USB devices.
There's USB for external storage if you need it, and proper gigabit networking.
The FAQ says 1GB will run 32bit Win10, and they're working on a 2GB board that will run the 64bit version. Reckon the 2GB board will run Win10 32bit quite well. Although I have an equivalent previous gen (22nm against 14nm litho) Atom tablet that has faster I/O and video, which seems a bit odd.
I'm holding out for hardware with a type C USB 3.1 connector. The power input should be through a type C connector too and maybe the video. I'm not sure how video over the type C connector is supposed to work. It may be that the connector is the same, but the functionality is still special which is not a huge advantage, in fact it can be a bit confusing. But if you don't need the video output it becomes another USB port.
-- Rick
Den 2015-10-18 kl. 17:35, skrev Dave Farrance:
I don't think it's an advantage with eMMC soldered on. It's also a disadvantage that they don't use microUSB for power. Hopefully it can use HATs.
Indeterminate to whom? It's a standard USB 3.0 Micro B socket. The connector fitted the majority of USB 3.0 low profile devices.
Indeterminate to me: from the photo's viewpoint, looking at its back end rather than its socket, I didn't find it at all recognisable. YMMV and evidently does.
That's all well and good, but you can't actually see the hole that's meant to fit into any of the photos and I've never, AFAICR, handled or looked at either one of those plugs or the socket it goes into. Still, at least I now know what they look like, i.e. the 5th or 6th different and mutually incompatible USB connector.
-- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org |
Is that a real desktop/laptop Win 10 or one of the lesser tablet/mobile/ IOT Windows 10s?
-- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org |
Yes.
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