[Freedombox-discuss] [Arm-netbook] Single-Core Cortex A9 1ghz, ECC DDR3 RAM available soon

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 12:40 PM, Gordan Bobic <gordan at bobich.net> wrote:

>> in the first place), why has the MX53QSB not been chosen as the board
>> for the freedombox foundation to honour its obligations to its
>> kickstarter sponsors?
>
> Another thing worth considering is the cost. SheevaPlugs go for about $99,
> and they don't require anything else to be functional - just plug in and go.
> The Freescale boards you mention cost 50% more (without the discount), and
> still require a PSU and some kind of a box to put them into. That gives a
> total cost of about double what you'll pay for a SheevaPlug.

 for the small supply of hardware to sponsors, that would work.  the
freescale boards are based on low-volume pricing.

 so it depends what's more important to the freedombox foundation.  to
put out a message that it's "ok that CPU Manufacturers are
dishonourable and only provide information under NDA, and we, the
FreedomBox Foundation fully and actively support and endorse this
behaviour, as evidenced by our supply of units to our Sponsors".

 i really don't think that's the kind of message that the FreedomBox
Foundation wants to send out to the world, do you?

 anyway.  the other side of the coin is volume units.

 for volume units: i've spoken to the factory i'm in touch with, and
they've put a ballpark figure on a similar board of an astonishing
$35, only.  hardware only: no case, no PSU.  that's with the AMLogic
Cortex A9.  they must be supplying bucket-loads of tablets with the
AMLogic CPU, to get that kind of pricing.

 and, because i've asked them if they can do a "split design", they'll
be able to use the same CPU card in their mass-volume tablets as they
could also use in the low-volume engineering boards.

 now although you have to bear in mind that this kind of math is the
same kind of math as done by that "raspberry" device - the one with a
truly dreadful and GPL-violating, NDA-forcing Telechips ARM11 and the
128mb of RAM on a $25 board - the difference is that AMLogic are
working hard to be an open company, and it's a Cortex A9 CPU as well.

 l.