Over on BLU... Kurt Keville wrote: > if you want to DL your distro of choice before the R.Pi store goes > live, you can find most of them at http://elinux.org/R-Pi_Hub ... it > appears Fedora F14 remix will ship with it if you buy the pre-loaded > SD card with it... > > They are printing 10,000 of these in the first batch, and if I was a > betting man, I would say they will be sold out in a day if their > servers can handle it...
Apparently the servers couldn't. They went live early AM on Wednesday, but the two distributors: http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/bespoke/bespoke7.jsp?ICID=I-RASP-HPBLOF-0015&bespokepage=farnell/en_UK/promotions/raspberryPi.jsp http://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=raspberrypi were overloaded. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/02/raspberry-pi-retailers-toppled-by-demand-as-35-linux-computer-launches.ars At the time of publication, the Farnell website is still spitting errors. The RS site has been partially restored and is intermittently available, but isn't currently allowing users to purchase the Raspberry Pi. Instead, it displays a screen where users can register to express their interest in the product. The Raspberry Pi foundation managed to withstand the traffic by temporarily replacing the contents of its official website with a static page Anyone manage to order one? Determine what shipping to the US will be? I assume they chose Broadcom as their SoC vendor because that offered the best way to hit their price target, but I have mixed feelings about Broadcom. Their proprietary approach is a big reason why we can't run FreeBSD on consumer routers. The FAQ says: http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs To get the full SoC documentation you would need to sign an NDA with Broadcom, who make the chip and sell it to us. In other news... Linux computer the size of a thumb drive now available for preorder http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/02/linux-computer-the-size-of-a-thumb-drive-now-available-for-preorder.ars FXI is preparing to launch the Cotton Candy, a tiny computer that looks like a USB thumb drive. The device, which can run either Ubuntu or Android 4.0, has a dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a Mali 400MP GPU that allows it to decode high-definition video. It has a USB plug on one side, which is used to power the system, and an HDMI plug on the other side, which allows it to be plugged into a display. It also has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth radios for connectivity and supporting input devices. ... The standard retail price is $199 plus tax and shipping. The product is expected to ship in March. Preorder link: http://store.cstick.com/ Although both of these devices are touted as being good for video playback, the big price and packaging differences puts them in different markets. CPU Pi: 700 MHz Broadcom ARM11 SoC w/Videocore 4 GPU ("like a 300 MHz Pentium 2, only with much, much swankier graphics") FXI: dual-core 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU w/Quad Core ARM Mali-400MP GPU RAM Pi: 256 MB FXI: 1 GB I/O: Pi: 2 USB 2.0, Ethernet, SD slot, HDMI, composite video (RCA), audio FXI: 2 USB 2.0, microSD, HDMI, WiFi, Bluetooth Size Pi: 86 mm x 54 mm x 17 mm FXI: specs don't list, but a rendering of it next to a ruler shows it is about 80 mm (~3 in) long, including the protruding connectors. Packaging Pi: raw board ("We'll be making and selling cases by the summer") FXI: plastic case like a USB thumb drive Price Pi: $35 (Model B) FXI: $200 Both are powered via a USB port and neither include a power supply. The FXI comes with Android and Ubuntu, while the Pi has several OSs you can download and put on an SD card. (Not clear if the FXI actually will come with one or more microSD cards with those OSs, or if you'll have to download and put them on your own card(s), just as with the Pi, but the spec sheet lists the OSs as if they are included.) What I wonder, as far as a media streamer is concerned, whether the FXI is really any better than an AMD Fusion-based nettop, like the Zotac Zbox Nano AD10, which likewise sells for $200. Somewhat bigger box, though still tiny, and it comes with a power supply and a WiFi antenna. -Tom _______________________________________________ Hardwarehacking mailing list Hardwarehacking@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking
