Hi Chris,

On 17-04-13 23:03, Chris Testa wrote:
> I think I have a way to define what a raspberry pi is.  It's not a 
> microcontroller, and it's not exactly a desktop computer... it's a 
> System on a Chip, SoC.  The essence of a SoC is it's system bus, that 
> connects many useful IP cores like processors, memory controllers, 
> DMA, cache, JTAG, SPI, I2C, UART, etc. in a multi-master addressable 
> system on a single integrated circuit.
(...)
> The Raspberry Pi uses a stripped down, older ARM SoC technology, 
> that's why it's $35.  It may not make an iPhone5, but it could go 
> toe-to-toe with the iPhone1.  Either way, it's the first "open" SoC 
> for under $50 and that's why it's a huge deal.  And a very cool 
> platform to build on.  I've got one.

I think that for the hardware-guys and the "maker community" (as it 
seams to be called thesedays) it's exactly this "halfway a computer, 
halfway a microcontroller" appoach that make it very usefull.

We have had small computer-systems for some time now. It roughly started 
with the "plugcomputers" from about two years ago (sheevaplug, guruplug, 
...) . I also have a couple of pogoplug devices that I have reflashed 
with archlinux and I use them as "generic" computing platforms. They are 
usefull as -say- a router, mini file-server or a webcam server; but if 
you need to have a bit more extensive interfacing with "the real world" 
(read: hardware), a device like the pi or the beaglebone surely provide 
more options.



The only thing I would like to see on the raspi is access to the GPU, 
also for non-graphical applications. To bad the GPU doesn't support 
OpenCL (a framework to write application that can use all CPUs, GPUs or 
DSP processors, even for generic computing problems).



73
Kristoff - ON1ARF

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