$25 Alpha Board from Raspberry Pi (a cheap alternative to the beagle?)
 

Just stumbled across this little gem currently being produced by Raspberry Pi

http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploa...i_alpha_01.jpg

http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploa...i_alpha_02.jpg

The processor is a 700MHz ARM11 processor and they will have 2 models with a choice of 128MB or 256MB RAM, sold at $25 and $35 respectively. Each will have 1080p HDMI out-out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or1-kN2z1iM

Blog: Raspberry Pi

The Link I found this on: Here (Beware, some of the comments may cause *facepalm*)


I must admit, I have fancied the idea of owning a Beagle/Panda board to play with but one of these may have to take place next to my TV.

Re: $25 Alpha Board (a cheap alternative to the beagle?)
 

Nice, would rather buy this and put ubuntu on it (ARM) and use it as a MEDIA Center for TV, having a REAL OS instead of those generic MP4/MP5 HDMI (1080p) players would be more awesome.

Re: $25 Alpha Board (a cheap alternative to the beagle?)
 

makes me wonder if I should wait for this $35 model or get a WDTV Live Plus for $65 with WDLXTV.

Re: $25 Alpha Board (a cheap alternative to the beagle?)
 

Bookmarked. Seriously cool, if only I knew of some things I'd do with it... I need more time for cool stuff like this.

Re: $25 Alpha Board (a cheap alternative to the beagle?)
 

Nice, but an arm11 is not OMAP... OMAP = Power house!

Re: $25 Alpha Board (a cheap alternative to the beagle?)
 

What worries me is this little comment-pair:
Vladhed:
Jamesh:
Uh, what? Why *can't* we access the gpu?

Re: $25 Alpha Board (a cheap alternative to the beagle?)
 

I can't disagree with you there :) But I guess they chose not to go with OMAP in aid to reduce costs? They are really making a push to market these for schools and developing countries.


I did not see that as I was skipping through the comments, maybe we would have to wait and see? They are still making lots of revisions ATM, as they want to make it much smaller. That comment still does not bode well :)

They have managed to get quake3 running though...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_mDu...eature=related

Not too shabby

Re: $25 Alpha Board (a cheap alternative to the beagle?)
 

Not too shabby indeed :), really nice board, and for the price forget it, the possibility are endless:

- In car entrainment system, Video and micro keyboards for good old games where keyboards where only needed (DOOM I & II, Insane etc. (need ports thou))

- Video / music / games etc for Home entrainment centre TV

and so on, only imagination sets the limit, and at that price it is more attractive then some of the MINI-ITX / NANO-ITX that cost a crap load (Like VIA...)

Re: $25 Alpha Board (a cheap alternative to the beagle?)
 

Just an update.

Glad I didn't wait on the Raspberry Pi, I don't imagine I'll get my hands on one until sometime Q1 2012 at the earliest. I still plan to order when they do become available with the order date pushed back to Decemeber (and I expect more delays much like OpenPandora project)

Purchased a WDTV Live Plus (v1; v2 is now out) about a month ago on sale, very happy with it. The stock firmware (1.05; 1.06+ is buggy) is very good. Recently I got around to flashing the latest WDLXTV community fw and it is amazing. I was able to program the box (rather than my "universal" remote) to accept the IR codes as well as able to trigger them via a web interface. Now have ssh access, "app" addons, usb boot and more.

Not a general purpose computer like the RasberryPi but it does play EVERY video I throw at it. Good HTPC, SAMBA media streamer and online streamer (youtube, vimeo, flingo, shoutcast, etc.) and I'd recommend it. Don't pay more than ~$60, shop the sales, use coupons, etc.

Just my 2 cents.

Re: $25 Alpha Board (a cheap alternative to the beagle?)
 

I don't know if it solves the GPU accessibility mystery, but, from Raspberry Pi FAQ:

Very interesting project, indeed.

// Edit

..which makes me want a way to (hardware'ish) mod N900 to contain HDMI output. Really.