Missed out on Raspberry Pi? Here're five alternatives
Summary: If you weren't quick enough to snap up a Raspberry Pi before they sold out then here are five pocket-sized computing devices worth checking out while you wait to get your Pi.
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BeagleBoard-xM
Striking a nice balance between price and power, the $149 Beagleboard-xM is the platform of choice for many home-brew electronics and robotics projects. Powered by USB, the BeagleBoard-xM is open-source hardware designed to offer laptop-grade performance and expandability packed into a device just over three inches across.
The board - which supports a range of operating systems including Linux, Risc OS and Windows CE - is suited for use as a low-cost PC or a development platform, with 512MB allowing for software multitasking and compilation of large bundles of code.
BeagleBoard can support equipment ranging from sensors to electric motors, making it well suited to controlling electronics and robotics. The devices are being used as a processing unit in projectsto develop an autonomous ground vehicle, unmanned aerial vehicles and even a robot postman.
Photo: koenkooivia Flickr under licence
Specs
Board: OMAP3530 system on a chip.
Processor: 1GHz Arm Cortex-A8.
Graphics: OpenGL ES 2.0 capable 2D-3D graphics accelerator capable of rendering 10 million polygons per second. HD video capable TMS320C64x+ DSP for signal processing at up to 430MHz.
Memory: 512MB
Video/Audio: DVI-D, S-Video out.Stereo audio in and out for a microphone, headphones or speakers.
Connectivity: USB peripherals, MMC+/SD/SDIO interface for memory or wireless connectivity.
Power: USB.
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Talkback
They're not alternatives on price ....
Wrong ... the alternative is the idea
Think back to when the humble Timex/Sinclair ZX81 was making the rounds. Tons of people got their start programming in that awful Basic and even poking machine code into memory. That's the basic idea behind making the Pi so inexpensive that every kid down the block can boot up a Linux system and learn to use it.
I bought one, not just because I have a grandson who will benefit from it, but also because I want to support the idea behind it.
I learnt programming on an HP programmable calculator
There is fantasy land, and there is the real world
I don't know what world hardware developers live in but it's a very different one than the real world. HP already proved this when they fire-sale-priced the HP Touchpad. Suddenly it was the rage. And they don't seem to understand why -- especially since they jacked the price up on the re-release. Do they not undersand simple economics of price? People are low on cash, they want bargains. If you are going to sell something at bargain rates, don't act shocked and surprised when you sell them like hotcakes. But from HP to RPi, they are oblivious to the notion that low price means high demand. Meanwhile, it's a fundamental tenet of classical economics. Where do these guys get their MBAs from exactly?
?
Confused is right
I would have been surprised at this level of lack of comprehension, but then I saw your username.
These are not really "alternatives" to Raspberry Pi.
That's a little like recommending a Cadillac Escalade to "tide you over" until your Hyundai Accent comes in.
Similar Maybe
I'd rather buy a used laptop
its running costs not just initial costs
sure for the price of some petroleum in your car and little of your time you can pop down your local tip and get any number of free pc's and their peripheral's and even the odd PV , but its not economical to run them for the longer term for kids and low income family's, these old bits of kit are also bulky and not "install and forget they exist" devices, whereas any ARM device is and will become exactly that in time.
put simply initial price is not the overall concern today , long term running costs and the ability to run these ARM devices off 12v DC anyone can make from PV,micro turbines, water fuel cells etc while you use them long term
and i live in the developed world, i still want to run all that ARM PC (yes it is a personal computer) low power LCD,wireless kit off a generic water fuel cell, if only they produced and actually sold such a capable self contained fuel cell kit at a reasonable price today with generic connectors but they dont and that is a shame, a low power home fuel cell kit to these devices could make some very nice global profits if they did make and sell them today.
very unrealistic solution
The Pi is a learning device for hardware and software hacking with most of the "HAIRY" interface issues resolved.
Let me explain, having done the desktop and laptop hacking years ago and repairs recently as needed.
The Pi has video interface on board---no building a ISA/PCI/GPBUS/USB/HDMI/VGA/ect.. card and writing drivers to maybe get it to work. Trust me that's easilly a years prroject for someone quite saavy.
so Pi allows quick hardware connection experimentation, once someone begins to understand this they can add on or move to a more powerful system, although I think networking Pito other Pi may prove better and more enlightening for a mult-Pi distributed processing device creation (robotics comes to mind).
having created such a beast years ago from multiple old computers and laptops it is great fun....creating the electronic connections that don't destroy themselves takes more time and each pc added and the required support/interconnection hardware gets expensive quick. Having to add GPBUS to each PC instead of built inon a Pi. Adding video, audio, networking ect to each pc expensive and often flaky.
Pi handles all that, keeps it simple so you can focus on the functionality you desire.
I am buying a few of them for some project ideas i have and trust me I have a room in the basement filled with oldlaptops/desktops with OSX, LINUX, Windows, BEOS, MSX [yes MSX] all installed in them they eat electricity while pi sips. they take up tons of room while a dozen pi could be installed into a single rack space box and super server is born. drawing 1Amp per pi ===got that a 12 Amp 2 5 volt or 60 Watt 12 core server add a 16 input gigabyte switch another 20 Amps a USB based raid array of hard drives and you have the makings of a nice system with 4 external gigabyte network connections and hdmi out all running at lower power draw than one old laptop {19vdc@4.7Amp=my core i-5 460m samsung===
It's more than the price.
While the article shows higher priced alternatives, they all have a common theme. Much less power and a full PC on a small printed circuit board. I think I need one for the family room, then remote into the desktop with more power somewhere else in the house. I don't keep stuff in the cloud as I don't trust it (I'm too old).
I hadn't considered building an Android device for browsing. I don't think I would do that yet. I have hacked a Nook Color with Cyanogen Mod 7 and I'm not impressed. OEMs must spend a lot of time tweaking Android to get it to run well on their devices (Like Motorola's Droid Razr). I think a 24" touchscreen running Ubuntu on Raspberry Pi might make an interesting terminal if its fast enough to render the 3D interface.
Which is the real issue going forward. Older Ubuntu versions 11.10 and less, run a 2D Gnome Desktop that is really fast on a 16 bit or 32 bit processor. The newer version with its 3D desktop requires 64 bits and dual processors which Raspberry Pi doesn't have. Its possible to go back to Gnome and maybe this will create more support for the older 2D interface. I was really disappointed when I couldn't get Ubuntu to run on an AMD XP2800 without reverting back to 11.04. Ubuntu had been my backup plan for when MS stopped supporting XP. I wonder how the remote interface works between 3D and 2D devices?
Ubuntu doesn't run on Rasperry Pi
Beaglebone missed ?
Gadget Show 2012
* Batteries Not Included
What's that... the power supply? That's extra, try to find a "pretty" small one.
A display? Use your TV's HDMI port. What, your old 3rd world TV doesn't have HDMI? Quit whining, think of all those who don't even have a TV.
You want keyboard AND mouse? AND External storage? You'll need a USB port extender. You want to modify your SD boot image? Add a second, external, card reader.
You wish your monitor, CPU, monitor, USB ports, keyboard, mouse, hard drive, card reader etc. were all in a simple, easy to carry single package? That's called - a Laptop.
Research
Also, at the end of the day, the raspberry pi is primarily for DEVELOPMENT (student use, etc, hence the low cost), not general consumer use. Raspberry pi $35, laptop $300+.
Why attack such a fantastic idea.
Flagged you for being clueless
It has compositive video output for those who do not have HDMI
A keyboard and mouse are required for any data input on ANY computer, but the Pi does not require them to run headless in a project
If you need external storage, then you need it - the R Pi is not the limiting factor there since it does have USB ports - ditto for the card reader
If you wish to build a laptop out of a rasp pi then be my guest, no one is stopping you, but I suppose you are also going to sing about the pointlessness of NAS devices since they suffer from the same drawbacks?
In short - go away you wally.....
R PI with Linux and Asterisk for a lightweight PBX
I would like to use it together with Asterisk to make my own business VOIP system that is cheap. $35 would be awesome for a server and software that could do that.
Pi extras
1GB ram is outlined on Rasp Pi forums as the issue being the broadcom chip only supports on chip connection and even apple had to use two 512mb chips to get the iPhone 5 to 1GB...there just isn't a 1Gb chip made yet. As for upgrading the processor...$35 is the pinch point, you can't get a dual/quad processor and make the Pi and sell it fo $35 besides on the board the proc fits under the memory chip. better procs require more active cooling. I dont see the work around on these two issues other than design your own board for the components. It won't be this Pi. for your PBX you're probably ok with SD card memory sizes available.for a good server add a SSD via usb. chain together multiple Pi via the network connector and linux into a cluster...it's not to tough if you're motivated. and cost is mighty low.