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Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time?

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At Mon, 20 Jul 2015 13:44:55 -0400 Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> wrote:

> 
> On Mon, 20 Jul 2015, Robert Heller wrote:
> 
> > At Mon, 20 Jul 2015 12:54:15 -0400 Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> On Mon, 20 Jul 2015, Steve Hayes wrote:
> >>
> >>> On Sun, 19 Jul 2015 18:21:59 -0500, Robert Heller
> >>> <heller@deepsoft.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> At 19 Jul 2015 21:14:05 GMT ray carter <ray@zianet.com> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Sun, 19 Jul 2015 10:54:02 -0700, pureheart wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> Hi.
> >>>>>> After reading up a bit on the Raspberry Pi, single board computer, I
> >>>>>> wonder if anyone is using such a thing as their daily machine and how it
> >>>>>> fares, if so.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> There end up to be a *lot* of SBC's out there, but specifically, I'm
> >>>>>> thinking about some like:
> >>>>>> Raspberry Pi 2 Banana pi Beaglebone Black Hummingboard
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> One of these with a solid state drive (I assume that's what SATA means
> >>>>>> in the specs of all these things....a drive connector....I'm way behind
> >>>>>> on my acroynyms and still don't know what DPMI stands for w/o a look at
> >>>>>> a search engine).
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Any comments?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> pH
> >>>>>
> >>>>> The main purpose of such devices, at least for most folks, is to provide
> >>>>> a system with access to the I/O pins.
> >>>>
> >>>> Yes indeed. Devices like the Ardunio family and Raspberry Pi family are mostly
> >>>> geared to home grown 'smart' devices, including robotics, interactive artwork,
> >>>> and your classic 'better mousetrap', for all sorts of definations of
> >>>> 'mousetrap'... They are being used in the classroom (at many levels!) to teach
> >>>> electronics, robotics, automation, and computer programming. Modern desktop
> >>>> computers are a long way from Kim-1s and S-100 machines (eg Altair 8800) and
> >>>> have become closed machines suitable for boring stuff like word processing and
> >>>> E-mail... These new SBCs are something of a return to those (fun) days, but
> >>>> with a much more modern system and a more accessable development environment.
> >>>
> >>> I recall ads from computer magazines of 35 years ago for an "Anything
> >>> Board" that sounds similar to the Raspberry Pi etc.
> >>>
> >> But those would have been running at 1 or 2MHz, had at best 64K of RAM (if
> >> that much), probably had no video interface, likely only a monitor in ROM
> >> (though depending, perhaps Microsoft BASIC in ROM), and lacked any long
> >> term storage or operating system, and cost a good penny.
> >>
> >> The later Raspberry Pi (with the quad core CPU), is around fifty dollars,
> >> runs a full Linux, has video out, at least 512megs of RAM (I think more)
> >> and so on.  Except better computers are out there, it would be an
> >> extremely good computer for the money.
> >
> > A bare Raspberry Pi 2 Model B board is $35, Add about $15 for the micro SD
> > card, $10 each for the case (optional) and power supply...
> >
> >>
> >> The Raspberry Pi wsa intended as a programming platform, not a single
> >> board computer.  The company thought of it in terms of a "modern Commodore
> >> 64", except it runs full Linux and thus can run quite a few prgramming
> >> langauges.  It was cheap because they could make it cheap, but good enough
> >> to run a full Linux.  Most of the uses we hear about came after it was
> >> released, because it was a cheap single board computer.
> >
> > But it also has those nifty 40 I/O pins (Pi 2)...
> >
> I'm just pointing out the original purpose.
> 
> I suspect those I/O pins are there because the cheap "microcontrollers" 
> (what are they called now when they have such massive CPU on board?) 

They are still microcontrollers, just wicked 'powerful' microcontrollers.

> intended for cellphones and the like  happened to have them.  They are
> using a microcontroller intended for specific purposes.  I think if the IC 
> didn't have those controller pins, the Raspberry Pi would do without.  I 
> admit it is useful thing, when I got my KIM-1 in 1979, one reason I 
> learned from it was because I could wire up some LEDs and other things to 
> the I/O connector and control them.

OTOH, *MY* reading of the Raspberry Pi forums and looking at the available 
literature (I did a search of my library system's on-line catalog), I see 
*numerious* references to many of the same sort of 'projects' that the Ardunio 
is used for, but at a somewhat higher level.  I really think that the 
Raspberry Pi was never really intended as a 'tiny' desktop computer (although, 
yes, it does work in that role, as it also does as a 'tiny' server as well). 

Note: MicroITX motherboards are getting to be *almost* as cheap as a Raspberry
Pi (< $50), so the idea of a cheap, *very* small form factor desktop or server
is on the horizon, but I don't see the Raspberry Pi and the like actually
filling such a nitch to any broad extent. The Raspberry Pi is just a 'high
end' microcomputer meant for experimentors to build interesting gadgets using
the Linux platform. Unlike the Ardunio, which needs a 'host' development
environment, the Raspberry Pi can be used both as a development platform AND
an operating platform, *out of the box* -- the Ardunio does have the option of
add-ons to provide mass storage and/or network interface, as well as video --
the Raspberry Pi has all of the built-in.

> 
>    Michael
>                    

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
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Thread

Any single board computers ready for prime time? pureheart@pacbell.net - 2015-07-19 10:54 -0700
  Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-07-19 14:00 -0500
  Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? Keith Keller <kkeller-usenet@wombat.san-francisco.ca.us> - 2015-07-19 12:27 -0700
  Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? ray carter <ray@zianet.com> - 2015-07-19 21:14 +0000
    Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-07-19 18:21 -0500
      Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2015-07-20 05:15 +0200
        Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-07-20 12:54 -0400
          Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-07-20 12:28 -0500
            Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-07-20 13:44 -0400
              Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-07-20 17:03 -0500
                Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-07-21 00:28 +0100
    Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2015-07-20 07:55 +0200
  Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> - 2015-07-20 09:12 +0000
    Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? pureheart@pacbell.net - 2015-07-20 13:48 -0700
      Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? ray carter <ray@zianet.com> - 2015-07-20 21:35 +0000
      Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-07-20 17:03 -0500
        Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-07-21 00:30 +0100
          Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-07-20 20:12 -0500
        Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? Unknown <dog@gmail.com> - 2015-08-07 12:07 +0000
        Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? pureheart@pacbell.net - 2015-08-14 21:26 -0700
          Re: Any single board computers ready for prime time? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-08-15 08:21 -0500

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