Friday, September 03, 2010

Linux SBCs with Ethernet - too many!

Finally, the affordable (~$100) Linux SBC with Ethernet is here.

The Chumby Board is now available for $89. Add USB Ethernet connector for $15, and you've got yourself a $104 Ethernet-enabled Linux SBC with:
  • Freescale iMX.233 processor running at 454 MHZ
  • 64 MB onboard RAM
  • Comes with 512MB uSD card with 100 MB Linux installation all ready to go
  • 3 USB ports (2 after you add Ethernet)
  • Built-in Lithium Ion/Polymer battery charger and 5V boost converter for portable projects
  • 1.9W mono speaker amplifier into 4ohm (0.1" JST onboard connector)
  • Microphone input (0.05" JST onboard connector)
  • LCD controller with 2mm output port
  • 3.5mm A/V output jack with stereo audio and NTSC/PAL composite video
  • Quadrature encoder connections onboard
  • 5-way joystick on-board
  • MMA7455 3-axis +-2G to +-8G accelerometer on-board
Very interesting, and great competition to the Mini2440 board, which is $89 with Ethernet, with the same amount of RAM and 128MB of flash RAM on board (can be as big as 1GB for more money). The Mini2440 doesn't have the NTSC/PAL video, accelerometer, or battery charger.

I am having some trouble getting DHCP to work on the Mini2440 with the base Linux/Qtopia load (based on Busybox, it evidently uses udhcpc which requires me to write a not-well-documented script).

Meanwhile my SheevaPlug finally showed up ($99, but with 120VAC supply):


SheevaPlug

Not much time to play with it the SheevaPlug yet. I am intending to use it for an Ethernet-to-serial application (using a USB-to-serial converter).

The GPIO lines are pretty much hidden in the SheevaPlug, whereas the Mini2440 and Chumby Board have them easily available.

On the other hand, SheevaPlug ships with Python, so development on it is a breeze!

2 comments:

David Eisner said...

That SheevaPlug is pretty cool. Before you know it we'll have a linux box with WiFi hidden inside something that looks like a power strip.

t11s said...

With a bit of reconfiguration, you can hook up a WiFi USB dongle to the SheevaPlug...