World's Smallest Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9 Module? 42
DeviceGuru writes "Variscite has unveiled what it claims is the world's tiniest Cortex-A9 system-on-module, measuring 52 x 17mm. The Linux- and Android-compatible DART-4460 board is based on a 1.5GHz dual-core TI OMAP4460 SoC, is available with up to 1GB of DDR2 RAM and 8GB eMMC flash, and can run at 400MHz on just 44mA. The module provides interfaces for display (HDMI, RGB, DSI), wireless (Bluetooth, WiFi), audio, camera, USB, and more, and it consumes as little as 5mA in suspend and 44mA while running from a 3.7V battery at 400 MHz, according to Variscite. And in case you were wondering, the iconic Gumstix form-factor is 12 percent larger, at 58 x 17mm."
Why are they still sticking with Cortex A-9 ? (Score:4, Interesting)
With A-7 available for almost 2 years already I can not understand why vendors still producing SoC based on the A-9 chip
http://www.carbondesignsystems.com/virtual-prototype-blog/bid/171998/IP-Selection-ARM-Cortex-A9-or-Cortex-A7 [carbondesignsystems.com]
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R&D takes time; perhaps the concept and design preceded the ability of the A7?
From the summary, it seems based on an off-the-shelf OMAP, similarly found in the Beagleboard series whose community it can lure.
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COST. Duh.
The chip is designed and that design is paid for. The cost of the part is the cost to manufacture plus a 1-3% margin. That probably puts the cost of the chip at 1/2 or 1/4 of A9 chips.
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Uh. Because Cortex-A9 gets 50% more instructions per cycle than cortex-a7.
What I was wondering (Score:3)
What I was wondering is whether this URL was supposed to be slashdotted at zero comments. Oh wait, a minute later, and enough of the page has loaded for me to get a title. It's not quite slashdotted yet.
Obligatory "are they running the website on the world's slowest dual-core arm webserver" comment here
And if I would have waited about ten more seconds (Score:4, Informative)
If I would have waited about ten more seconds I would have been able to give you the URL to the product page [variscite.com], too
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What I wonder is why it's considered impressive that they take an off the shelf SoC, design a circuit board for it and then act like they are a two year old who just made a poo.
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A server doesn't need to be a large as a touchscreen, or a keypad.
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I'm sure this is very innovative, and shrinking things down to this scale is an amazing technological feat, but speaking as someone who has a masters degree in Marketing Science, I have to wonder, did these guys do any market research AT ALL?
Whoa there partner! You've not done any market research, nor do you understand the technology.
Assuming they have made the processor smaller by using better technology to lower the die size in the wafer fab.... They will get lower power consumption for the same clock rates. This translates into lower heat dissipation (which may lead to a lighter device) AND LONGER battery life.
This is the same thing Intel and AMD have been doing with their processor lines for decades, spending billions on R&D and buil
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It's not a custom chip. The same Texas Instruments OMAP SoC is used in the Kindle Fire HD. All they did was take an off-the-shelf chip and make a board for it (but that's not a trivial task given the number of signals they need to route out of that small chip.)
Aaand it's down... (Score:2)
Site is down before first comment. Running on a DART-4460 maybe?
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Couldn't get Coralcache to work? (Score:2)
The standard Coralcache link for the main article would be http://linuxgizmos.com.nyud.net/tiny-cortex-a9-module-runs-linux-and-android/ [nyud.net], but it chokes when I try to use it.
The Variscite.com Product Link worked just fine for me, but in case it goes away, http://www.variscite.com.nyud.net/products/system-on-module-som/cortex-a9/dart-4460-cpu-ti-omap-4-omap4460 [nyud.net] worked fine also. I couldn't find the price, though.
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Um... Unless they intend to change CPU types, I don't think so. I also don't think that this module would meet the price targets for the Pi.
Of course, it is certainly an option to build a Pi like device on this platform and the WiFi being built in would be nice..
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The RPi foundation has said many times that they aren't planing on doing any spec upgrades any time soon.
Small until you try to use it (Score:4, Insightful)
Boards in that sort of arrangement are common as muck and have been for a long time. Then when you want to use it, first you need a baseboard which is beyond the construction capabilities of most hackers (Variscite don't show you the back of the board which will have several specialised, very fine-pitch header connectors) and once you break out the "real-world" connectors, you've got a much larger beast.
If you want something to hack around with, go for a SOM like an RPi, or a Wandboard, or an ODroid, or a BeagleBone, or a Cubieboard, or an OLinuXino, or any of a huge number of other products.
Honey (Score:1)
Honey, have you seen the server room? I can't remember where I left it. I hope rover hasn’t eaten it again.
TFB is going down... (Score:2)
Product link here. Nothing of value was lost...
http://www.variscite.com/products/system-on-module-som/cortex-a9/dart-4460-cpu-ti-omap-4-omap4460 [variscite.com]
Pretty soon, disposable computing (Score:5, Interesting)
Arm Cluster (Score:2)
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I'm surprised no one is making an arm cluster solution based on cheap $30 modules.
No one is doing it because for a mere $300 or so you can build a multicore amd64 cluster node that will probably do more than ten $30 arm cluster nodes.
This would allow computer hobbyists to build a cluster over time, they can start with a few modules and work their way up as they get more money.
For what purpose?
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There have been small Raspberry Pi and even AppleTV clusters made. However, these types of small-as-possible modules aren't suited very well to hobbyist clusters:
1) These systems don't have fast interconnects. Networking is either wireless, which doesn't scale well; or through USB->Ethernet interfaces, which are slow.
2) This isn't a cheap $30 module. Gumstix are still in the $170-200 range. I'm not seeing any prices here for this one, but it's in the same hardware style.
3) You need a lot of custom ha
Why is this a question? (Score:3)
World's Smallest Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9 Module?
Variscite has unveiled what it claims is the world's tiniest Cortex-A9 system-on-module
Is there any particular reason we shouldn't believe them?
Time for a standard small-size docking connector (Score:4, Interesting)
With all these small, smaller and smaller yet again modules popping up left and right for often lower and lower prices - or at least higher performance/price ratios - it gets more and more interesting to decide upon a standard small-size docking connector. This connector should offer access to a display interface, fast external storage, USB, power, etc. Everythin needed to interface it to a 'slab' containing a screen, UI actuators, camera(s), sensors, a power supply and the like.
Using these two components you can 'build' or 'upgrade' those mobile internet devices which currently get left on the shelves because their processing capacity is deemed to anaemic by modern standards. Done right it would not add much to the total price of the device but it would expand the capabilities markedly.
Something like this would not be launched by any big brand as they like the buy-use-retire cycle as it is more profitable - for them. If the standard existed and their was demand in the market that demand *would* be fulfilled from suppliers in China - just look at the amount of Arduino-compatible hardware which is produced there. Since nearly all hardware is produced in China anyway the existence of such a standard would only make it easier for the designers of those low-price mobile internet devices which are currently on offer. It would make those devices more interesting as well. Since there is as good as no brand loyalty to these suppliers they will not care about any reduced profits stemming from the replacement of buy-use-retire by buy-use-upgrade-use-retire - they'd just supply materials for the upgrade cycle.
Time for YetAnotherKickStarterProject...?
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Someone already tried to do this with EOMA-68 [elinux.org]. How successful it will be remains to be seen.