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An HP Thin Client might be nicer in some ways (x86 instead of ARM, say) but the lack of GPIO wouldn't make them a replacement for some RPi projects (and I haven

An HP Thin Client might be nicer in some ways (x86 instead of ARM, say) but the lack of GPIO wouldn't make them a replacement for some RPi projects (and I haven't ever tried to install Debian or Ubuntu on one, not sure how unusual the hardware is).

amelius 5y ago
> but the lack of GPIO It's easy to hack a GPIO together using the USB interface or I2C interface that's inside every HDMI connector.
- bri3d 5y ago
  On-SoC based GPIO driven by register access is pretty dramatically different from GPIO driven over a bus in terms of timing. Also you need a microcontroller at the other end of the USB or I2C. Which means... you need a microcontroller anyway?
  - amelius 5y ago
    You can use a dedicated I2C controlled GPIO expander chip at the other end. For example, [1]. This works in the tens of kHz. Indeed, for high-speed applications you need a different approach. But in that case you probably also want to run a realtime-OS ... [1] https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/PCAL9538A.pdf https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/PCAL9538A.pdf
- notRobot 5y ago
  That sounds cool! Any resources for the same?
Spooky23 5y ago
The HPs are usually AMD SoCs. They ship with a Debian derivative thin client OS or Windows. I have a few running Debian. They are great for home servers; fanless, can support a lot of memory and usually two M2 modules.