4 ms·

Apparently their market is developers who don't own computers: > However, the MinnowBoard is still cheaper than most PCs and could appeal to developers looking

by Arnor 13y ago

Apparently their market is developers who don't own computers: > However, the MinnowBoard is still cheaper than most PCs and could appeal to developers looking to write and test commercial applications before they're deployed in servers, embedded devices and other computers. I'm baffled as to why anyone would purchase this board. Raspberry Pi[1] destroys it on price/value so _will_ Parallella[2]. Why not wait a couple months and get a super computer![3] [1] http://www.raspberrypi.org/ http://www.raspberrypi.org/ [2] http://www.parallella.org/ http://www.parallella.org/ [3] Why do I think anyone here needs these links?

walshemj 13y ago
lets be honest the number of "developers" who can't afford a proper PC is trivial in the USA just buy a newish pc second hand one ebay.
- yitchelle 13y ago
  Are these "PC" only for sale in the US?
- astrodust 13y ago
  You could probably find a computer better than this in the trash, some old Pentium 4 with 2GB of memory.
  - Someone 13y ago
    Unless you want something more power efficient. http://www.minnowboard.org/static/pdfs/Getting%20Started%20with%20the%20Minnowboard.pdf http://www.minnowboard.org/static/pdfs/Getting%20Started%20w... says this runs from 5V, 2.5A. That's 12.5W. Quite a lot for mobile, but a Pentium 4 CPU alone will use at least four times that (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CPU_power_dissipation_figures#Pentium_4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CPU_power_dissipation_f...), for a < 2GHz variant.
yareally 13y ago
> However, the MinnowBoard is still cheaper than most PCs and could appeal to developers looking to write and test commercial applications before they're deployed in servers, embedded devices and other computers. Relying on having spare computers for testing is also kind of a thing of the past in the age of cheap PC resources and virtual machines. I gave up keeping old computers around for software testing 5-6 years ago when I bought my first 4 core CPU. Also keeps my work area from getting really really hot in the summer.
sciurus 13y ago
See zenlinux's comment below. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6134854 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6134854
ajross 13y ago
The RPi isn't really comparable. The Minnowboard is a much (much!) more capable piece of hardware. Maybe 3-4x as fast at typical CPU tasks, 2-4x the DRAM, gigabit ethernet, PVR SGX vs. that weird Broadcom thing in the Pi. Is it worth 6x the price? Certainly not for all uses (and I'll admit I'm disappointed to see this thing launch at $200 too). But there are tasks for which this board would work where the RPi wouldn't. And there it competes most directly with things like the Pandaboard, against which it appears to compete pretty well.
rdouble 13y ago
Seems comparable to the Beagleboard, though.
anigbrowl 13y ago
I'm baffled as to why anyone would purchase this board. Because it's small enough to be useful but a hell of a lot less work to get started on. I would much rather use this for a personal project (not a product) than spend a year learning a new architecture.

by Arnor 13y ago

walshemj 13y ago

lets be honest the number of "developers" who can't afford a proper PC is trivial in the USA just buy a newish pc second hand one ebay.

yitchelle 13y ago
Are these "PC" only for sale in the US?
astrodust 13y ago
You could probably find a computer better than this in the trash, some old Pentium 4 with 2GB of memory.
- Someone 13y ago
  Unless you want something more power efficient. http://www.minnowboard.org/static/pdfs/Getting%20Started%20with%20the%20Minnowboard.pdf http://www.minnowboard.org/static/pdfs/Getting%20Started%20w... says this runs from 5V, 2.5A. That's 12.5W. Quite a lot for mobile, but a Pentium 4 CPU alone will use at least four times that (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CPU_power_dissipation_figures#Pentium_4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CPU_power_dissipation_f...), for a < 2GHz variant.

yareally 13y ago

> However, the MinnowBoard is still cheaper than most PCs and could appeal to developers looking to write and test commercial applications before they're deployed in servers, embedded devices and other computers. Relying on having spare computers for testing is also kind of a thing of the past in the age of cheap PC resources and virtual machines. I gave up keeping old computers around for software testing 5-6 years ago when I bought my first 4 core CPU. Also keeps my work area from getting really really hot in the summer.

sciurus 13y ago

See zenlinux's comment below. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6134854 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6134854

ajross 13y ago

The RPi isn't really comparable. The Minnowboard is a much (much!) more capable piece of hardware. Maybe 3-4x as fast at typical CPU tasks, 2-4x the DRAM, gigabit ethernet, PVR SGX vs. that weird Broadcom thing in the Pi. Is it worth 6x the price? Certainly not for all uses (and I'll admit I'm disappointed to see this thing launch at $200 too). But there are tasks for which this board would work where the RPi wouldn't. And there it competes most directly with things like the Pandaboard, against which it appears to compete pretty well.

rdouble 13y ago

Seems comparable to the Beagleboard, though.

anigbrowl 13y ago

I'm baffled as to why anyone would purchase this board. Because it's small enough to be useful but a hell of a lot less work to get started on. I would much rather use this for a personal project (not a product) than spend a year learning a new architecture.