Raspberry Pi

[gumboot]

Looks like I need to post a retraction.

(sadly, it looks like A10's ethernet is USB-attached, but at least it has proper SATA).

Not true. I missed the internal one in the dmesg I was given. Don't know why that one wasn't in use.

Of course, it's still possible (common, in fact) for the ethernet MAC to be just as terrible as USB, but if it's already on USB then that's guaranteed, and if it's not then there's hope.

[tufty]

Of course, it's still possible (common, in fact) for the ethernet MAC to be just as terrible as USB, but if it's already on USB then that's guaranteed, and if it's not then there's hope.

The a10 appears to be a decent bit of kit; I'm waiting on olimex's a10 offering. They have an A13 board out already (which frankly kicks the pi into touch) but an a10 with sata and all the gubbins sounds pretty damn good. The main downside to the allwinner chips is that they're coming from a chinese manufacturer, and you absolutely aren't gonna get open source support from them, even less documentation. The current linux support for the a1x chips was, I believe, reversed out of android source that was accidentally released into the wild by a manufacturer using them.

That said, the mali 400 gpu is a stock piece of ARM inc. IP, so it /is/ properly documented /if/ you can convince arm to let you at the docs. It's likely most of the other blocks are also common-or-garden varieties, too.

[gumboot]

The a10 appears to be a decent bit of kit; I'm waiting on olimex's a10 offering. They have an A13 board out already (which frankly kicks the pi into touch) but an a10 with sata and all the gubbins sounds pretty damn good. The main downside to the allwinner chips is that they're coming from a chinese manufacturer, and you absolutely aren't gonna get open source support from them, even less documentation. The current linux support for the a1x chips was, I believe, reversed out of android source that was accidentally released into the wild by a manufacturer using them.

I think vendors like Allwinner mean well, as do many of the others around the world, but just like the others they have all these difficult licensing and disclosure hazards (strangely, different in every company I've worked) and a language barrier on top.

Lemote made a reasonable effort at documentation and support; to the point of getting the RMS seal of approval (and apparently being the only computer he owns).

That said, the mali 400 gpu is a stock piece of ARM inc. IP, so it /is/ properly documented /if/ you can convince arm to let you at the docs. It's likely most of the other blocks are also common-or-garden varieties, too.

Grabbing somebody's dmesg normally gives a lot away, or this might help:
http://www.allwinner.com/Downloads/Data ... asheet.pdf

I'm not loading it at work because it's stamped 'confidential' (despite being an open download with a link from their front page), so I don't know if it's rubbish.

I think there's been friction around community support and the video acceleration, but that always happens.

[tufty]

It's rubbish. It does give pinout information, but that's about it. The Pi foundation got ripped for the 2385 peripherals datasheet, but at least that gave register information and pointers to other documentation. The allwinner doc has none of that. Nothing about how it boots, nothing...

[gumboot]

It's rubbish. It does give pinout information, but that's about it. The Pi foundation got ripped for the 2385 peripherals datasheet, but at least that gave register information and pointers to other documentation. The allwinner doc has none of that. Nothing about how it boots, nothing...

I remember an old Chinese version looking more substantial than that one sounds (this was typical of early documents from Lemote, too), but my Chinese doesn't go much further than recognising the words "download" and "tea", and there were some source tarballs which I may or may not have stashed somewhere at some point (I'll never find them even if I have them).

Anyway. I saw some nut in a forum insisting, in defence of the pi's poor documentation, that it shouldn't be documented because it's for education and not for hacking. So the A10 must be even more educational than that.


Hell. Maybe I agree. I learnt x86 because my soundcard came with shitty demos and no documentation, and the only things I had to hand to figure it out was DEBUG.COM and no girlfriend. At the end of that episode I had a complete set of documentation for the SBPro and I knew x86 assembly.

Oh, and I knew how to drive DEBUG.COM. Yay.


Compilers were a lot less reordery and inliney back then, of course. But the VideoCore compiler generates perfectly readable code.

[skab]

I just got my first Raspberry Pi two weeks ago (after 16 or so weeks) and really like it. USB is flaky as hell, but since my main application is a controller and mini web server for home automation applications, with everything happening over TCP/IP, the Ethernet port is way more important for me, and that's working beautifully.

It's just great to finally have a really cheap, free-enough Linux machine with (wired!) network connectivitiy and low power consumption. Couldn't care less about how free the GPU core firmware is

Oh, and what could be more in the spirit of 1980s home computing than "couldn't care less if it's free or not"

[Rhythm]

A Kickstarter that some might find interesting - PiCade

[dom]

Not sure if this has already been linked, but I'm going to give RISC OS a go on my Pi soon:

http://www.pilearn.com/Pages/Page1001.html

The important link is this one

[zip accident]

For Xmas I received a Raspberry Pi and a fitted clear plastic box to put it in.

I have a HDMI to DVI converter lead, but my USB PSU connector won't fit, which may be for the best as the PSU it's attached to is for something else and may be the wrong rating.

Where am I supposed to find a RaspPi compatible PSU?

[wanye]

For Xmas I received a Raspberry Pi and a fitted clear plastic box to put it in.

I have a HDMI to DVI converter lead, but my USB PSU connector won't fit, which may be for the best as the PSU it's attached to is for something else and may be the wrong rating.

Where am I supposed to find a RaspPi compatible PSU?

both my nokia n97 and apple (ipad 3) USB>micro USB chargers work fine with the pi if thats any help...

[stealthbanana]

The charger from my Kindle and HTC desire work great, as does a USB battery pack I got for when away from a charger for extended time.

[(o)(o)]

What's the easiest way of getting digital audio out of one of these? I'm thinking of using one as a music player to save on power.

[toxibunny]

Easiest would probably be to use an HDMI audio extractor. Not particularly cheap though...

https://hdwise.com/product.php?productid=2923

[Governmentyard]

If the Pi had a 3.5mm trs jack I'd probably have 2 by now.

[Stuart B]

It does!