Raspberry Pi
Early Adopter

The RaspberryPi Single Board Computer for only $35?

I was watching my weekly geek fest videos when on The Ben Heck Show comes a commercial for a new credit card sized computer called the Raspberry Pi that was developed using a Broadcom  BCM2835 System-On Chip running Linux. Below are the specifications for the board:

Raspberry Pi

 

Raspberry Pi Linux Specs

  • SoC Broadcom BCM2835 (CPU, GPU, DSP, and SDRAM)
  • CPU: 700 MHz ARM1176JZF-S core (ARM11 family)
  • GPU: Broadcom VideoCore IV, OpenGL ES 2.0, 1080p30 h.264/MPEG-4 AVC high-profile decoder
  • Memory (SDRAM): 256 Megabytes (MiB)
  • Video outputs: Composite RCA, HDMI
  • Audio outputs: 3.5 mm jack, HDMI
  • Onboard storage: SD, MMC, SDIO card slot
  • 10/100 Ethernet RJ45 onboard network
  • Storage via SD/ MMC/ SDIO card slot

What is amazing is that this board looks to have enough power to do full 108op playback. The team over at OpenELEC have already ported a version of thier software to the device and the video demonstration looks amazing!

Granted the device does not have a lot of memory so you’re not going to be running games on it or using it to do massive computing tasks, but I thik the Raspberry Pi Foundation has come up with the perfect general purpose computer that can be used in all sorts of consumer devices. Add a large enough SD Card, an enclosure, a phone charger and a bluetooth adapter and you have the makings of a set top box for well under $100.

So in the spirit of being on the leading edge of technology, I’ve pre-order one to give it a spin and see just what it’s capable of. I’ll post more once I get the device in.

In the meantime if your curious you can check the Raspberry Pi out at http://www.element14.com/community/groups/raspberry-pi?ICID=hp_raspberry

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GuruPlug Kit
Early Adopter, Lifestyle

A $100 Brick?

Yesterday I received my new GuruPlug Server from GlobalScale Technologies and being the “Head First” type of person I am, I went out to their wiki and started running through their “Newbie Getting Started Instructions” and promptly bricked my device!

It turns out that the “Newbie Getting Started Instructions” were for a totally different device with a totally different Linux distribution. So now I’m faced with waiting for GlobalScale Technologies to send me their JTag Serial adapter so I can re-flash the device back to it’s factory settings and start all over again!

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