Re: [dwm] Low Power Fanless Computer

On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 08:50:01PM -0500, Kurt H Maier wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 7:59 PM, Matthias-Christian Ott <ott_AT_mirix.org> wrote:
> > After I found no RISC processors or SOCs,
>
> Is there a reason you're not looking at ARM stuff? There are several
> nifty devices out there -- I'm going to be moving most of my stuff
> over to these things:
> http://www.marvell.com/products/embedded_processors/developer/kirkwood/sheevaplug.jsp

The BeagleBoard looked also quite promising, but has no Free Software graphics
drivers and no mainstream distribution support (like most of the exotic ARM
SOCs and boards). The Loongson could be an option too, but it requires as
much power as an Intel Atom. It's a pity that Intel dominates the CPU market
(especially on Desktops).

Moreover, the dev kits and evaluation boards for ARM and MIPS are quite
expensive, most CPUs are very slow and they don't provide a decent case for
their boards. But I would be really happy if someone could recommend a nice
non-x86 system to me.

However, modern the R in modern RISC processors isn't appropriate anymore
since their instruction sets aren't reduced anymore. This is particularly
true for ARM. I would really like to see the first mainstream, low power
asynchronous CPU.

> The big drawback on these guys is the lack of video; my next desktop
> will be an asus eeebox, which are available with ATI 3450 graphics
> chips. I know the R500 and newer ones have only emergent support in
> the FOSS world; however, ATI has opened up some drivers and is
> promising to open them all.

I don't know, my Radeon card in my laptop works pretty bad (especially on
resume from disk or ram), although HP got a Linux certification from Novell
for it.
 
> I've run far and wide in search of open, low-power systems. I thought
> I hit pay dirt with the OLPC XO-1, but the wifi requires a binary
> blob. I think a handful of plugtop computers, an asus eeebox with
> Slackware on it, and my nokia n810 will suffice.
>
> # Kurt H Maier
>

Regards,
Matthias-Christian
Received on Sat Apr 25 2009 - 16:10:31 UTC