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A new, cheaper, Raspberry Pi computer: the Zero

Posted: Sat 28 Nov 2015, 01:09
by B.K. Johnson

Posted: Sat 28 Nov 2015, 02:17
by Flash
I read that it's already sold out, for the moment.

Posted: Sat 28 Nov 2015, 03:50
by bigpup
It will be in cereal boxes in a few months.
we are giving away a free Raspberry Pi Zero on the front of each copy of the December issue of The MagPi, which arrives in UK stores today.

Posted: Sat 28 Nov 2015, 18:22
by don570
No ethernet will make it difficult to connect to network.

USB wifi will work I assume.

One of the things I like about pi 2 is the four USB2 ports.

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Posted: Sat 28 Nov 2015, 18:38
by don570
An improved version of Banana Pi is available

http://www.sinovoip.net/product/6037283 ... PI_M2.html

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Banana Pi M2

Posted: Sat 28 Nov 2015, 19:38
by gcmartin
Is that speedier processor, 32bit/64bit?
The cost appear to, currently, approach the low-end Intel sticks/box. $85-$100(us). Hope it comes down a bit. Or that is comes in a clear housing or ... for that amount of money.

Posted: Sat 28 Nov 2015, 20:06
by don570
Banana pi m2 uses allwinner A31s which was designed for tablets
32 bits

The big feature is gigabit ethernet

Looking at the picture of board --> note how the wifi is a separate card attached to underneath. Very odd. This is the problem with Allwinner designs.
That is why they recently licensed Qualcomm Snapdragon 410
https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2015/06/01
A31S ARM Cortex-A7 quad-core,256 KB L1 cache 1 MB L2 cache
GPU
· PowerVR SGX544MP2
· Comply with OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenCL 1.x, DX 9_3

Memory (SDRAM)
1GB DDR3 (shared with GPU)

Posted: Sat 28 Nov 2015, 22:36
by gcmartin
I Did notice the layout of features on the board. WiFi on the underside, maybe for some shielding?
Image

Posted: Sat 28 Nov 2015, 22:40
by gcmartin
Rasberry Pi, Orange Pi, Banana Pi, ... oh my! If I build one would it be a GeekBox :lol:

Posted: Mon 30 Nov 2015, 17:22
by don570
WiFi on the underside, maybe for some shielding?
The other models of banana pi (designed by same Chinese firm) have the wifi chip on the upper side. So maybe a trick to save valuable space on upper side.

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Posted: Mon 30 Nov 2015, 18:29
by gcmartin
Equation
386/489/P1/P2/P3=0
Image

Posted: Mon 30 Nov 2015, 18:48
by starhawk
Does anyone on here still have a 386 or 486 box that isn't for nostalgia?

Hell, other than me and probably RetroTechGuy, does anyone on here still have a 386/486 box at all? :?

Pentium 1's and P2's can't really run Puppy... P2s can "walk" it but it's a slow pace. P1's crawl. P3's are better, especially the ones over a gigahertz... but it's still more a jog than a run ;)

All of those, except later model P3's (the models between roughly 900MHz and 1.4GHz, I'd say) are really irrelevant because virtually nobody has the patience to put up with their plodding.

Really it's the Pentium 4's we should be looking at.

To toot my own horn (original post) --
starhawk wrote:gc, you're thinking of the Pentium 4, not its predecessors. Pentium 3 pulls about the same as a Pentium M (IIRC), and the P2 and P1 even less. P2 in my Dell Latitude CPi is a 15w module. P3 is what ALL (except Atom) later Intel stuff is based on -- it's an excellent design. P1 anything (and most P2 stuff, really) is too old for anything but nostalgia gaming.

Netburst (the P4 microarchitecture) was insanely resource-hungry. Lowest power consumption was a bit under 45w (one incandescent lamp, a nightlight, and a cheap multi-LED flashlight) and the highest was 115w (!) (one yard floodlight, three nightlights, and three stout flashlights). Gee whillikers, Batman, that's a lot of electricity!

...and they weren't even all that good, despite what they sucked up at the outlet...

Posted: Tue 01 Dec 2015, 19:02
by don570
Newest Banana pi M3 has added a SATA port however it uses USB2
so slower speed. It can run android 5.1.1 as well as Raspian OS
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/BPI-M3-B ... eb201560_6

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Posted: Wed 02 Dec 2015, 01:38
by Flash
More hands-on with the Raspberry Pi Zero: Loading, booting and configuring
It seems he's booting some variety of Linux, but he never says which one, at least in this article.

Posted: Wed 02 Dec 2015, 02:32
by bigpup
He is using the Raspbian operating system.
It is the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s official supported Operating System.