Are there any other boards out there with a comparable spec to the X15? I’d like to see what else is available, especially with this kind of chipset and performance.
Intel NUC.
Your choice of Celeron, Pentium, i3, i5 or i7. (uses laptop processors)
4 inches by 4 inches circuit board.
You can get a quad core 2.4 GHz Pentium (including a case) for less than the X-15.
Go to Amazon.com, search for “Intel NUC NUC5PPYH”
(The X-15 now seems to be up to $259 USD at Mouser, with deliveries starting this month.)
The NUC still needs plug-in DRAM, a laptop disk drive, and an OS.
Works fine with Linux.
If you want to run a bunch of GPIO, you will have to go out through FTDI USB to I2C or SPI, then use expander IC’s.
— Graham
I’m not sure how you make this comparison. You are comparing a processor to a SOC (System on Chip). The AM5728 has direct access to GPIO, SPI, I2C, PCIe, USB3, UART, etc. The Pentium does not have direct access to these, but access PCI, USB3, UART via North/South bridge. No direct access to any of the other peripherals supported by the AM5728. In addition, the AM5728 supports Dual CortexM4, Dual DSP and Quad PRU. Comparing these boards makes no sense. They are used for completely different markets.
Regards,
John
That depends what one wants to do John. Such a board with additional hardware could be made to do the same job as any embedded system.
So, what if you need just a few embedded peripherals, but need an incredibly solid M.E.A.N. stack ? Mongo is currently not fully functional on armhf ABI’s. So in this context it makes perfect sense. I can probably also dream up other situations as well if i cared to.
Cost wise, it may not make sense, and efficiency wise it also may not make sense. But these are factors that not everyone cares about.
I’m not saying the NUC isn’t a great deal, but it is targeting a different market to the x15. You are talking about a computer which doesn’t interface directly to buses like I2C, SPI, GPIO, I2S, etc. Connecting these buses via USB is a real headache. You cannot use a Linux driver for devices connected to these buses. You have to write your own user space drivers. The only solution I know of that compares to the x15 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon Evaluation board, which has CortexA15, GPU, DSP and direct access to peripherals. Problem is, this board is over $1,000.
Regards,
John
You are talking about a computer which doesn’t interface directly to buses like I2C, SPI, GPIO, I2S, etc
Have you ever used a true bare metal board ? Something that only has an MCU for the boards main processor ? Such as PIC32, Cortex M0/0+, M3, M4, or an MSP430 ?
It would not be hard to combine one, or multiples of these types of embedded devboards to even a regular PC. USB also does not have the be the medium of communication either. Communication could be done over ethernet, wifi, bluetooth, or USB and remain practical.
By the way. nVidia has the Jetson K1 and T1 boards . . . they are nVidias own brand of ARM of course, and as such have much better / faster graphics. These run around $220 last I looked.
So, tell me again what the market is for a $250 “embedded” processor card.
I understand that TI is using it for an eval board for the AM572x.
OK, I get that. And they add an LCD and double the price. (?!?)
A pair of DSPs brings a lot of crunch power to the party.
OK, cool. RF transceivers, modems for unique protocols that don’t have dedicated hardware solutions. Military gonna like it.
But one, two, or three 2.4 GHz Pentiums can do a lot of crunching if that is all you do with them.
I am just amazed at what you can get for $179 in a NUC.
There was a discussion earlier today of someone wanting a headless X-15 stripped of all of the GPIO. Hmmmmmmmm.
It is actually quite easy to support SPI, I2C buses and GPIO via USB.
Check out FTDI FT232HL. One chip. USB2 to I2C, or SPI or 16 GPIO. (or serial UART)
Adafruit sells little eval boards. With windows drivers.
FTDI sells them as a lump in a USB cable.
Same guys that have been doing USB to Serial chips for a decade. They are branching out. USB to hardware buses, USB to video, etc.
Not hard to get a little or a lot of A->D, D->A, GPIO, in or out of a more traditional CPU architecture.
— Graham
Yeah, but then you cannot benefit from the thousands of driver available in the Linux Kernel.
Regards,
John
These processors only have ARM cores and GPU. No DSP, no CortexM4, no PRU. Not even close.
Regards,
John
Who cares ? I never heard the OP make any such constraints. Also as for DSPs, PRU, and the like. You can do similar to adding external processors / boards. This wont work 100% of the time, but it will work for 99.9% of the situations out there.
Very rarely does a dedicated embedded processor have to communicate directly with a host processor because of performance constraints. But I can think of at least one situation. Out of thousands . . .
The OP question was "Are there any other boards out there with a comparable spec to the X15”
Regards,
John
Outside of TI processor boards, there is nothing that compares. Because TI is the only company that has processor ondie PRU’s. But some do have IPU’s from what I understand.
Anyway, the OP gave no constraints as what is indicated as “comparable specs”. And since the question was asked in the first place, many of us can also assume this person has no clue about the additional on die processors.
John, also if you want to get nick picky, anyone can say that any dual core board, plus any number of embedded dev board with various “required” specs is a comparable system.
But the way I took the question, is that the OP wants an ARM system, with 2GB RAM, USB 3.0 GbE ethernet, and SATA. to Which there are several boards out there that are compatible. The above named nVidia Jetson for starters.
I’m sure the OP can come on and say one way or another whether one thing or another fits the criteria or not.
If you only want ARM cores, then this will be the least expensive:
http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G143452239825
Don’t count on the same level of support because they don’t have a Robert Nelson on their team.
Regards,
John
Hello,
May be you can look at the SBC-AM57x from Compulab.
If by “comparable” you mean “uses same chipset”, there was an article on Linux Gizmos the other week
http://linuxgizmos.com/linux-ready-dev-board-beats-beagleboard-x15-to-the-am5728/
which uses the same TI part. Physically larger (Mini DTX) to account for all the connectors, but you don’t mention whether you’re space limited and have to wait for the X15 to come out or want something in your hands now?
Simon
Thanks for all the ideas! I was mostly thinking ARM-based for reasons which are mostly personal; I just love messing around with ARM code now and then. As for the board, a device with the same chipset as the X15 is a definite plus and something that drops into a real case without having connectors on all sides is a bonus. I like the look of the Titanium board mentioned above, which is right up my street.
Cheers - that looks interesting.
I really want to wait for the X15 but the price seems so crazy high compared to the upcoming Odroid C2 (http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=135&t=18683)…