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attila77 is offline attila77
2009-07-21 , 16:17
Posts: 3,319 | Thanked: 5,610 times | Joined on Aug 2008 @ Finland
#1
http://www.qi-hardware.com/products/ben-nanonote/

Technical Specifications:

* 336 MHz MIPS32-compatible CPU with SIMD (XBurst)
* display: 3.0” color TFT
* resolution: 320 x 240, 16.7M color
* dimension (mm): 99 x 75 x 17.5 (lid closed)
* weight: 126 g (incl. battery)
* DRAM: 32MB Synchronous DRAM
* headphone jack (3.5 mm)
* SDHC microSD (with SDIO support)
* 850mAh Li-ion battery
* 2GB NAND flash memory
* mini-USB: USB 2.0 High-Speed Device
* speaker and microphone

As a brain-child of some ex-OpenMoko folks. Obviously not a contender in the raw power segment, this should be small and dirt cheap, not really a jack of all trades like our NIT's but rather an appliance master/embedded DIY. My personal biggest gripe is with the 32MB RAM (but seriously ? especially on MIPS ?), let's see where do they go from there (from what they say, the nanonote should be an ever-evolving iterative-style hardware platform, 6 months per release).

EDIT: Corrected CPU info
Last edited by attila77; 2009-07-22 at 09:21.
 
branitar is offline branitar
2009-07-21 , 17:50
Posts: 113 | Thanked: 13 times | Joined on Nov 2008 @ Darmstadt, Germany
#2
My Cobalt Qube 2 (SOHO server, 250 MHz MIPS processor) came with 16 MB of RAM, so 32 MB is still ok.
Ok its a model that's at least 10 years old....
 
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tso is offline tso
2009-07-21 , 18:51
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#3
from what i understand, that first one will be a dev platform more then any kind of end user product...

the specifics of the next ones will be based on input from the developers list, from what i can read on the page...
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fms is offline fms
2009-07-21 , 18:51
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#4
Originally Posted by attila77 View Post
* 360 MHz MIPS-compatible CPU
* display: 3.0” color TFT
* resolution: 320 x 240, 16.7M color
MIPS is going to feel unusably slow after a similarly clocked ARM. It is a severely antiquated architecture made by academics and connected to standard slow-clocked SDRAM. Just look at MIPS ABIs and weep.

As a brain-child of some ex-OpenMoko folks. ... let's see where do they go from there (from what they say, the nanonote should be an ever-evolving iterative-style hardware platform, 6 months per release).
They will go nowhere. I mean, they are ex-OpenMoko folks, do you seriously expect them to do better this time?
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attila77 is offline attila77
2009-07-21 , 20:01
Posts: 3,319 | Thanked: 5,610 times | Joined on Aug 2008 @ Finland
#5
Originally Posted by fms View Post
MIPS is going to feel unusably slow after a similarly clocked ARM. It is a severely antiquated architecture made by academics and connected to standard slow-clocked SDRAM. Just look at MIPS ABIs and weep.
Hm, latest generations (i.e. MIPS 74K) should be at least up to par with Cortex ARM-s performance wise, according to specs. I know from my MIPS hacker days that, ugly or not, it's not THAT slow (I had mpeg/wmv movie playback on a 131MHz VR4121). There is a slight difference in application too (as MIPSes can have FPU-s not just extensions a la NEON). In any case, this is much less an issue with an appliance like the Nanonote - you're not expected to run ubuntu remix and firefox on this one anyway, more like stuff you'd do on a GP32X, DS or a NSLU2 with a screen.

They will go nowhere. I mean, they are ex-OpenMoko folks, do you seriously expect them to do better this time?
Well, the nanonote is certainly a smaller task than OpenMoko was. No phone stuff, no OS fudgery, just copylefted hardware and low level support (=kernel development), basically what Gumstix does, but in a handheld form factor. Also, (much more) clearly aiming at the enthusiast market and with the incremental hardware release cycle, at least I'll give them the benefit of a doubt
 
attila77 is offline attila77
2009-07-21 , 20:07
Posts: 3,319 | Thanked: 5,610 times | Joined on Aug 2008 @ Finland
#6
Originally Posted by tso View Post
from what i understand, that first one will be a dev platform more then any kind of end user product...

the specifics of the next ones will be based on input from the developers list, from what i can read on the page...
Yes, I think it would actually be fair to say they ALL are dev platforms (these days I wouldn't call anything that ends in a linux prompt an end user product), with the specs incrementally improved based on response.
 
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tso is offline tso
2009-07-21 , 21:21
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#7
Originally Posted by attila77 View Post
Yes, I think it would actually be fair to say they ALL are dev platforms (these days I wouldn't call anything that ends in a linux prompt an end user product), with the specs incrementally improved based on response.
big question then is how fast one can get a gui going on them
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allnameswereout is offline allnameswereout
2009-07-21 , 22:03
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#8
Lol. Seems (thus far) the specs are worse than old Linux mobile clamshell devices such as Sharp Zaurus SL C7x0/C8x0/C1000/C3x00 (at least 4 years old). Doubt this will be able to compete price/performance wise with a second hand Nokia N8x0 market. The only advantage is maybe fully documented hardware. But why mass produce these if they're only meant for developers?
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attila77 is offline attila77
2009-07-21 , 23:37
Posts: 3,319 | Thanked: 5,610 times | Joined on Aug 2008 @ Finland
#9
Originally Posted by allnameswereout View Post
Lol. Seems (thus far) the specs are worse than old Linux mobile clamshell devices such as Sharp Zaurus SL C7x0/C8x0/C1000/C3x00 (at least 4 years old). Doubt this will be able to compete price/performance wise with a second hand Nokia N8x0 market.
Well, the main point there is size, cost and availability. It is just over half the weight of a N810, smaller and should cost quite a bit less than N8x0-s (which are already on the verge of scarcity).

The only advantage is maybe fully documented hardware. But why mass produce these if they're only meant for developers?
Not really developers, more like DIY-ers and OEM-s, from what I gather. So, if you wanted to make your own peek or have a killer app idea, you can make it with this device without getting bogged down with mass-producing the hardware (you know, the part/solder/mould issues/delays from the Pandora folks). Most likely a single app device considering the mem/cpu limits, but that can be fun too, as a dedicated cycleputer, jogputer, balloonputer, or whatever.

Also, they don't say how different the second iteration will be which should follow up shortly. Maybe it's just one of those 'these components can be had NOW', for others you have a lead time, and they say we're gonna have something better in 6 mo. anyway, so why not start with this and then as (similar form factor) components roll-in, just upgrade to more memory/higher clock.
 
attila77 is offline attila77
2009-07-21 , 23:48
Posts: 3,319 | Thanked: 5,610 times | Joined on Aug 2008 @ Finland
#10
Originally Posted by tso View Post
big question then is how fast one can get a gui going on them
Considering the case of Gumstix, pretty quick. But don't think KDE or Gnome here, Hildonization, finger optimizations and whatnot. In most use-cases I could imagine it would be a single app started on boot doing fbdev...
 
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