Cube computers come back with $US50 Android-or-Linux box
Eight cubic inch device is no Mac but could take bite from RPi sales
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The Raspberry Pi revolution continues, with SolidRun joining the "very small computers for very small sums of money" movement with a bunch of community-supported versions of its CuBox-i miniature computers.
Prices start at $US45 for a single-core Freescale Cortex A9 i.MX6-based unit running at up to 1.2 GHz, through to a quad-core version at $US119.99.
The Linux and Android (Jelly Bean)-based devices maintain the two-by-two-by-two (inches) footprint and 3W power consumption of the CuBox range, even while streaming 1080p video (the company says, anyhow).
OpenGL/ES 2.0 3D and video acceleration are standard – the two low-end models use a GC800 GPU, while at the top of the range there's GFC2000 GPUs and support for OpenCL 1.1E as well as OpenGL.
Other specs include Ethernet (10/100 Mbps at entry level, and 1000 Mbps at the upper end), 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth (both optional at entry level), a MicroSD interface for OS storage, and between 512 MB and 2 GB memory. The top-end units also add eSata at 3 Gbps.
The units run the ARMv7 instruction set (with NEON extension support) and SolidRun says a large number of open source software projects either have been or “will soon be” ported to the environment.
The CuBox-i range is pitched as the replacement for the existing Marvell Armada 510-based system. ®
