DBC? -I can hear you thinking- wasn't it SBC, single-board-computer?
Yes, most ARM development boards are SBCs, but in the Cortex-A9 landscape we've seen some interesting things.
The same Cortex-A9 of which I've written "Compared to their first ARMv7-A SOC, the ARM Cortex-A8, the Cortex-A9 offered an overall performance enhancement of well above 50%. Unfortunately some licencees saw that as an argument to sell their Cortex-A9 products at a much higher price too..."
We already had the CuBox and the Hummingboard. Pro's for the HummingBoard and CuBox, both made by SolidRun, are the versailabilty of the design with four -some argue even six- cariers boards and five different SOMs (i1, i2, i2eX, i4Pro, i4x4) to combine them with. As con I've named the price, and that still stands.
Now there's a competitor in Cortex-A9 land, offering a combination of baseboard and SOM at a very competing price, the LeMaker Guitar.
We already know Lemaker of one of the producers of the original Banana Pi and as makers of the Banana Pro. The Guitar is no slouch either. Our Belgium, Dutch and German members can buy one at Conrad.be, Conrad.nl or Conrad.de, for just under 56 Euro's.
Let's compare SolidRun's offerings against the quad-core Guitar:
SOM Features LeMaker Guitar SOC Actions Semiconductor Torch S500 Speed 1300 MHz Video PowerVR SGX544 RAM 1 or 2 GB eMMC 8 GB (standard), 4 to 32 GB (optional) Picture Base board Features LeMaker Guitar WiFi Wi-Fi AP6181 802.11 b/g/n IR Yes Bluetooth Yes, 4.0 USB micro USB 3.0 host/device port, 2x USB 2.0 host ports LAN 10/100 Picture Price $45
What does SolidRun offer, and what prices do they ask for it?
*= Note that due to internal i.MX6 buses the 1000Mbps interface speed is limited to 470Mbps.
SOM Features Som i1 Lite Som i1 Som i2 Som i2ex Som i4Pro Som i4x4 SOC Freescale iMX.6 Lite Freescale iMX.6 Solo Freescale iMX.6 Dual Lite Freescale iMX.6 Dual Freescale iMX.6 Quad Freescale iMX.6 Quad Cores 1 1 2 2 4 4 Speed 1000 MHz 1000 MHz 1000 MHz 1200 MHz 1200 MHz 1200 MHz GPU Vivante GC320 + GC355 Vivante GC880 + GC320 Vivante GC880 + GC320 Vivante GC2000 + GC320 + GC355 Vivante GC2000 + GC320 + GC355 Vivante GC2000 + GC320 + GC355 RAM 512 MB, 32 bit, 800 MT/s 1 GB, 32 bit, 800 MT/s 1 GB, 64 bit, 800 MT/s 2 GB, 64 bit, 1066 MT/s 2 GB, 64 bit, 1066 MT/s 4 GB, 64 bit, 1066 MT/s WiFi No Optional Optional 802.1 b/g/n (BCM4330) 802.1 b/g/n (BCM4330) 802.1 b/g/n (BCM4330) Bluetooth No Optional Optional Yes, 4.0 Yes, 4.0 Yes, 4.0 LAN 10/100 10/100 10/100 10/100/1000* 10/100/1000* 10/100/1000* IR Receive only Receive only Receive only Receive and transmit Receive and transmit Receive and transmit Price $? $50 $67 $81 $120 $130 Carrier board Features CuBox Carrier Base CuBox Carrier Pro Hummingboard Gate Hummingboard Edge Hummingboard Base Hummingboard Pro USB 2x USB 2.0 2x USB 2.0 4x USB 2.0 4x USB 2.0 2x Host USB 2.0 2x Host USB2.0, 2x Header USB 2.0 Price $70 $80 $70 $102 $70 $85
The only thing where the SolidRun offerings seem to have things going for them is the amount of RAM per core and the speed of the LAN connector in their Quads and deluxe dual models.