The $8 Linux Computer (2022)
thelittleengineerthatcould.blogspot.comI love looking back 10+ years for the cheapest Linux thing you could buy. People were buying devices that were for kids or a router or something and repurposing it because it was open enough to get a shell on / flash Linux to it and start doing projects with.
In the 2020s or somewhere before that we got a bunch of dedicated cheap MCUs that were good enough and I think stole the thunder from full Linux but there are still projects to run it on things like the ESP32 family.
Either way, hardware hacking is still my favorite hobby to watch.
My friend has gotten full Linux on a number of weird RISC-V boards. https://github.com/queenkjuul/milkv-duo-ubuntu
The Raspberry Pi Zero sold for $5 before the foundation sold out.
When they were that cheap, I would grab my one on every trip to Microcenter, just because I'd probably find a use for it, and if I didn't, I knew someone else would want it. Fun times.
I miss them selling for $3.14 on Pi day.
These days we'd be lucky to see certain models discounted to $314.
Zero at $5 was never profitable. I think it was reported that they consulted Eric Schmidt and followed his advice to sell the core hardware at loss and recoup from accessories and bundle sales, which didn't suit their business, but did it anyway. This was why it was limited to 1 per customer and also because Pi Zero and Pico models have a more overpriced/appropriately-priced "WH" variants with no purchase limits.
To be fair to them that was over ten years ago, and prices of everything have risen significantly in that time.
Sold out? Or catered towards market demands?
That's what selling out is...
For reference, for those of you who prefer to learn things via ska punk music from the 90s...
Tomato. Tomahto.
Personally the pricing changes are absurd even with inflation and memory prices in mind.
RPi is horrible value now you can get so much more from a lot of other boards it's not even a comparison now.
> RPi is horrible value now you can get so much more from a lot of other boards it's not even a comparison now.
They didn't really exist before. And software support is still best on RPi. But they did really lose the plot because you could buy a whole x86 mini PC (new) for less and they're much better (unless you need GPIO).
One could buy an old router or Android device for media playback on a TV for less. So the main attraction here is not that it's cheap, but that it's small and has convenient GPIO.
This article motivated me to buy three of these, it was fun, I had to get a pico to build the interface.
I still intend to go back, but time keeps on slipping...
I'm sure many have collected an impressive number of SBCs since the beaglebone, someday I want to build a display case that runs them all on some distributed process as a visual art piece
I want this but in credit-card form factor, with a screen built in.
Like a Linux phone?
If you can name me a phone the size of a CC ...
Also liked your “Nature abhors unused RAM” piece.
https://thelittleengineerthatcould.blogspot.com/2019/10/horr...
Sam Altman is just catching on ;)
Quick someone upload a passmark score
Probably a little faster than a Pentium 3
The C906 core that runs Linux on the BL808 SoC on this device has roughly the same integer performance as a P3 on a per Mhz basis. The C906 is about 2.4 DMIPS / Mhz and the P3 is roughly 2.4 (Katmai core) - 2.8 (Tualatin core) DMPIS / Mhz depending on the version. You are looking at roughly P3 450 integer performance
Its an interesting comparison that Im not sure reflects positively on the RISC-V C906 core when you factor in core area and process nodes and core area, 22nm vs 250nm. Even if we choose the worst case scenario for the P3 cores to compare which would be the Katmai core. We are basically look at ~parity with a 30 year old core design
C906 core only @ 22nm = ~0.6 mm2
C906 core only @ 250nm = ~78 mm2 (geometric transform)
P3 core only @ 22nm = ~0.5 mm2 (geometric transform)
P3 core only @ 250nm = ~76 mm2
Apologies if this is messy and badly formatted. Im currently at a wedding, sat waiting between the ceremony and the after party and Ive quite a few beers. I responded because its something I looked at previously with RISC-V cores and I already had the answers in my head
Interesting, thanks! Would be cool to have the same comparison for a modern Intel cpu
The chip computer used to be much more capable and feature rich at just 9$
I'm so sad that one didn't prosper, I still love the deck they sold
Assuming you're referring to the one released in 2015, with inflation that's nearly 50% more expensive apparently.
Is the Pi Zero 2W globally unobtainable at this point? What are folks using instead?
You can get amazingly far with an ESP32, RP2350, or other modern microcontrollers if Linux isnt a hard requirement.
Complete starter kit for $90 here
https://www.canakit.com/raspberry-pi-zero-2-w.html?cid=usd&s...
You’re not saying that this 8$ project costs 90$ today, are you?
Damn, I just checked eBay prices - even second hand some people are asking close to this! I should dig mine out and cash in too.
Out of interest I just dug out my invoice for the pi500+ I brought almost exactly 12 months ago - looks I got it at around 40% of the price it goes for today.
I agree with the other poster though, ESP32 is a good alternative if you don't need linux - these things are great ...
https://shop.m5stack.com/products/atom-lite-esp32-developmen...
There seems to be a 3W coming. I guess availability will suck though.