SheevaPlug - 1.2Ghz computer in a plug

[Ice Tea]

MMMmmmmmmm SheevaPlug

http://www.globalscaletechnologies.c...ev-kit-us.aspx

http://www.computingplugs.com/index.php/Main_Page

http://www.plugcomputer.org/

Now got past the development stage and about to go comercial ( Buffalo, D-Link, LaCie and Seagate )

http://slashgear.com/buffalo-d-link-.../#entrycontent

http://www.ionics-ems.com/plugcomputer.html

http://www.highseclabs.com/sheeva_plug_sp1100.html


# Kirkwood series SoC with an embedded Marvell Sheeva (88F6281) CPU core running at 1.2Ghz.
# 512 Mbytes of DDR2 memory.
# 512 Mbytes of NAND Flash memory use for system boot and the OS filesystem.
# USB 2.0 (480Mbps) running as HOST.
# Gigabit ethernet connection to the cpu.







.

[nightkhaos]

# Gigabit ethernet connection to the cpu.

Wow! Direct Network Arch! I thought that was just a myth!

[Ice Tea]

The USB will be a bottleneck though

[nightkhaos]

The USB will be a bottleneck though

Considering it's intended use (a print server) I doubt anyone will care. 512MB is enough to put a barebones system on it with CUPS and networking support. If you REALLY wanted to you could plug in a USB HDD. In fact I may seriously consider replacing my current server with one of these, when I migrate the websites to a slice.

[Ice Tea]

Its also aimed at the NAS market as the CPU and PCB is the latest version of the headend that is used in hackable NAS drives like the Buffalo Linkstation Pro HD that uses Marvell Sheeva (88F6281) but seeing as that uses a Sata bridge that can manage 66MB/s across a Gigabit Lan network though the USB is limited to 48MB/s though current throughput tests of the first version of the Shevaplug is about 20MB/s but hopefully that will be improved or a Esata socket added in later revisions.

But still it looks an awsome bit of kit for something that spend most of it's time only drawing between 5 to 10 watts.

[malfunction]

Tempting but I think I'd sooner have one of these:

http://fit-pc2.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

(this is the 2nd time I've posted that link recently but before anyone asks no I don't work for them or have any other kind of vested interest)

[Ice Tea]

Tempting but I think I'd sooner have one of these:

http://fit-pc2.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

(this is the 2nd time I've posted that link recently but before anyone asks no I don't work for them or have any other kind of vested interest)

Sheevaplug First version £62 and is forecast to be £35 by the end of the year when it is in full volume mass production while the Fit-PC2 is £210

Pay £210 then you may aswell pay £10 more and get the Asrock Ion 300 dualcore Atom with the Nvidia 9400m graphics card and Asrock have had it overclocked to 2.1Ghz and the unit is not much bigger than a Nintendo Wii.

http://www.asrock.com/nettop/spec/ION 330.asp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgAZ67MuaK0

.

[malfunction]

Sheevaplug First version £62 and is forecast to be £35 by the end of the year when it is in full volume mass production while the Fit-PC2 is £210

Pay £210 then you may aswell pay £10 more and get the Asrock Ion 300 dualcore Atom with the Nvidia 9400m graphics card and Asrock have had it overclocked to 2.1Ghz and the unit is not much bigger than a Nintendo Wii.

http://www.asrock.com/nettop/spec/ION 330.asp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgAZ67MuaK0

.

What's surprising about it? It's far more flexible than the SheevaPlug so I'd expect to pay more for it. Oh and if we're comparing USD market rate based prices the fit-PC2 ranges from £152 ($245) to £247 ($399). The fit-PC2 is roughly equivalent in my eyes in terms of power draw and size (though it's still a fair bit bigger that the SheevaPlug when you take the external PSU into account) which is why I mentioned it. For me the Asrock Ion isn't an option as it's too big and noisy for something I'd personally be treating as an embedded device. I have a netbook and I know for a fact that I couldn't use anything Atom based as my main PC. If they added homeplug and / or wireless to the SheevaPlug as well as some decent storage capability (it's not so small, cheap or power efficient once you add a USB HDD enclosure) it would make a lot more sense for me.

[Ice Tea]

I'm not doing a $Dolla to £Pound conversion as the Sheevaplug has price in £pounds when you buy it has currency at top.

http://www.globalscaletechnologies.c...ev-kit-us.aspx

And the £210 price for the Fit-Pc in pounds comes direct from Fit-Pc Uk reseller.

http://www.fit-pc.co.uk/

The desktop version of the Sheevaplug works out cheaper and thats currently more expensive than it will be when it goes into full mass production as it's currently only available as a Development test version.

OpenRD-Client OpenRD-Client Board with Enclosure

£151.42










But hey everybody to their own if you like the Fit-Pc then fair enough but in my opinion the Fit-Pc is over priced for what it is trying to cash in on it being green.


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[malfunction]

I agree that the fit-PC2 is overpriced compared to a netbook - especially considering that you get a screen, keyboard, touchpad and battery 'thrown in' for a lower price. But it is a full X86 PC which has a lot of advantages and it is small and low power which appeals to my inner geek - it doesn't draw significantly more than the SheevaPlug as far as I can see. It would be interesting to see how the Atom benches compared to Sheeva. I can (personally) see things I'd use the fit-PC2 for that would be much more of a pain to do with the SheevaPlug which is why I see it as being more useful.

[Ice Tea]

The Atom would kick the Sheeva's ass with Multimedia as the Sheeva was designed with Linux Kernal stability in mind to be setup with a few small tasks then just left to it 24/7 such as a P2P or Newsgroup download box or a printserver or a NAS /FTP server to share a files or even as a your own always on webpage/forum running between 5 to 10w Where as of course the Fit-Pc is aimed as a desktop but i agree you get more out of a Netbook but what annoys me about low powered Netbooks is they still mostly use 10/100mb Lan.

[burble]

I'm very tempted by one of these plug sized computers. I need to do some reading but if I could get SABnzbd working on it then I'd couple it with a USB hard drive and be a happy man.

[Ice Tea]

I'm very tempted by one of these plug sized computers. I need to do some reading but if I could get SABnzbd working on it then I'd couple it with a USB hard drive and be a happy man.

By all accounts it will be end of July or early August before they start turning up in the UK and i'm intrested in it for exactly the same reason as you.

There should be no reason why you can't install SABnzbd as it is a full working linux kernel that not locked down like the NSLU2 or the other hackble NAS drives. It is in essence a fully working linux server without a keyboard,mouse and Monitor.

Alot of people use NZBGet on the NSLU2 and hackable NAS drives for Newsgroup downloads as it is written in C++ and uses very little resources and once setup you can access it via a webpage on your normal windows PC to loadup NZB files without having to telnet into the linux box and the webpage login for NZBGet also shows download speeds and other stats like automatic par-check/-repair.


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[burble]

I decided to treat myself so I've ordered one. I don't have any spare USB hard drives so to start off with I'll use a 32Gb USB flash drive and see how I get on.

[Ice Tea]

I decided to treat myself so I've ordered one. I don't have any spare USB hard drives so to start off with I'll use a 32Gb USB flash drive and see how I get on.

Eeeeeeeeeeeek

Isn't that like £20 shipping ? and i take it you have ordered the development version and not the Retail Ionics one thats due out thats a slightly smaller form factor. ?

[burble]

Shipping was about £22 I think. Yep, I've ordered the development version.

I've been wanting something small and quiet for ages to handle my newsgroup downloading and this should do it very nicely.