The Worlds First $9 Computer

[ShaunR]

1Ghz, 512 MB onboard RAM, 4GB onboard storage.

 

End of Rasberry Pi?

<thinks>Probably can get LabVIEW to run on it </thinks>

 

Sign me up!

[ThomasGutzler]

You forgot the built-in WiFi!

And yes, unless you need the I/O pins it sounds like a fun alternative to play with. Although, running an OS and LabVIEW on 512MB might be a little optimistic

[jgcode]

I'm in, for me ol' DOS games 

[hooovahh]

I'm in, for me ol' DOS games 

You must know there are many options for emulating old DOS games on various video game consoles, and most easily a PC.  Still for $9, do what you want with it I guess.  That's partially why Arduinos are often used for things that discrete components could do, they are so cheap and easy to use, just put them in everything.

 

As for LabVIEW, so it is running a desktop version of Linux, on an ARM Cortex A8 processor.  Does that mean the standard Linux version of LabVIEW can be installed and ran on it?  I'm guessing it was designed to only run on x86 based processors so no.

 

Another very cool possibility is installing the NI Real-time Linux OS.  The MyRIO is running on an ARM Cortex A9 processor.  No idea how compatible compiled binaries are between these families but it would be cool to install NI's Linux OS on this hardware.  Then it might be possible to deploy embedded LabVIEW code to it.  Of course there is no FPGA like the MyRIO, and I'm guessing there would need to be a ton of work to expose things like the I/O of this device, probably call library nodes.  And the Linux kernel would probably need to be modified to have access to the other available hardware.  

 

And even then there might be some things that just don't work, because NI probably doesn't want their software running on non-authorized hardware.  At that point why buy NI hardware at all right? (just kidding I love NI support and all it comes with).  But being able to buy a $9 embedded piece of hardware that LabVIEW can be deployed to is a very cool concept.

[ShaunR]

You forgot the built-in WiFi!

And yes, unless you need the I/O pins it sounds like a fun alternative to play with. Although, running an OS and LabVIEW on 512MB might be a little optimistic

....and bluetooth. They plan to expose the GPIOs too

 

Current designs are for 3V3 digital logic on GPIOs, but part selection (and associated specs) may change slightly as designs are revised and prototypes are tested.

 

Linux would be OK. Windows[10]? Not so sure. LabVIEW isn't all that hungry. The minimum requirement is 256 MB for the run-time

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

You must know there are many options for emulating old DOS games on various video game consoles, and most easily a PC.  Still for $9, do what you want with it I guess.  That's partially why Arduinos are often used for things that discrete components could do, they are so cheap and easy to use, just put them in everything.

 

As for LabVIEW, so it is running a desktop version of Linux, on an ARM Cortex A8 processor.  Does that mean the standard Linux version of LabVIEW can be installed and ran on it?  I'm guessing it was designed to only run on x86 based processors so no.

 

Another very cool possibility is installing the NI Real-time Linux OS.  The MyRIO is running on an ARM Cortex A9 processor.  No idea how compatible compiled binaries are between these families but it would be cool to install NI's Linux OS on this hardware.  Then it might be possible to deploy embedded LabVIEW code to it.  Of course there is no FPGA like the MyRIO, and I'm guessing there would need to be a ton of work to expose things like the I/O of this device, probably call library nodes.  And the Linux kernel would probably need to be modified to have access to the other available hardware.  

 

And even then there might be some things that just don't work, because NI probably doesn't want their software running on non-authorized hardware.  At that point why buy NI hardware at all right? (just kidding I love NI support and all it comes with).  But being able to buy a $9 embedded piece of hardware that LabVIEW can be deployed to is a very cool concept.

 

No, LabVIEW for Linux is only x86 (and in 2014 also x64 compiled) meaning it will only run on Intel x86 compatible processors. The NI Linux RT version for their ARM targets (myRIO, cRIO 906x) could theoretically be made to work on this but not without some serious effort. Unfortunately it is not like you can just copy the image over, but you would rather have to download the source code for NI Linux RT distribution and adapt it to the hardware resources as available on this board and compile your own linux kernel image and libraries for this target. Even if that succeeds (which given enough determination would be possible) there is another problem: licensing! When you buy an NI RT hardware platform you also buy a LabVIEW runtime license. NI does want to get a license fee, if you plan to install the LabVEW RT runtime kernel (nirt.so and other stuff) on non-NI embedded hardware!  

[ShaunR]

No, LabVIEW for Linux is only x86 (and in 2014 also x64 compiled) meaning it will only run on Intel x86 compatible processors. The NI Linux RT version for their ARM targets (myRIO, cRIO 906x) could theoretically be made to work on this but not without some serious effort. Unfortunately it is not like you can just copy the image over, but you would rather have to download the source code for NI Linux RT distribution and adapt it to the hardware resources as available on this board and compile your own linux kernel image and libraries for this target. Even if that succeeds (which given enough determination would be possible) there is another problem: licensing! When you buy an NI RT hardware platform you also buy a LabVIEW runtime license. NI does want to get a license fee, if you plan to install the LabVEW RT runtime kernel (nirt.so and other stuff) on non-NI embedded hardware!  

 

Oh well. Codetyphon it is then