Here Comes the $13 Single-Board Computer

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Not to be outdone by the famous $35 Raspberry Pi, Texas Instruments is rolling out the $13 Stellaris LaunchPad which will give amateur tinkerers a new platform to experiment on. It will be interesting to see what enthusiasts will make of this miniature computer.
 
80mhz ARM M4 with no DSPs? This is nowhere near the same class as the RPi. Arduino-competitor, maybe...though that's entirely dependant on the dev tools.
 
About a month late and not even close to the utility of the Raspberry Pi.. The Stellaris is a development board for Ti's line of ARM processors. Completely different function and target audience.
 
OMG its not as fully featured as a board that costs 3x as much. Oh no.....

Although, this has timers.
 
wonderfield said:
The Pi is $25 at the low end. Thus, this is more than half the cost.
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Model A is, as of yet, unavailable. Only the $35 version is being sold. I don't think there is even a firm date on Model A's release. I wouldn't hold my breath on seeing it in widespread release at this point.
 
Looks like you get a whole lot less in features for your $12.

Raspberry Pi is to a miniature computer as the Launchpad is to an Arduino.
 
Why do people feel the need to become cheerleaders on even vaguely competing products.
 
Will this play 1080p video? If a picocomputer can't do that, then will anyone pay attention when you can get one that does for $35?
 
It'd be nice to see this evolve into being able to work in tandem with a RPi, providing it's features which the RPi lacks to the RPi.

IE: through open software it's possible to have this be a logical extension of the RPi which includes a real-time clock, 2 push buttons, 3 LED's as well as all of TI's BoosterPacks.
 
jpm100 said:
Model A is, as of yet, unavailable. Only the $35 version is being sold. I don't think there is even a firm date on Model A's release. I wouldn't hold my breath on seeing it in widespread release at this point.
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The R Pi community easily makes up for the price difference. Get the same level of big players throw themselves at it, build a community, and they might just have something.
 
Marlfox said:
And yet Ti-89s and such are still in the realm of $160...
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You pay for the embedded software with these calcs not just the hardware. But I agree, there are probably lower cost smartphone apps that serve the same function.
 
I have a couple of these sitting on my desk that I ordered for five bucks shipped (each) back in September. They arrived last week, and I still have no clue what I'm going to do with them. But hey, they were five bucks...
 
This isn't meant to be a Raspberry Pi competitor. This a microcontroller (similar to Arduino) rather than a full fledged computer.
 
Ehren8879 said:
You pay for the embedded software with these calcs not just the hardware. But I agree, there are probably lower cost smartphone apps that serve the same function.
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Attach and LCD, a battery, and a wifi card, connect to schools internet, load up wolfram, calculate.

Shit, I could make a lot of money with that idea.
 
Ehren8879 said:
You pay for the MONOPOLY with these calcs not just the hardware. But I agree, there are probably lower cost smartphone apps that serve the same function.
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FTFY.

Decade-and-a-half-old software on a three-decade-old processor backed by about a quarter's-worth of memory and storage. If the parts cost of these is more than five bucks, I would be absolutely shocked.
 
I think this is the same thing I just got in the mail from their cheap launch price. I got like 2 for $7.50 shipped, iirc.

Sitting on my shelf, I'll figure something out for these. I wouldn't consider them an alternative to the RaspPi, but rather an alternative to the Arduino sets and what those are used for (extremely low watt controllers / etc).
 
Vicinity said:
Attach and LCD, a battery, and a wifi card, connect to schools internet, load up wolfram, calculate.

Shit, I could make a lot of money with that idea.
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Problem is, the usual reason for those calculators is for university classes. Those classes usually set requirements to only allow certain models (ie: TI-89 or whatever). Hence why the archaic calcs still get top dollar.

Just like with textbooks, it's all a racket. I've had numerous classes where the textbook is actually written by the professor teaching the class - so thus, he requires you to purchase that textbook.
 
ninjaturtle said:
Not even close, the Pi can do far more things.
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Totally agree. This might be designed to compete with the Arduino. I would say it's a bit more powerful than that.

They are targeting a small group of people though.
People who think the Arduino or Propeller Dev suits are too expensive at 30$.
People who don't need the hand holding that the former provides.
 
Does anyone know where to find or purchase SBC's. Amazon is good for Rasberry or pandaboards but where can I find more completed or specific boards?
 
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