Sheeva Platform dead?

[rmwebs]

We all know that theres been little going on with the Marvel Sheeva platform for quite a while now, with the only releases of hardware over the last 6-8 months being a re-hashed SheevaPlug in the form of the 'DreamPlug'.

Is it safe to say that the platform is effectively at the end of its lines? We were promised by Marvel a higher spec board over a year ago, you would have thought given the specs of certain other development boards (e.g the PandaBoard) the Sheeva would have taken a step forward by now. Given the current use of the ARM-Cortex platform and how well its succeeding in the tablet and mobile markets, is there even a place for the Sheeva any more? Surely given that you can now get ARM-A9 based dual core 1Ghz CPU with built in PowerVR and a GB or two of ram as standard, the sheeva's not looking too good.

Has NewIT considered stocking some of the ARM-A9 based development boards? Even things like the Samsung ARM11 S3C6410 board would be great

[apemberton]

Hmmmm.....!

I agree Kirkwood based products are mature.

Marvell/Globalscale have their Dreamplug2 design which is based on the Marvell PXA510 SoC. This processor is ARM7 based and has more periperals and higher clock speeds aboard. Held back I guess due to the status of software (licencing and maturity). No signs that NewIT will take that as a sellable product.

The successor to the iMX515 used in the Genesi EfikaMX, the Freescale iMX53x SoC range, is beginning to appear and a chinese manufactured tablet has been announced but with a 1024x600, 8.7" screen, it does not make full use of the GPU on board. It also is saddled with Android 2.3 which is a bit Passé compared with the Tegra2 products already available. The iMX535 appears to have a single ARM7 CortexA8 CPU and no native SATA port which means that disk drives are limited to the speed of the USB2 ports (480mbps) unlike the Marvell PXA510.

There are several products available using the Nvidia Tegra2 processor. Most are tablets but New IT did list the TrimSlice range, but I notice these have disappeared. Unlike the others above, the Tegra2 is a dual processor ARM7 device. I'm sure recent Linux Kernel multiprocessor development has helped multiple ARM CPU devices to the market. So far as I know, the tablets with Tegra2 use Android3.0. Nvidia's expertise with GPU's must help the processing power. Nvidia are quite proprietorial about their products and tend to release data sheets and other support documentation to OEM developers making it more difficult for Open Source developers and hobbyists to create innovative 'products'. I ditched a PC motherboard with an on-board Nvidia GPU because Debian/Linux kernel could not provide proper support. Every time there was a Kernel update, there were no proper nvidia drivers which meant manually reconfiguring the GPU drivers. Like the iMX515, the Tegra2 does not have a native SATA port, relying on USB to provide external disk capability and thus limiting I/O speed. But then, the Tegra2 seems to be targetted at the tablet market and thus not having a SATA port is not really a problem.

It seems that the more recent ARM7 based products can address 1 or 2Gb DRAM which must speed up processing but I still worry about Flash wear in a device with 16 or 32 Gb 'disk'. But then tablets are essentially throw away devices when the next range of products are announced.

[rmwebs]

Disappointed that NewIT staff seem to have ignored this entirely. Bumping it up in hope of an official response!

[NewIT_James]

Hi rmwebs,

The Sheeva platform has been around for a while now but that just means it's a reliable and stable development platform. Many of our Customers have built applications around it and the fact it hasn't changed is why they continue to develop using it. That doesn't mean we are standing still at NewIT, we are constantly in contact with Manufacturers and looking to bring new products to the shop but remember the Plug PC scene just doesn't keep pace with Tablets. As and when we have news of new products we will pass it on but if anyone has any suggestions for suitable devices we would love to hear from you.

NewITJames

[rmwebs]

Great to hear James

As mentioned above, the Pandaboard would be great - its very hard to get hold of due to the limited number of resellers. Might be worth seeing what can be done as its got a whole host of addons and accessories too!

[superpat]

Hi James


What I am sure is needed is a  basic board, that is headless, i.e. no video, ala the Sheevaplug.

min 512 mb of memory and flash, and a 1 G processor.

This would be great for servers, PBXs, Nas in fact lots of lights out, (unattended)  applications.

The Arm market recently appears to be rushing down the  PDA  / tablet  rabbit hole, where every board on sale  has bigger and faster graphics chips HDMI etc.

What we need is a basic board  Cheap and fast!

If anyone knows of such a beast let me know

The Rasberry pi project shows that boards can be cheap ($25),  http://www.raspberrypi.org 

cheers

P

[rmwebs]

IMO we need more RAM on the boards than 512. At least 1024. As for the CPU's dual core AMD's are pretty commonplace now, and aren't exactly hot, expensive or high on power.

My ideal plug:

ARM Cortex A9  (2xCores @ 1.0Ghz each)
1024 MB DDR3 RAM
2GB Onboard ROM for OS
MicroSD Slot (1 or two should suffice)
4x USB
1x GB Eth
2x eSATA
2x Onboard SATA (for own expansion purposes)


This isnt a hard set of features. Heck tablets are shipping < $100 with specs close to these.

[apemberton]

I'm a little puzzled by the 'board' thing!

Of course we look to 'plug' computers as being a useful little box to hide away yet it seems that there is a market for GUI 'plugs' with a touch screen attached. Isn't that a tablet computer in a less convenient form? 

I don't own a tablet of any type (yet) but I love those little headless servers that I can vnc into (though if truth be told, I use the command line far too much)! I also love my netbook with a reasonable keyboard and a real disk drive for mobile computing (though I guess a tablet will make its appearance in due course).

I don't think there will be agreement on what is the perfect device for all. Just so long as there are devices that fit the bill for our various needs and desires in the future. We are still in the very early days of computing and I shan't live to see (for example) the wonders that will enable man to land on Mars. Just lets have the very latest general purpose devices so we can create unforseen applications to better our world. At tiny cost too. And green too.

PS. I still have the self designed z80/64kbyte bus based (my own bus design) system running CP/M sitting in its 3u rack built about 1979-81. I wonder if it still works even if I don't have the 8" floppy disk unit any more.