mrburnette wrote: Fri Sep 11, 2020 1:40 am
ag123 wrote: Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:06 pm
...this can probably run a full blown PDA or mobile style OS
it has high speed usb, it is a plus as compared to the full speed ones for the 'lower' devices
Very interesting. Some (all) will likely be sold to folks that can voucher the expense back to their business. This is the kind of thing you would use for prototyping efforts but the final vision has not congealed ... gives you lots of possibilities if you are intent on not designing around Linux SBC's.
Here in my basement, I would be inclined to consider the options below:
- Raspberry Pi / or similar
- Refurb Android cellphone
- Refurb Android tablet
Makers often forget about the low entry price for refurbished cellphones, tablets, and even low-end notebooks. xda-developers have a remarkable selection of firmware, many giving you a Linux-like console. MIT APP-Inventor can get you into Android quickly.
I draw the line at buying "maybe" toys at the $100 U.S.D. mark ... when getting into the serious money area one should have a firm belief that the hardware being purchased solves/provision the total requirements. This does not preclude using multiples of the same board, but each sub-module should be utilized to 70% - 80% of capacity.
In summary: One should not purchase the Portenta H7 for blinking leds.
off-topic:
i'd imagine something like this can run that old 'windows CE' type of OS like the old IPaqs digital organizer and PDAs. so if you'd like it isn't 'expensive' if compared with those, but then an IPaq includes a good screen and other pheriperials plus that injection molded case.
either way with 3d printing today, it is quite possible to 'make an IPaq', if that is the goal, using a Portenta H7 would look quite feasible.
In fact, it is an IPaq with fast adc, dac, lots of comms spi, uart, i2c, etc plus lots of timers. so it is an 'IPaq' with a difference !
of course today, most people i'd guess'd prefer simply using the Cortex A series with the MMU, e.g. Rpi, STM32MP1 etc.
that makes life much easier and a full blown linux can be installed on it.
in a sign of times, i think the Rpi 4 is close to doing the same mflops performance of a laptop low power Intel I3 cpu.
even at the servers end, Arm is getting into the high core counts end.
i think 'Windows CE' isn't killed by 'iPhone' nor 'Android', it is killed by the 'App store' and 'mobile web browser'. and bigger screens and a little late to catch on to the Cortex A evolution. And partially due to the mobile phone makers jumping on the 'Android' bandwagon.
the earlier 'Androids' used to be deemed a 'slow and heavy' os, until the much better hardware came about
mcus like stm32 may evolve towards that 'generic usb device' evolution
