[ScottFree]

Dang Jason, I was trying 'splain it in the same way, but your wordsmithing is better and faster....

Well Jason is a Teller Of Tales, a Wizard Of The Written Word, a Master Of The Macabre, a Sorcerer Of Science Fiction.

 

[yonson]

Speaking of Eureka there was a sister show to Eureka called Warehouse 13 which was in the same show universe. I really really liked it myself.

I was a fan of both shows, and hated when each were cancelled...

 

[Robert Padgett]

The price point is deliberately low, and the RPi is open source so one could take the design and mod it to one's hearts delight

I'm delighted to hear that SChiit won't be in the UI and software business (even though they are in the latter, of course).

Yes, the RasPi is a powerful little computer, and yes, I can see where they could make it so integral in their designs, and end dependency on outside suppliers like SHARC. Maybe I heard it wrong, but Mike's "new" USB will be a simpler design, which shows improved sound quality. I cannot see them going anyway but Open Source... Which reminds me of a huge international news agency which I worked with. The Brain-Trust on Fleet Street in London decided in the mid-1990s that they needed a closed-system solution for digital picture distribution.

Every major Newspaper and Magazine had bought into the AP Picture Desk, which was based on ".jpg". But, the snooty Brits just had to be different.

So they gave a butt-load of Capital to a start-up who designed the Phoenix T-One. They paid a software engineer BIG BUCKs to design a "proprietary algorithm" that only folks with Reuter's receivers could use... Only later did our guy in Detroit figure out that their "exclusive proprietary algorithm" was a software code that said: "If a photo is ".JPG", rename to ".CMP". And if you changed the "word length" from 2048 (max size in pixels on long edge) you could use their Nikon Scanner and computer to make your own ".jpgs".

Shortly after that, the chief photographer called up Leaf Systems and ordered 10 new Leafax transmitters--just like the AP--for $25K per unit. (I have Number 775 sitting here right now)

 

[Ableza]

Analog Devices will tell you that the new dual-core SHARCs are every bit as capable and faster than the ARM Cortex that Pi and many others run, so it's just a matter if which SOC you choose. And, as someone who works for a semiconductor industry hardware manufacturer I can tell you it's not just about hardware horsepower, it's about programming. Indeed, it's mostly about programming...

 

[Robert Padgett]

Analog Devices will tell you that the new dual-core SHARCs are every bit as capable and faster than the ARM Cortex that Pi and many others run, so it's just a matter if which SOC you choose. And, as someone who works for a semiconductor industry hardware manufacturer I can tell you it's not just about hardware horsepower, it's about programming. Indeed, it's mostly about programming...

The software runs hardware.
Good code beats bad hardware, right?

 

[Robert Padgett]

That is a fine looking animal, he does have an intelligent look about him.

Too smart for his own good, sometimes. He was a Parvo survivor and was rescued from a kill shelter by the local SPCA. He was a very lucky Boy.

 

[Ripper2860]

Analog Devices will tell you that the new dual-core SHARCs are every bit as capable and faster than the ARM Cortex that Pi and many others run, so it's just a matter if which SOC you choose. And, as someone who works for a semiconductor industry hardware manufacturer I can tell you it's not just about hardware horsepower, it's about programming. Indeed, it's mostly about programming...

It'll be interesting to see what processor they select. I suspect that the Schiit team is up to the task of writing efficient and tight code. I say this based on what they are currently doing with their SHARC. NVidia Tegra ** platform, maybe?


** Likely way too much $$.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Analog Devices will tell you that the new dual-core SHARCs are every bit as capable and faster than the ARM Cortex that Pi and many others run, so it's just a matter if which SOC you choose. And, as someone who works for a semiconductor industry hardware manufacturer I can tell you it's not just about hardware horsepower, it's about programming. Indeed, it's mostly about programming...

Yep, but the top-end SHARCs are spendy, as well as speedy. And ARM has many, ah, arms. At least as I understand it.

 

[Th3Drizzl3]

I had a friend who was a vet who had a service dog, she volunteered to help do search and rescue on the two towers but unfortunately that experience took a toll on her.

yes it can take a toll. we have now been through a handful of hurricanes here in florida where we go out to help people who lost homes, or rescue / find bodies etc. take in peoples animals because they have no where to go etc its never easy i cant imagine the towers though that must have been really tough.

 

[FrivolsListener]

Yes, the RasPi is a powerful little computer, and yes, I can see where they could make it so integral in their designs, and end dependency on outside suppliers like SHARC. Maybe I heard it wrong, but Mike's "new" USB will be a simpler design, which shows improved sound quality. I cannot see them going anyway but Open Source... Which reminds me of a huge international news agency which I worked with. The Brain-Trust on Fleet Street in London decided in the mid-1990s that they needed a closed-system solution for digital picture distribution.

Every major Newspaper and Magazine had bought into the AP Picture Desk, which was based on ".jpg". But, the snooty Brits just had to be different.

So they gave a butt-load of Capital to a start-up who designed the Phoenix T-One. They paid a software engineer BIG BUCKs to design a "proprietary algorithm" that only folks with Reuter's receivers could use... Only later did our guy in Detroit figure out that their "exclusive proprietary algorithm" was a software code that said: "If a photo is ".JPG", rename to ".CMP". And if you changed the "word length" from 2048 (max size in pixels on long edge) you could use their Nikon Scanner and computer to make your own ".jpgs".

Shortly after that, the chief photographer called up Leaf Systems and ordered 10 new Leafax transmitters--just like the AP--for $25K per unit. (I have Number 775 sitting here right now)

Just a heads-up, Schiit is not into open source. They hold their designs close; both hardware and software.

 

[Robert Padgett]

Just a heads-up, Schiit is not into open source. They hold their designs close; both hardware and software.

Okay.

Open source has a couple of meanings...Linux is open source, and RasPi uses Linux, therefore any discussion of RasPi/GNU/Linux is by its very nature a discussion of Open Source--as opposed to that guy in Seattle who made billions off of reversing the "/" to "\" in his UNIX-based MS-DOS. (Yes, that is a vastly broad over-simplification, but we know both Gates and Jobs were inspired by the GUI that Xerox developed, and Gates announced "Windows" without a single line of code...)

I can not imagine that an electrical engineer could discover most of Schiit's designs...after all we reverse engineered the UFO at Roswell...

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

Analog Devices will tell you that the new dual-core SHARCs are every bit as capable and faster than the ARM Cortex that Pi and many others run, so it's just a matter if which SOC you choose. And, as someone who works for a semiconductor industry hardware manufacturer I can tell you it's not just about hardware horsepower, it's about programming. Indeed, it's mostly about programming...

Just like cooking (at last for us Italians; who know how to do that) it's not the ingredients alone, it's what you do with them......

 

[Robert Padgett]

Yep, but the top-end SHARCs are spendy, as well as speedy. And ARM has many, ah, arms. At least as I understand it.

"Just a heads-up, Schiit is not into open source. They hold their designs close; both hardware and software." --FrivolsListener

Does Schiit support open-source development or are your designs and software closely held secrets?

 

[golfbravobravo]

Yes, the RasPi is a powerful little computer, and yes, I can see where they could make it so integral in their designs, and end dependency on outside suppliers like SHARC. Maybe I heard it wrong, but Mike's "new" USB will be a simpler design, which shows improved sound quality. I cannot see them going anyway but Open Source... Which reminds me of a huge international news agency which I worked with. The Brain-Trust on Fleet Street in London decided in the mid-1990s that they needed a closed-system solution for digital picture distribution.

Every major Newspaper and Magazine had bought into the AP Picture Desk, which was based on ".jpg". But, the snooty Brits just had to be different.

So they gave a butt-load of Capital to a start-up who designed the Phoenix T-One. They paid a software engineer BIG BUCKs to design a "proprietary algorithm" that only folks with Reuter's receivers could use... Only later did our guy in Detroit figure out that their "exclusive proprietary algorithm" was a software code that said: "If a photo is ".JPG", rename to ".CMP". And if you changed the "word length" from 2048 (max size in pixels on long edge) you could use their Nikon Scanner and computer to make your own ".jpgs".

Shortly after that, the chief photographer called up Leaf Systems and ordered 10 new Leafax transmitters--just like the AP--for $25K per unit. (I have Number 775 sitting here right now)

This snooty Brit - who spent the majority of working life in open systems and standards - would argue that it has more to do with building a revenue stream and walled graden than anything to do with nationality. After all most of us open guys were created to deal with the problem of Big Blue

 

[sam6550a]

As I understand it, the Schiit Pi will function as a general purpose compute device in their products, where they can perform DSP, Filter functions, or other compute heavy functions w/o using specialized processors, such as the Sharc processor, etc. They would write their own code that runs on the general purpose SPi for these functions, but it is not their intention to produce a SPi for direct use by users. They'll develop code to perform the compute tasks necessary for their stuff (ex. DSP functions for the Gadget music processor, etc), but will not be in the end-user OS / UI business as would be required for say a DAP or a Streamer. Now if they wanted to team-up with a SW developer that would sell and support an OS for an external device (I'd love to have a streamer enclosed in a Magni enclosure), or open it up for Open Source development, that's something else, but I don't see it happening, unfortunately.

As I read it, considering Schiit's preferences, this will be a totally EMBEDDED solution. External add-on's need not apply.