While doing daily research, I fell on something I completly forgot about : http://www.adapteva.com/parallella-board/ The Epiphany IV board from Adapteva is finally alive ! I consists on a Zynq-7010 or 7020 SOC (Dual core ARM A9) and a 16-cores FPGA (called Parallella) on the same board. It features 1GB of RAM and has 4 general purpose expansion slot .... all for only $100. A 64-cores Parallella FPGA is also planed. 60 pins GPIO is available as an option to. This might well be a great possible option, all in a tiny form : 54mm x 87mm http://www.parallella.org/board/ Edit: you can even build some farm with it
Hi guys and gals, long time since last update. The project is not abandonned and I'm tweeking both design and purpose. I'm still thinking that combinaison of ARM and FPGA would be great. The recent article about Bunnie's open hardware laptop prove it to me. The FPGA would be used as a repurposable coprocessor (file compression, encryption, crytography, etc.) I've found interesting SO-Dimm modules on Enclustra website : http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/ About the design itself, 3D printing is really not the way to go for large parts. So I completly redesigned the chassis and went for a minimalistic design (basically a folded aluminium sheet). I decided to reduce the bottom row to 'spacebar' only. The right shift has been replaced by an 'alt' key. Their's still lots do be done and the chassis is not finished (missing feet for example), but I wanted to share this with you. What do you all think ? Any advise, comment ? Hope you like it - Guille -
Really diggin the new design with the single sheet of aluminum. Allthough I can't say that I like keyboards without numpad, as I'm heavily using the numpad for hacking in numbers. Building a keyboard on your own is definately something I'd like to try aswell, but I'd probably look for premade signal-converters.
Thanks a lot mate, that's very welcomed . I have in mind to use a teensy++ as the controler. Their plenty of resources, libs and project logs around the web.
Yeah, I was reading some threads over at geekhack and they're using the Teensy as controller. You can download a readymade package for a keyboard to program the Teensy with. Building a keyboard will be the hardest part tho, the rest is just strapping a NUC to the thingy afterwards
If you want to control more than the Teensy can manage, try an Arduino Leonardo: has built-in support for acting as a USB keyboard and/or pointing device, plus it does all the usual Arduino things to boot. Could use it to toggle various LEDs, control lighting, run a small display and hot-button setup at the top-right of the keyboard like the late, lamented ACT Apricot...
I already have an Arduino Mega 2560 at home I'll use for prototyping the keuboard part. The modular and stackable Microduino could be a solution too : http://microduino.cc/. For prototyping the whole keyputer, I was thinking about the "inexpensive" Udoo (i.MX6 quad + arduino on the same board), and then try to interface it with an FPGA dev board. Final step, if everything works, I'd like to have a real carrierboard to use FPGA and ARM module at the same time. But the $$$ will prolly become a huge issue EDIT: That Apricot looks cool and I do love trackballs.
Project is a little on hold at the moment. Very existing moment with Intel annoucement of the new Minnowboard. I'm more focusing on the keyboard layout and will probably abandonned ANSI international for the more french friendly Bépo layout. On a side road, I'm currently working (read parts been ordered and coming from overseas) on the audio parts of the project. The idea is as follow : SOC I²S output --> Ti BurrBrown DAC chip --> subminiature tube preamp The DAC part will use a BurrBrown PCM63P-Y vintage chip Subminiature tubes are just perfect for embedded audio applications and will greatly improve the sound quality (below is an example for size comparison)
Little update: No, the project is not dead ! The board I was looking after is finaly available: Kontron pITX-E38 (Intel Atom E3845). I'll rework the design around this board then and keep you updated. Here are the specifications: Processor — Intel Atom E3800 (Bay Trail-I) @ 524MHz, 5-10W TDP, Intel HD Graphics: E3845 (4x cores, 10W TDP) E3826 (2x cores, 7W TDP) E3815 (1x core, 5W TDP) Memory/storage: Up to 8GB DDR3L-1333/1066 via 1x SODIMM MicroSD slot (SDXC) SATA 2.0 port mSATA connector shared with mPCIe Display: LVDS interface (dual-channel, 24-bit) up to 1920 x 1200 DisplayPort interface up to 2560 x 1600 Dual independent display support Networking — Gigabit Ethernet port Other I/O: USB 3.0 port 3x USB 2.0 (1x external, 2x internal interfaces) 2x serial interfaces (UART 16550, 3v3 digital I/Os) 8x GPIOs HD analog audio interfaces (line-in, line-out, mic-in) LED interfaces Expansion — mPCIe 2.0 x1 interface Power — 5V DC supply; internal and external lockable connector Dimensions — 100 x 72mm; Pico-ITX form-factor They are priced at 316.99€ (VAT Incl.): https://www.mini-itx.de/Pico-ITX-Pi...4500-pITX-E38-E3845-Ultrasmall-2::291191.html
WooooooT! I know I know... necro-posting. I just wanted to ask what happened with this project. I'm about to buy some old Amiga 500 (or 1200) and wanted to see if there is other option, like this project
I would love to know what happened to this. I had an Amiga 500 plus, then an A1200 They were lovely machines to work with, though I was always envious of PC's hard drives and proper monitors. One of the most interesting projects I've seen.
Both of you, thanks a lot! This is quite a necro bump indeed, but sadly this project been on hold due to lack of time/stamina. I'm settled on the keyboard layout and am using it daily. Hardest part is the "brain". ARM SBC universe is expanding quickly and finding one suitable for desktop use is tricky. A few "norms" are reaching daylight, like the the 96boards. I'm following it and considering one, so this project can finaly move forward.
