Compulab Trim Slice now available, if someone wants to try a Tegra port

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/02/compulabs-trim-slice-on-sale-for-power-users-only/

Remember the Trim Slice, that Tegra 2-powered nettop that surfaced back in January? Well, it’s finally on sale, but the company would prefer that casual consumers hold off on buying. To recap, the chassis, just six tenths of an inch thick, is home to a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU, GeForce ULP chip, SATA SSD, 1GB of RAM, 802.11n WiFI, Bluetooth, and a cornucopia of I/O ports. It starts at $199 for a model that lacks internal WiFi and storage (you can add these via dongles), and graduates to models with 4GB of microSD storage and a WiFi dongle ($219) and a “Pro” version with a 32GB SSD and wireless and Bluetooth dongles ($319). Whichever iteration you choose, though, you’ll be greeted by a warning that the software remains a work in progress, so you’ll probably want to stay away for now. Unless, of course, you’re a developer — or you really know how to have a good time.

Maybe there could be a bounty to raise money for the purchase price? For those that haven’t already found the following:

• The Dev-Kit seems to have been available since March
• "Trim-Slice is open like a PC is open – in the sense that you do not need to root it in order to install an operating system (unlike most tablets and smartphones). Furthermore the boot-loader (u-boot) is open-source and documented."
  • Some sources are available (here) but the lack of Tegra2 docs could be an issue, as already raised here previously by Jeffrey and others
• Orders placed now are "expected to be available in about 2 months"

Oh, I don’t deny that this is far from perfect, on the lack of Tegra 2 docs, and I’ve also suggested a bounty for the C6A816x, because that’ll be an easier port, and we can actually use all of the hardware in it.

That said, the Tegra architecture may well be a better bet in the long run – it forces the multi-core support issue, and Nvidia is pushing the Tegra architecture into the desktop space – meaning that there will eventually be desktop-oriented hardware that may be readily available.

Nvidia is pushing the Tegra architecture into the desktop space

And it’s also just arranged to buy Icera, for the smartphone market. (Acorn gets a mention in that news item too.)

This linuxfordevices.com article says that an HDD-capable version will be available “towards the end of the month”. There are also now “Value” and “Barebone” models and a 45% discount on dev-kits (limited time).¹

¹ The reference is to “open-source”, so RO’s “shared source” may not be enough to qualify – but it could be worth asking, or committing any common code (what could that be?) to other projects too.

They’re apparently going to release another new model soon, complete with an “accessible” (internal?) SATA HDD installation bay. (Although unless you buy the US$319 variant, they don’t supply a hard/solid-state disk).

Yes, here’s the CG mock-up.

… an HDD-capable version will be available “towards the end of the month” … and a 45% discount on dev-kits (limited time). The reference is to “open-source”, so RO’s “shared source” may not be enough to qualify – but it could be worth asking, or committing any common code (what could that be?) to other projects too

If someone is willing to put forward an application for one of these developer kits (i.e. someone who could attempt a RISC OS port) I would donate the £120 needed to purchase it.

I see from the block diagram that the sata is on a usb connector will we need a device driver for this???

If it’s connected via USB then it will probably work fine with the current USB mass storage drivers.

The spec gives this info (32 GB SATA SSD (1.8″ half size, USB to SATA Genesys Logic GL830)
Full size SD slot (SDHC)
Micro SD slot (SDHC) with locking door)