I have some issues with this whole affair at the moment:

Firstly, in the linked article we can read: "even cheaper computer [...] and it's being sold in China for $7." Uhm? On the original Rhombus Tech page, it seems that the Allwinner A10 is just the CPU which is going to be used in the computer, and it's the CPU which they claim is sold at $7. So, the computer's sure gonna be more expensive than that. Also, this sentence suggests, that the computer is already built and being sold. Which is not the case, and this brings us to the next point...

Secondly, from the original Rhombus Tech page, all I can read now (please, show me that I'm wrong) is that the computer is only being designed now. On 15 Dec 2011 all they had (at least according to what is reported publicly on their page) was apparently a rough concept .png collage of overall layout of elements, and contact to some Factory in Shenzen, China. And they immediately started taking preorders! As of Jan 2012, they seem to be only selecting components they maybe could place on the PCB, and designing parts of the circuit in KiCAD.

Now, to contrast with Rhombus Tech, Raspberry Pi didn't ever take preorders (they specifically rejected such requests), and already had working and demoable prototypes (with loads of hardware and software concerns solved) several months ago. And they still needed corrections, polishing of the design etc. As much as I'd love to see a computer close to $15, RasPi's process sounds much more trustworthy to me than Rhombus Tech's. Ok, I understand Rhombus may need preorders, as they are probably not so solidly money-backed as RasPi's owner, but for me they're clearly in a much higher risk group.

The pre-orders seem to just be commitments, like a less streamlined Kickstarter, rather than an attempt to get money up front.

As for "computer" both projects seem to be using that term for a credit card sized board without even a case. The core parts of both however are already in use in mass-manufacture products. The article seems to talk about the core chip and the Rhombus package containing it interchangeably.

The Rhombus idea seems to be putting the the chip into a modular package with a standard interface from which you can build upgradeable tablets or computers, as well as just use it standalone.

From Rhombus Tech preorder page, "Please note: this price excludes a case, power supply, packaging, shipping, tax, customs and import duty." Add that to $15 and Raspberry PI comes back into the comparison, not to mention better chances of having a big ecosystem.

The $15 is actually the cost from the factory based on 100k units. (also on that page)

It is worth being clear rPi doesn't include several of those costs.. a case, power supply, packaging.. i'm not sure about shipping.. but anyway it sounds like this will be more expensive. I would still be very interested if it came close; this featuring considerably better cpu, gpu and ram.

Me thinks you labeling the Raspberry Pi as a joke is a bit, childish. The thing is barely into production and you say it's already lost to products that don't exist yet.

Then you say that if the thing is a success then other companies that specialize in such hardware will come in and crush them. That's highly possible but I thought you labeled it as a joke? If that situation happens I would call them leaders in the industry as the "highly successful" companies needed someone to show them the way.

At some point, one will be able to buy a RaspPi for $25 plus shipping that requires power and a display; you're ready to go. Where's the comparable product using the A10 and how much is it?

The Raspberry Pi also exclude those costs (Not sure about packaging).

The 15 USD however looks like the BOM cost (for 100k), so the RhombusTech device will be sold for a higher price, probably close to 30 USD.

This looks pretty good. The powerful combination of Free Software, ARM chips and Chinese manufacturing seems to have been ready to go for the last few years but has been held up by culture clash, language barriers and suspicion between the software and hardware manufacturing sides, and the lack of Free Software friendly GPUs.

This could finally be the dam-breaker, particularly if some of the cheap devices (complete tablets/phones etc.) produced by manufacturers uninterested in GPL compliance could still be used because the chip manufacturer is on board and providing the necessary support info.

edit: I was mistaken, the Mali GPU still requires proprietary code for 3D, I'd got it mixed up with the OMAP in my Samsung Galaxy.

"Regarding Software Freedom: the caveat regarding this CPU is that it requires ARM-proprietary libraries for the 3D Graphics (as does virtually every single suitable consumer-grade embedded SoC on the planet with the almost exclusive sole exception of the Ingenic jz4760 and some of the TI ARM Cortex OMAP and Sitara SoCs). However, simply not using the proprietary MALI 3D GPU does not impact any other functionality in any way."

Still one more step in the right direction.

Do any of the similar low cost products actually have a success story? Or do they all get hyped to death and end up failing?

well at the moment similar priced products are far lower specced. but of the small list here ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-board_microcontroller#Se... ) i've played with 3 of them. they are doing well. now for the same price i can get a system that will do 90% of my computing needs with the right addons? yes please!

there is a market for small systems like these, embedded, remote locations, areas were space is a premium. it doesn't have to be a huge market to be successful.

i like low specced systems. my main computer between 94 and 99 ran on 2 aa batteries for a week at a time. i reckon it's more likely that people develop wearable computing and other new technologies when building blocks like these are commonly available.

just my 2c.

specs http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/

Am I understanding correctly that this is based on an ARM core, as in licensed from ARM?

As an ASIC design guy, I have a hard time calling this "GPL-compliant hardware" when the main non-trivial component is closed source.

I would treat this announcement as vapourware ...

"Rhombus Tech" parent company is "RH Technology Ltd", which is located at "Wessex House, Oxford Road, Newbury RG14 1P". Wessex House is the location of a services office company called "Inigo Business Centres" (http://www.inigo.co.uk/)

... This does not look like a company with the resources for mass production in the near future.

It's one thing for a group to tell you that it will sell you for $3 a quad-core SoC with 16GB of RAM that will work on a watch battery, it is another thing to do it. It only makes sense to compare this product to the rPi once it has started rolling off the production line.

i was told this is a UK jobless guy that is trying to leverage some Chinese factory/chip to stir up things. Too good to be true? save your time here, I was excited when i first saw this too.