More 5: snickerdoodle

Well, there’s been an update from krtkl, but snickerdoodle black wasn’t mentioned. I guess no news is bad news. They mentioned the supply chain has completely broken down, they just can’t get parts. Not that that helps the backers. They still haven’t gotten to the point that they are making piSmashers. So the snickerdoodle black wouldn’t do me too much good. Maybe if I could get the software I could start developing something for the vapor hardware.

More 4: snickerdoodle

Well, there haven’t been any updates from krtkl about progress on shipments, so I’ve started to look around for another vendor that supplies an SBC integrated with an FPGA for a project I want to do. Results for my search so far has yielded the SYZYGY Brain-1 at $350 which comes from a company with a little more street cred, Opal Kelly, and the Z-turn board at $119 from MYIR Tech Limited. The $99 part is a Zynq-7010 part whereas I’m interested in the more powerful Zynq-7020 at $119. I sent off an inquiry to the company, but so far I haven’t heard back from them.

More 3: snickerdoodle

Well, here’s the latest update from krtkl:

snickerdoodle black – qty 1
This is a pre-order. Originally expected to ship on Jun 29, 2016
Currently expected to ship on Apr 20, 2018

piSmasher SBC – qty 1
This is a pre-order. Originally expected to ship on Jun 29, 2016
Currently expected to ship on Mar 08, 2018

More 2: snickerdoodle

Well. still waiting for delivery. I contacted Krtkl and told them it was a waste to ship me the snickerdoodle black without the pi smasher. So maybe they’ll just ship them both a the same time.

Here’s their video of the snickerdoodle:

 

Here’s some specs

features snickerdoodle one snickerdoodle black
chipset Xilinx Zynq-7010 Xilinx Zynq-7020
CPU 32-bit dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 w/640kB cache and 2x 128-bit NEON coprocessors 32-bit dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 w/640kB cache and 2x 128-bit NEON coprocessors
performance 3,335 DMIPS/2.6 GFLOPS@667 MHz 4,330 DMIPS/3.4 GFLOPS@866 MHz
flash 16MB XIP NOR + up to 200GB SDIO NAND via captive microSD card cage 16MB XIP NOR + up to 200GB SDIO NAND via captive microSD card cage
DRAM/bandwidth 512MB/25.6Gbps 1GB/25.6Gbps
SRAM/bandwidth 256kB/28.4 Gbps 256kB/36.9 Gbps
reconfigurable hardware 430K gates/17,600 LUT-6 1.3M gates/53,200 LUT-6
32-bit performance 143,150 MIPS@350 MHz 587,575 MIPS@475 MHz
distributed RAM 270kB/3,354Gbps 630kB/10,275Gbps
DSP performance 74 GMACs/31.8 GFLOPS@461 MHz 276 GMACs/121.5 GFLOPS@599 MHz
total user GPIO 155 179
reconfigurable I/O performance 16x ADC/100x GPIO/46.2Gbps 16x ADC/125x GPIO/75.7Gbps
fixed GPIO 33x GPIO, 4x I2S audio, 14x I2C, 1x ADC, 2x DAC 33x GPIO, 4x I2S audio, 14x I2C, 1x ADC, 2x DAC
Wi-Fi 150Mbps SISO 2.4GHz 802.11n 150Mbps 2×2 MIMO 2.4GHz/5GHz 802.11n
Bluetooth 3Mbps dual-mode Bluetooth 4.0 Classic+EDR/BLE
antenna dual-band antenna, switched U.FL ports dual-band antenna, switched U.FL ports
serial interfaces 2x gigabit ethernet, 2x CAN, 2x I2C, SPI, UART, USB 2.0 high-speed, microUSB console/JTAG 2x gigabit ethernet, 2x CAN, 2x I2C, SPI, UART, USB 2.0 high-speed, microUSB console/JTAG
analog interfaces 2x 1MSPS 12-bit ADCs w/16 channel multiplexer, 2x 1MSPS 12-bit DACs 2x 1MSPS 12-bit ADCs w/16 channel multiplexer, 2x 1MSPS 12-bit DACs
other peripherals 5x LEDs, 2x pushbuttons, secure cryptographic key/certificate storage 5x LEDs, 2x pushbuttons, secure cryptographic key/certificate storage
software support iOS/Android app, Snappy Ubuntu Core Linux, Python, Java, C/C++, ROS, FreeRTOS iOS/Android app, Snappy Ubuntu Core Linux, Python, Java, C/C++, ROS, FreeRTOS
power 5V via microUSB or 3.7V-17V via power pins 5V via microUSB or 3.7V-17V via power pins
dimensions 3.5” x 2.0” (88.9mm x 50.8mm) 3.5” x 2.0” (88.9mm x 50.8mm)

More: snickerdoodle

Well, I’ve got another update. Snickerdoodle black is now due December 28, 2017 and the piSmasher SBC is now due March 8, 2018. Just another disappointment. I wonder if it was just an overly ambitious project. There’s been a number of schedule delays .Krtkl does keep us updated on the latest delay, I’ll give them that. I’ll be interesting to work with a Xilinx processor after being away for about 15 years. Yeah, 2003 was the last time I touched one of their processors.

More on snickerdoodle

The one positive thing is that if I ordered the snickerdoodle black now it’s up to $195 and the piSmasher SBC board is up to $195, but I’m not sure whether what I bought are the same devices. It’s taken so long to get these, I don’t even know what I’m going to use them for, because the project I was going to use them for has been shelved.

Well, we’re trying this again

I think this is the third web hosting company in 3 years. I hope I don’t have to do this again. My Dotster web site was apparently hacked and everything I tried to fix it didn’t work. No help from Dotster, their support was non-existent.

First blog post

This is your very first post. Click the Edit link to modify or delete it, or start a new post. If you like, use this post to tell readers why you started this blog and what you plan to do with it.

I’m going to discussing the trials and tribulations of developing on cheap single board computers like the Raspberry Pi, Pine A64, and the krtkl Snickerdoodle ( I bought the Snickerdoodle Black which uses a Xilinx 7020 SoC).

I’ll also discuss Smalltalk, my favorite programming language, since I discovered it in that Byte magazine issue from 1983. It was powerful paradigm back in the early ’80s, and still is.