what can we learn from iunika gyy?

Jane Andreas JaneAndreas at gmx.com
Tue Apr 19 04:21:19 EDT 2011


I was thinking that the only viable advantage of the GYY is that it has networking hardware out of the box, whereas right now for the Ben, you would need to get a wifi adapter, which is rare and expensive, and puts the total cost at about $180 + so it equalls the GYY price. It is currently a bit more viable as a full-laptop replacement- partly because it IS a "real" laptop, albeit probably slow comparatively.

----- Original Message -----
From: Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller
Sent: 04/19/11 12:19 AM
To: English Qi Hardware mailing list - support, developers, use cases and fun
Subject: Re: what can we learn from iunika gyy?

 Hi Jane, 

 Am 19.04.2011 um 08:57 schrieb Jane Andreas:
Ihave recently been interested in the Iunika GYY LAPTOP, but upon learning more, prefer the Ben for several reasons. In addition, I think we can use gyy's example to perhaps better oursecond Nanonote, YA.

 the basic specs of the GYY are:

 400mhz mips cpu
 It is a JZ4730 SoC
128mb SDRAM
 800x480 lcd
 (most importantly) PROPRIETARY version of GNU/LInux
 included wifi and ethernet
 3 usb ports

 It is just another brand of the same hardware as we have it called "Letux 400":

http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=Letux%20400 

 Here, you can see the NanoNote compared to a Letux 400 in a single picture:

http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Community_news_2011-03-01 

 (the "green netbook in the second picture - partially hidden by an OpenPandora):

http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Tuxbrain_FOSDEM_2011.jpg 
also, these are not yet available outside Europe.
Notes:

 If IUnika sees fit that a 400mhz chip should be fine on their wVGA display, whatever screen we end up with on the YA will probably be smaller and therefore we have more punch behind our combination. We may not have 128 M of ram, but will probably not need it.

 Problems I See, or areas where the iunika falls to Nanonote are:

 Dead-end proprietary version of Linux ( I suppose a real hacker could change this, but some hardware may require a non-free driver)Nanonote already boasts 3 OS options and more are possible.

 We have the sources of the Linux - it is a 2.4.20-Kernel + some rootfs glued together
 by Skytone from many components. You are right that there is no active development
 on that.

 But there is a reverse engineering page and we have a Linux 2.6.24 (unfortunately not
 yet a more recent because we lack active developers) running Debian (Lenny) with LXDE:

http://projects.kwaak.net/twiki/bin/view/Epc700/WebHome 
http://projects.goldelico.com/p/letux-400/ 
http://lists.linuxtogo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mipsbook-devel 
most likely uses a proprietary battery,availability of spares unknown.
 Yes, the battery pack is proprietary and spares are becoming difficult to get.

also, Nano is shipping worldwide, not just in Europe.

 Hardware is probably not nearly as Free as Ben.
 Well, it is possible to get the schematics from the FCC server if you know where to search (WiFi FCC ID).
Though it seems out of the question, it would be interesting to have an ethernet port on YA. (Maybe it is not worth it?)
 Personally, I think WiFi is better than a hardware Ethernet (draws a lot of power and needs many cm^3 of space).

 Nikolaus
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