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Posts tagged ARM
Bit-Tech, Raspberry Pi Feature
028 days
by Gareth
in Published Work
Following an interview with Raspberry Pi co-founder Eben Upton last week, the first of two confirmed features: a look at the project, which has created a 700MHz ARM-based credit-card size computer costing just $35, from a modder’s perspective.
Will it take off? Where are the mounting holes? Is it possible to overclock the Broadcom system-on-chip at the heart of the system? What software does it run? Can it play games? Does it support 1080p video playback? Will I ever stop asking these stupid questions?
All this and more answered over on Dennis Publishing’s computing enthusiast site, Bit-Tech.
The second feature to come out of the interview, a more Linux-focused Q&A-style transcription, is scheduled to appear in Imagine Publishing’s Linux User & Developer Magazine, Issue 111.
Linux User & Developer, Issue 104
0175 days
by Gareth
in Published Work
This month sees just two pieces of mine in Linux User & Developer magazine: a review of the Efika MX Smarttop and a group test of popular filesystem-level encryption tools.
It’s always fun doing a hardware review for a change, and the Efika test was no exception. Based on an ARM architecture processor and shipping with a cut-down version of Ubuntu, any benchmarking tools need to be compiled from scratch in order to run.
The encryption group test was a departure from my usual fare: because the software on test has an actual, measurable performance impact on the host system, it’s possible to get an objective – rather than subjective – idea of which is ‘best.’
Building a custom benchmarking script, I created a small volume on a virtual host which was then encrypted using each of the filesystem encryption utilities. Files were then copied to and from the volume – with both sparse and dense files in small and large chunks chosen – with each transaction rated in terms of transfer speed and CPU load.
Between tests, the virtual machine was rolled back to an earlier snapshot – one of the major reasons I do this kind of testing within VirtualBox, rather than on a physical host – to ensure that file caching, fragmentation and the like couldn’t skew the results.
More information is available on the Linux User & Developer website.
Linux User & Developer, Issue 94
0473 days
by Gareth
in Published Work
Following a chance meeting with Russell Barnes at the openSUSE Developers’ Conference in Germany, I’ve started doing work for Imagine Publishing’s Linux User & Developer magazine; a topic that’s right up my open-source alley.
A gentle introduction for my first contribution, this issue includes a two-page review of the Marvell SheevaPlug eSATA-equipped plug-top computer. It’s a marvel – ho-ho – of a device, and despite its low power draw (I couldn’t make it measure above 5W at the socket, even under load) makes a wonderful mini server for a variety of tasks.
If you’re curious as to what I thought of it, and don’t have a copy of the magazine to hand, it’s available in full on the magazine’s website.
In the following months, I’ll be contributing an increasing amount as I find my stride. The start of something big, I hope.
More information is available over on the Linux User & Developer website.
