Comments on: GuruPlug, the next generation of SheevaPlug

By: sulfideIf

sulfideIf — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:51:54 +0000

So i bought one of these things (the server plus model) and i really wish I hadn’t. This thing is useless unless you get the jtag to put debian or something on it. The default install is crap, documentation on it sucks..and it gets really really hot. I’m actually afraid to let this thing be responsible for my data. oh and the webinterface is something from the days of geocities..

By: Pater Mann

Pater Mann — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:58:27 +0000

I am sure that I read somewhere that the JTAG board is needed to program the Guruplug (unlike the Sheevaplug). This bumps up the price substantially – nearly 150 GBP (around $220) in the UK.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:26:07 +0000

nineX,

The estimate that I have seen is that the Plug Computer 3.0 won’t actually be available until around Dec 2010. One of the vendors posted that on the plugcomputer.org forum.

By: nineX

nineX — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 01:44:47 +0000

I dont know if anyone has kept up with the whole Plug scene, but at CES they announced the 3.0 devices which will have 2.0ghz CPUs and integrated HDDs. I’m going to hold off buying one until those are available.

By: Drone

Drone — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:14:18 +0000

Man… Buy a $35 router with five Ethernet ports and USB then load it with OpenWRT or similar.

For $120 you can buy a real IA586 compatible microcontroller like one of the PCEngines Alix boards. Heck for a little more you can get a dual core Atom board with a gig of SDRAM. Toss it into an old case. The Atom will suck around 25W or 30W when not sleeping.

At this price, this sheva thing is lame. I’d pay $49.99 for it, no more.

By: cgmark

cgmark — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:37:16 +0000

@autobot
Mips and Arm are worlds apart in design and how they handle code. Arm currently has the advantage in both performance and cost.

The only advantage this device has is the size. The power usage, capabilities, all that can be done much cheaper with existing hardware.

By: The Ffejery

The Ffejery — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:14:38 +0000

Hmm… It looks like the company’s site is down. The link posted gives an error, as does the home page and various Google listings.
On a different note, though, I find 5W hard to believe, given that Wikipedia states a full-load rating of 7W for the original SheevaPlug. Could that figure be referring to the idle rating? Either way, it’s probably pretty good, but I wanted to clarify.

By: autobot

autobot — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:35:01 +0000

I have been wanting a sheevaplug, glad I waited. You could use the BT for remote control capabilities out of the box which to me is a big plus, the TWO gigabit ports and onboard wifi is the thing that sells it to me. Added bonus of jtag for the pre-order….sold

Anyone know how different Arm is from Mips32, I mean which is more productive per/mhz and such?

By: Moggie100

Moggie100 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:05:22 +0000

Is it just me, or would adding a power line network interface make sense for these things?

(Or have I just missed it in the spec someplace)

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:29:35 +0000

I emailed the maker of this unit and the esata port does support port multiplication…fantastic little unit!

“It can support eSATA multi-plier. The speed will be around 3 Gb/sec connecting from host to multiplier.”

By: lwatcdr

lwatcdr — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:39:42 +0000

Nice little device. As other have said it does have USB so you could add sound. The USB ports ope up all sorts of options for things like a Webcam, Displays, IRBlasters, and goodness knows what else.
Bluetooth streaming is also an option as is a bluetooth remote.
This could make a great little NAS,Wireless router, Internet Radio, and security system.

By: jacubillo

jacubillo — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:48:09 +0000

I do have an NSLU2 loaded with linux and it’s a great little device for a NAS. This thing would be fun as a NAS as well but only in the “geeky” sense of it. You can play with it… add a drive… notice that it’s not being detected… try to fix that… etc, etc. Regarding this ARM5 vs ARM9 comparison… in the real life… which one would perform better if given the same task? the one from the friendlyarm or the one in the guruplug?

By: Cynyr

Cynyr — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:40:30 +0000

@jacubillo
The friendlyARM thing linked seems to have a lot more IO. It also comes with a touchscreen. It also has a more modern CPU it would seem. The freindly seems to be an ARM9, where as this guruplug is an ARM5.

I’m not sure that it would be a good NAS server, single drive only, probably doesn’t have the grunt to handle software raid5 or 6(if anyone has some performance metrics on that those would be great). It would seem like a dedicated NAS device would be a better option, I Hear QNAP ones can have the stock OS replaced easily.

By: jacubillo

jacubillo — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:42:55 +0000

@Agent420

LOL don’t mention “CE” in here… it’s one of those forbidden words. You’re right about the application dependency… It seems this linux device is geared more towards networking applications while the windows one is more a gadget itself.. kind of like a chumby.

By: Daley

Daley — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:37:08 +0000

Seems like a pretty awesome little toy. Too bad it appears to be designed/distributed by some guy renting office-space in Anaheim ;(

A simple whois + Google Maps turns up all sorts of interesting info about the “company”.