http://www.nvidia.com/object/sff_ion.html
I think it is pretty clear that almost anyone with any real experience would take Nvidia's restricted distribution graphics drivers about 100 to 1 over the open source CRAP that comes from ATI, and forget completely any of their competitors. I have removed from service every single ATI device which I am able to remove in the last few months because of the utter horror of their driver support. I have yet to have a single Nvidia restricted driver download fail once. BEWARE: YMMV. I attempted to make the point and Frank made it much more clearly. If you need Firewire, the ATOM D945GCLFx family (intel motherboard) is required to get the PCI slot. I am very happy with mine. I use it all the time. There is nothing wrong with it. Like all things, better things come along rapidly these days. What I am personally happy about is how cheap these offerings have been. I have NO IDEA what the price point will be on the Nvidia ION. I think the marketing hype video on the nvidia web page, showing the joint impact of the 2 GB of DDR3 and the Nvidia GeoForce 9300, is about right on target. In addition, the specs show that GigE is supported. I am expecting excellent performance because of the clear concentration of IO support in this box. The small footprint desktops have nearly 100% of the usable back covered with IO connectors. That bare space is not really bare. You need it to get your fingers in on the connectors! Bob On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 12:36 AM, Frank Brickle <bric...@pobox.com> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 11:17 PM, Bob McGwier <rwmcgw...@gmail.com> wrote: > > ...HOWEVER, for those folks who want to build an small board computer for >> supporting the Flex family of firewire devices, the Intel motherboards >> are your only choice. You need the PCI slot to get the firewire support... > > > For DttSP apps it's not a real choice. You will need a PCI slot, either for > FireWire audio like the Edirol FA-66 or the PreSonus FireBox, or merely for > some other halfway decent soundcard like the M-Audio Delta 44. This is a > required configuration for effectively using sdr-shell, sdr-core, and the > sdrTEC board, for example. A reference Linux implementation for this > combination, with a cost of around $800US total for the RF front end + > computer, is about ready to go up on CGRAN. > > The FireWire+Flex option is moot for dttsp-linux and vrk, but the other > FireWire/PCI addons are critical. DttSP apps using the USRP1+GNU Radio are > fine. USRP2 is an open question, for now. > > Short form: for dttsp-linux and general RF hardware, the Atom 330 is > unquestionably the more utilitarian alternative. This is especially so when, > given Nvidia's history regarding Open drivers, Linux support for ION is very > uncertain in the near term (6-9 months). > > 73 > Frank > AB2KT > > -- > Some people are like slinkies...not really good for anything, but they still > bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs. -- > Anon. > _______________________________________________ > FlexRadio Systems Mailing List > FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz > Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ > Knowledge Base: http://kc.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: > http://www.flex-radio.com/ > _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/