Might make a good MD

[Anthony_Molg]

http://www.habeyusa.com/new/20090310.html

This might be something to keep an eye on. If it is not too much $$ it would make an OK MD. Too bad it still uses Intel 945GSE.


Features

■ Small form factor fanless enclosure
■ Intel® Atom™ N270 1.6GHz processor
■ Low power consumption for HD playback 
■ DDR2 SODIMM slot support up to 2GB RAM
■ Wireless and HD TV tuner options
■ High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) for HD output
■ Built-in CF socket, SD reader, two SATA II ports
■ ALC888 High Definition Audio Codec

Applications

■ Digital signage HD media player
■ Consumer Set-Top-Box/network media player
■ Portable Internet media appliance
■ High-definition media center PC
■ Multimedia presentation

Specifications

Processor: Intel® Atom™ N270 1.6GHz processor
Chipset: Intel 945GSE+ICH7M
RAM: One DDR2 SO-DIMM Socket, up to 2GB
SATA: Two SATA II ports, SSD Support
IDE: One IDE CF socket, SD reader
USB: Four USB 2.0 ports
Video: One VGA, one HDMI 1.3, one Composite Video, one S-Video
Ethernet: One Gigabit Ethernet port
Hardware decoder video format support:
   H.264/AVC SP, MP and HP at Level 4.1 up to 40 Mbps
   SMPTE VC-1 SP, MP and AP at Level 3 up to 40 Mbps
   MPEG-2 MP at ML  and MPEG-2 MP at HL, up to 125Mbps
Uncompressed video output
• YUV 4:2:0, YUV 4:2:2
• NV12 planar YCbCr format
• YUY2, UYVY packed YCbCr format
• 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p support 
Power: 12V DC
Operating Temperature: 0°C - 60 °C
Dimensions: 205 x 153.2 x 48.2mm, 8.07" x 6.03" x 1.90" (W x D x H)

[totallymaxed]

http://www.habeyusa.com/new/20090310.html

This might be something to keep an eye on. If it is not too much $$ it would make an OK MD. Too bad it still uses Intel 945GSE.


Features

■ Small form factor fanless enclosure
■ Intel® Atom™ N270 1.6GHz processor
■ Low power consumption for HD playback 
■ DDR2 SODIMM slot support up to 2GB RAM
■ Wireless and HD TV tuner options
■ High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) for HD output
■ Built-in CF socket, SD reader, two SATA II ports
■ ALC888 High Definition Audio Codec

Applications

■ Digital signage HD media player
■ Consumer Set-Top-Box/network media player
■ Portable Internet media appliance
■ High-definition media center PC
■ Multimedia presentation

Specifications

Processor: Intel® Atom™ N270 1.6GHz processor
Chipset: Intel 945GSE+ICH7M
RAM: One DDR2 SO-DIMM Socket, up to 2GB
SATA: Two SATA II ports, SSD Support
IDE: One IDE CF socket, SD reader
USB: Four USB 2.0 ports
Video: One VGA, one HDMI 1.3, one Composite Video, one S-Video
Ethernet: One Gigabit Ethernet port
Hardware decoder video format support:
   H.264/AVC SP, MP and HP at Level 4.1 up to 40 Mbps
   SMPTE VC-1 SP, MP and AP at Level 3 up to 40 Mbps
   MPEG-2 MP at ML  and MPEG-2 MP at HL, up to 125Mbps
Uncompressed video output
• YUV 4:2:0, YUV 4:2:2
• NV12 planar YCbCr format
• YUY2, UYVY packed YCbCr format
• 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p support 
Power: 12V DC
Operating Temperature: 0°C - 60 °C
Dimensions: 205 x 153.2 x 48.2mm, 8.07" x 6.03" x 1.90" (W x D x H)

Well this board does use the 945HSE chipset... but it does not use the GMA950 GPU... it uses an undisclosed hardware accelerated h.264/mpeg4/mpeg2 GPU. So in reality the 945 is not an issues. So the main hurdle for this board is are there Linux drivers for this GPU?

Anyone have any info on the GPU & whether it has Linux drivers?

I have asked Habey the question.... no answer yet... I will report back here any news when I get it!

All the best

Andrew

[Marie.O]

Andrew,

do you think it makes sense, to trim quotes a bit? 

[Anthony_Molg]

I was guessing that bescuse it has a Intel 945GC North Bridge it would use Intel GMA 950 for a GPU like all the other atom system. I think it is still a little early to hope it is a ION system. I liked the form factor, that is why I posted it. I just hope the price is right. I think 1080p might be pushing it, but i would bet it would do 720p nicely

[colinjones]

Its probably good to distinguish here for everyone's benefit.... you will often see a spec that says something support 1080p... but this is a little misleading. All that a chip needs to be able to do to say this is be able to produce a screen with a resolution of 1920x1080... and lets face it, graphics cards have been capable of that for a v long time! Just because the chip can produce that resolution doesn't say anything for how well it can animate OpenGL menus over it nor how well your system can decode certain codecs to that resolution.... for the moment the codec thing is more a CPU thing anyway. Certainly that Intel GPU would really struggle doing UI2masking (alpha is out of the question) at 1080p, and the CPU wouldn't stand a chance of doing x264/AVC/VC1 decoding that size.

This system would be fine for 720p with UI2masking. And codecs like mpeg1/2/xvid as long as the bit rate isn't ridiculous .. most downloaded movies would be fine.

[totallymaxed]

Its probably good to distinguish here for everyone's benefit.... you will often see a spec that says something support 1080p... but this is a little misleading. All that a chip needs to be able to do to say this is be able to produce a screen with a resolution of 1920x1080... and lets face it, graphics cards have been capable of that for a v long time! Just because the chip can produce that resolution doesn't say anything for how well it can animate OpenGL menus over it nor how well your system can decode certain codecs to that resolution.... for the moment the codec thing is more a CPU thing anyway. Certainly that Intel GPU would really struggle doing UI2masking (alpha is out of the question) at 1080p, and the CPU wouldn't stand a chance of doing x264/AVC/VC1 decoding that size.

This system would be fine for 720p with UI2masking. And codecs like mpeg1/2/xvid as long as the bit rate isn't ridiculous .. most downloaded movies would be fine.

HI Colin,

Habey have actually integrated a very high performance h.264/mpeg2/mpeg4 hardware decoder into the HD model of this motherboard (ie the BIS-6550HD). The HD model does indeed deliver top end 1080P H.264/mpeg4/mpeg2 performance and only uses about 15% of the ATOM when doing so apparently. The non HD motherboard is the BIS-6550 and this does indeed use the GMA950 so beloved of other ATOM based 945HSE motherboard manufacturers.

My information is that they are looking at a Linux driver... but I cant say yet what or how this will be delivered or whether it might be closed or open.

All the best

Andrew

[colinjones]

Andrew - I saw the hardware decoder, but I guess pessimistically assumed that the Linux driver would not use this (as usual!), that's good news then and resolves the high end video issue. Doesn't really do much for the UI though. When I tried 1080p on my Wind PC which uses the 945G, UI2masking was all but unuseably slow at least in the rotating cube...

[totallymaxed]

Andrew - I saw the hardware decoder, but I guess pessimistically assumed that the Linux driver would not use this (as usual!), that's good news then and resolves the high end video issue. Doesn't really do much for the UI though. When I tried 1080p on my Wind PC which uses the 945G, UI2masking was all but unuseably slow at least in the rotating cube...

Hmmm... well your mileage will vary depending on 'whose' ATOM board you are using and what you are attempting to playback. We have tested the Intel 945HSE at 1080P with UI2 + Overlay and overall playing SD content upscaled it was pretty good... although vdr's playback of recordings was not wonderful.

But the point of the Habey board and the only differentiation it has... and this may not last too long ;-)... is that it has a fully hardware accelerated h.264/mpeg decoder. What I cant say for sure is how well their drivers will support what we need... but the indications are reasonably good that they will.

Lets see... ;-)

Andrew

[colinjones]

Andrew - what on earth is the 945HSE?? I've looked on Wikipedia's list of intel chipset and on the Intel site itself, can't find anything for "HSE" or anything like it... is this a more powerful GPU?

[Zaerc]

And here we are again, drooling over some proprietary piece of hardware that has no drivers... 

[totallymaxed]

Andrew - what on earth is the 945HSE?? I've looked on Wikipedia's list of intel chipset and on the Intel site itself, can't find anything for "HSE" or anything like it... is this a more powerful GPU?

Ooops... that should have been i945GCLF... how it morphed into 'i945HSE' I cant imagine!

Andrew

[Steve]

I am running an acer aspire one which has the same specs, as far as chipset and cpu. being used as a portable md. no problems here. The company doesn't mention the gpu, so I did alittle more research and it is running Intel graphics accel. 950. so I think it would make a great MD.

[totallymaxed]

I am running an acer aspire one which has the same specs, as far as chipset and cpu. being used as a portable md. no problems here. The company doesn't mention the gpu, so I did alittle more research and it is running Intel graphics accel. 950. so I think it would make a great MD.

Very likely... give it a try. You'll never know unless you do ;-)

Andrew