Comment Re:When I first saw the Mac Mini (Score 1) 80
I have nothing against the Mac. In my experience with embedded platforms (which is not a lot), I've noticed that the issue with them is to find a platform that fits your specification like a glove without any extraneous features to bloat your price point. Very often we spend a lot of time making the hardware cheaper.
Now this is not true of defense related projects, where cost is never an issue. But in manufacturing even a few dollars can shave a whole lot off your price. So just having a platform with oodles of RAM and processing power is does not qualify the device for an embedded application.
You need a real time clock, a watch dog, non-volatile RAM (instead of hard-drives which depend on moving parts), no fans, etc.
Does the Mac mini give you these? Remember most embedded applications are generally computers that have been programmed to do a few tasks and to do them very well, with minimal failures and no human interaction.
-- Arya
Now this is not true of defense related projects, where cost is never an issue. But in manufacturing even a few dollars can shave a whole lot off your price. So just having a platform with oodles of RAM and processing power is does not qualify the device for an embedded application.
You need a real time clock, a watch dog, non-volatile RAM (instead of hard-drives which depend on moving parts), no fans, etc.
Does the Mac mini give you these? Remember most embedded applications are generally computers that have been programmed to do a few tasks and to do them very well, with minimal failures and no human interaction.
-- Arya
