Ask HN: Does the perfect AR SBC exist?
- Display out over USB-C DisplayPort. Non-negotiable because that's the only option for the glasses that doesn't need a dongle.
- Power in over USB-C PD, on a separate socket to the DisplayPort to again avoid another dongle.
- Wifi, bluetooth. USB-A allowed for a wired keyboard, but not required.
- At least ARM Cortex-A76 or equivalent. Not fussy about the architecture as long as it's got a little bit of grunt.
- Some GB RAM. No upper limit.
- Enough GPU and VPU to watch Youtube and drive KDE Plasma.
- Debian/Armbian/Ubuntu support (any, as long as it's well supported).
- eMMC onboard.
- Passive cooling. I'm willing to trade clock speed for this.
There are devices out there which hit some of these points, but not, I think, all of them. And those that get close have a lot of excess hardware attached. For instance, there's the Banana Pi M7 which hits almost everything here except that it apparently runs hot and the installation process looks extremely dubious. There are fanless N100/N150 NUCs in the right form factor, like the MeLE Quieter 4C, but it inexplicably doesn't use USB-C PD or it would be an insta-buy. And both of those have a lot of ports that just aren't needed in this use case, making them bulkier than they would need to be otherwise.
So: what have I missed? Surely there's something in this niche?
No comments yet