Comments on: Does Vortex86sx based devices are worth something?

By: Marcin Juszkiewicz

Marcin Juszkiewicz — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:03:50 +0000

Vortex86sx has i486sx core so it lacks floating point unit. You need to compile own kernel with FPU emulation enabled.

And remember that Ubuntu is compiled for i686 systems -- you will have to use Debian with this machines.

By: André Cutri

André Cutri — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:21:36 +0000

Hi, my name is André. I need you help to fix a problem we have, I´m trying the ebox-2300 with processor vortex86sx 366mhz. to remote boot. I installed the system ubuntu 9.04 with LTSP-Server and when boot the system for PXE display de mensagem beloow:

   This kernel requires the following feature not present on the CPU: FPU
Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for you CPU.

And when i boot other machine with processor intel on the network it´s start no problem.

Thanks.

By: DIma Tisnek

DIma Tisnek — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:18:55 +0000

It is more useful than a paperweight, we have a few hundred of these deployed. Very few come back cooked, compactflash on the other hand is less reliable. DX supports microSD which is great improvement.

I only use compactpc's in headless applications. I didn't get native vga driver that to work, because XGI drivers are too old for modern X.org server and I didn't have that much time.

3300DX uses the same chip as SX. MX integrates gfx on chip, no idea what it is.

By: Marcin Juszkiewicz

Marcin Juszkiewicz — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:50:46 +0000

Sure, they have some value -- I used vortex86sx for some time to keep papers from flying on my desk.

Vortex86DX is much faster mainly due to no need for FPU exception handling. Maybe you know how good/bad does MX graphics works? With SX/DX it was usually XGI chip used and I do not remember which gfx chipset MX got.

By: Dima Tisnek

Dima Tisnek — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:47:29 +0000

Vortex86sx/dx are great for these reasons:

cheap, full pc with all the ports for just 70 to 90 usd [compactpc.com.tw]
runs x86 code, e.g. official binary releases or flash

That said, sx is too slow for e.g. youtube or ipython startup, and ide driver is slightly broken so dma must be disabled, thus the meager io results.

Dx feels 10 times faster (although only 3x in clock speed).

By: Marcin Juszkiewicz

Marcin Juszkiewicz — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:07:26 +0000

There is an entry for such system in table – “Koala nano33″. And Vortex86DX is still i486 core not i586.

By: The Vortex has you

The Vortex has you — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:02:56 +0000

I wonder how the 1GHz Vortex86DX (i586 core with FPU) performs.

By: Marcin Juszkiewicz

Marcin Juszkiewicz — Sun, 03 May 2009 18:29:00 +0000

@Damian: I got 1680x1050 resolution on framebuffer. Did not tried it under X11.

By: Damian

Damian — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:06:31 +0000

Hi, Please could you post your xorg.conf, I can't get the 1680x1050 resolution.

Thanks.

By: pitsch

pitsch — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 16:40:43 +0000

useful comparision. would be interesting to see where an atom based eeepc/eeebox would fit in here. wonder if Asus will expand on their low end and come up with an arm based “plug” with an own optware package feed. the i.mx31 sure is nice, but a headless nas/router box probably needs no video in/out.