Just hoping you guys wont be biased. There isn't much info/publicity of udoo out on the web so just curious if udoo would be the right choice for me opposed to the upcoming minnowboardmax (http://www.minnowboard.org/meet-minnowboard-max/). They're both around the same price range (about 130$) Generally speaking, I am looking to just setup a small home server for voip, ftp, and other various needs. So the whole arduino aspect will go to waste -- I have no need for it. My main question comes with my lack of familiarity with arm platforms. On paper it seems to make sense to go for the quad core udoo, but are most linux programs compatable with arm? in real world scenarios, how much slower (or faster?) will the arm quad be than the x86 dual core? Thanks.
When comparing Arm to x86 I don`t think the main selling point as ever been pure speed, but more on power efficiency. Most linux programs will run on any cpu , because they are compiled to run on that machine while installing , but like you say there will be some programs where you get precompiled code for linux which will only work on a x86 chip. One example of this is the Arduino code , where you can download the source code for Debain , but it`s still designed to run on the x86 , because how many people will want to run it on anything but a x86 ?. Looking at the board you have chosen , What is important to you power efficiency or size ? , because you can get a x86 or Arm NAS unit which are open to hacking and installing what services you need. So compared to a normal desktop machine I would say that the udoo is still very much slower , but looking at the MinnowBoard atom dual-core 1.33 GHz who knows , the udoo could probably be faster.
As much as i like the UDOO, its really a full development platform. it has power, lots of I/O and the capabilities of both the Linux ARM side and the Arduino Microcontroller (happens to also be ARM in this case).. And it has has few rivals that do as much as the UDOO or as well. That said, If you are really looking for a small power efficient head for a FTP server and NAS, then the UDOO might be overkill. As would the Minnow at least price wise. I might suggest looking at the pcDuino3. Its a dual core 1GHz ARM A7. Details - http://goo.gl/L09RsT I just got mine but haven't used it yet, it was just released as a notable upgrade to the V2. It has wifi and SATA which would address your needs for FTP server and NAS controller. It runs Linaro/Ubuntu just like the UDOO, has some Arduino like capabilities but nothing like what the UDOO can do.. but you are saying you dont need any of that. Price wise you can get it for about $70-$75 USD (you can get a 20% discount for signing up for the newsletter at the linksprite site). Again, the UDOO is a wonderful investment, one of my favorite boards and can do exactly what you want (and much more), but hopefully this gets you the unbiased recommendation you were looking for, the pcDuino may just be a better lower cost fit if those are your only requirements.
