ARM SBC-maker courts Debian hackers with discount

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Dec. 05, 2005

British single-board computer (SBC) vendor Simtec has launched a developer discount program aimed at getting ARM-powered SBCs into the hands of Debian Linux developers. The "StrongARM Tactics" program offers at-cost StrongARM SA1110-powered boards to registered Debian developers willing to help debug and fix Debian's ARM branch.

(Click for larger view of Simtec's EB110ATX)

The last two stable releases of Debian, Sarge and Woody, have both featured ARM ports. However, the perception that the ARM few users is threatening to squeeze the port out of the mainstream Debian tree, according to Debian ARM maintainer Vincent Sanders.

Currently, the ARM Debian port has been "separated" from Debian's "testing" branch, Sanders says, in part due to 131 packages with potential problems. Sanders, who works for Simtec, says he convinced his boss to offer the company's StrongARM 110 evaluation board at deep discounts to deserving Debian developers, in hopes of getting more help maintaining the port.

Sanders describes the EB110ATX board as a reasonably standalone device needing only video and network cards, a power supply, hard drive, and case. He said, "As the bill of materials for these boards is more than the offer price, the only thing we ask is they should be actively used to improve the ARM port and remove the 'not keeping up' problems," Sanders wrote.

Availability

The EB110ATX board is available now to registered Debian developers, priced at 99 GBP (about $175). More details can be found in Sanders' post to the Debian developer's list, here. More details about the board can be found here.

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