Here's the link:

http://smartbookblog.com/2009/12/cherrypal-hopes-to-undercut-olpc-with-99-africa/

It looks like this machine's specs would be a much better match for MorphOS than the resource hungry Linux they're trying to put on it. It makes me wonder if there were ever talks about putting MorphOS on this machine. Android is also under consideration for its OS, as is WindowsCE. Ouch.

Also, has anyone heard of the Xburst CPU they're talking about? Offered by Ingenic Semiconductor of China, it's rumored to be a non-standard RISC implementation of some kind.

It seems like a low power device like this could become very common, providing a great 'foot in the door' for MorphOS to find a much larger audience. Seems like it would be reasonable to do it like Apple-a 'fat binary' scheme for either architecture, PPC or Xburst.

I'd love to have a little gizmo like this running MorphOS

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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 20.04.2011 - 06:40 ]

It's MIPS32 based:

http://www.ingenic.cn/eng/productServ/XBurst/pfCustomPage.aspx

http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Ingenic

I think you would find it even harder porting anything to MIPS than ARM.

MIPS?

Ah.. feanor beat me to it :)

[ Edited by Golem on 2009/12/16 19:24 ]

> has anyone heard of the Xburst CPU they're talking about? Offered by Ingenic
> Semiconductor of China, it's rumored to be a non-standard RISC implementation
> of some kind.

No need for rumours. It's all well known: XBurst implements MIPS architecture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingenic_Semiconductor

@ Tronman

Quote:

This machine has been around with slightly different specifications for one and a half years now.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/05/23/china_cheap_eee_clone/


Quote:

To the best of my knowledge, this machine uses a MIPS processor. MorphOS does not run on this processor architecture and most likely never will.


Quote:

If you would like to run MorphOS on a small form-factor laptop in the forseeable future, PowerPC Apple laptops are your best bet. Fortunately, they provide far better performance than this MIPS machine too.

> This machine has been around with slightly different specifications for one and
> a half years now.
> http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/05/23/china_cheap_eee_clone/

http://www.littlelinuxlaptop.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skytone_Alpha-400
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elonex_ONEt

So CherryPal's machine is indeed that one? Or is it another one which coincidentally has XBurst CPU as well?

@ Andreas_Wolf

The case looks almost exactly the same. You can find a picture that Cherrypal provided on engadget.com. It happens to look *exactly* like machines with the same or very similar specifications (300 vs. 400 Mhz) that have been sold by various companies for months now.

I think i will never undestand how MorphOS might be attractive on such a a slow and ugly machine. Let's go forward, not backward...

> The case looks almost exactly the same. [...] It happens to look *exactly* like machines
> with the same or very similar specifications (300 vs. 400 Mhz) that have been sold by
> various companies for months now.

http://www.cherrypal.com/openstore/images/Cherrypal_Africa.jpg
vs.
http://www.littlelinuxlaptop.com/images/littlelinuxlaptop_bigpic.jpg (example 1 of countless)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Skytone_Alpha_400-de.png (example 2 of countless)

Seems more "almost exactly the same" than "exactly" the same ;-)
But that's "just" the housing anyway. I rather meant the inside (mainboard (apart from CPU), controllers etc.), i.e. in the same sense the Medion Akoya Mini is the MSI Wind.

@ Andreas_Wolf

Quote:

I specifically did not reference the pictures you had linked to earlier because they obviously do not look "exactly" the same.

http://www.china-wholesale-supplier.com/netbook-7-inch-lcd64m-sdram-800-%C3%83%C2%97-480-mini-laptop-with-battery-builtnandflash-2gb-free-shipping-mini121_p12648.html

Quote:

The only attraction I can see for porting to such a low spec laptop would be to attract the larger AmigaOS3.x and some of the AmigaOS4.x users to try out MorphOS with hopes that they will see the light and end up becoming part of the MorphOS community. If the port to a Cherrypal laptop will not significantly take time away from other more desireable MorphOS ports, or improvements, then I say "why not do it". I am sure the "First True Laptop" for an Amiga(like) OS will generate a lot of hoopla, even if it is not a very good laptop to run anything. If it runs as well as it does on an Efika, it will not be a bad experience. The 256mb of RAM should be enough for most applications on such a low spec laptop. What graphics card or chip does it have and what is the amount of VRAM available?

Getting more users can only be a good thing as it brings more money to motivate some of the MorphOS Developer Team members and it increases the size of the total MorphOS user base and makes it more attractive to any third party software or hardware developers to create anything for us to use.

More users may also bring a few more new programmers to create more content to run on MorphOS, or to improve existing content.

[ Edited by amigadave on 2009/12/16 15:34 ]

[ Edited by amigadave on 2009/12/16 15:40 ]

> http://www.china-wholesale-supplier.com/netbook-7-inch-lcd64m-sdram-800-%C3%83%C2%97-480-mini-laptop-with-battery-builtnandflash-2gb-free-shipping-mini121_p12648.html

Yes, that case very much looks like the Cherrypal Africa's case. But the device -albeit made by the same manufacturer- seems to be ARM based, not MIPS based like the Africa:

"Another similar device comes with the 248 MHz ARM SoC AK7802Q216, 64/128 MiB of DDR RAM and Windows CE 5.0."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skytone_Alpha-400#Further.2C_similar_devices_by_Exon.2FSkytone

Using different CPU architectures doesn't even remotely qualify as being "the same" in my book, regardless of the devices' case, while using identical "innards" but different cases would qualify as such. That's what I wanted to know: Whether the Cherrypal Africa and the "LittleLinuxLaptop" are based on the same innards, apart from the (XBurst) CPU of course.

Do you seriously believe that these retards actually know or care about the innards of their "new" product?
Given Cherrypal's track record, it can only be obvious that they are just reselling an existing ultra-cheap notebook, giving it the only added value of their own public image (shock!).
Don't you realize that thinking otherwise would be so much more complicated?

> Do you seriously believe that these retards actually know or care
> about the innards of their "new" product?

I don't care if they know or care, I just know that *I* want to know.

Btw, interesting quote from Seybold:

""We buy access inventory and package it up; that's why we are able to offer such a low price," Seybold said. "In other words, we use XBurst and similar inexpensive processors in order to stay below the $100 mark, we reserve the right to make changes on the fly, that's why we didn't go into great detail on our site. There are a number of customers who will get a much more powerful system than advertised. Yes we take orders and we started shipping last week. Naturally our margin on the "Africa" is very thin but we are not losing money either.""
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2357185,00.asp

> it can only be obvious that they are just reselling an existing ultra-cheap notebook

Yes, of course that's obvious. But it's not obvious (to me at least) whether it has the "LittleLinuxLaptop" board or if it's a different XBurst based design.

> Don't you realize that thinking otherwise would be so much more complicated?

I don't think otherwise and never said or implicated so.

More interesting info from http://www.cherrypal.com/GreenOpenFair/2009/12/19/the-open-secret-behind-the-cherrypal-africa-or-a-brand-is-a-promise-or-understatement-by-design/ to clear the confusion:

"...we buy access inventory, overcapacity, out-of-fashion shells, shells with minor cosmetic flaws, discounted limited batches, and other high quality though discounted components and systems, package them up and sell them under the Cherrypal Africa brand. Bear with me. What this means is that 5 randomly selected people ordering a Cherrypal Africa on any given day theoretically might get 5 different systems, with different configurations. [...] We soft-launched the Cherrypal Africa in November and started shipping early December. So far we got nothing but positive feedback from admittedly surprised customers. What we promised was a 7″ laptop, 400 MHz processor, 256 MB RAM, 2GM storage, and what we shipped were 10.2 inch, 1.6 GHz, 160 GB (new) laptops. A mistake? No, we call it understatement by design. [...] The Cherrypal brand promise is that you get at least or more of what we promise. So when we promise that you get a laptop with a 400 MHz processor it doesn't mean you actually get one. When we promise that you get Windows CE it doesn't mean that you get one either. Most likely you get much more. What we post in our online catalog as product description are minimum technology characteristics. In other words we "meet or beat" the Cherrypal Open Store online catalog promise."

And regarding the MIPS vs. ARM discussion:

"In order to avoid any confusion, do we use XBurst processors for the Africa, yes we do, do we use ARM processors, yes we do, do we use Intel processors, yes we do, we use any proven components as long as they are inexpensive, high quality, and meet or beat our promised online product specifications, and last but not least, allow us to manufacture low energy consuming systems."

So in conclusion, the Cherrypal Africa's tech specs can be just about everything. If you order one, you can't be sure if you get MIPS, ARM or x86 beforehand. Maybe they'll even ship MPC5121e based LimeBooks as Africas. They meet the Africa's minimum spec at least ;-)

The same type of generic sub-netbook are flying out on eBay atm for like same price

Nothing special unless it was MobileGT or PPC unless use wished to run linux on it.

7" 266-400mhz 2g-4g ssd etc

> unless it was MobileGT or PPC

MobileGT is the MPC51xx and MPC52xx kinds of PPC.

Quote:

Imagine making drivers and system software that runs on an indeterminate amount of different configurations, changing daily. Really, this Max Seybold is incredible. He takes advantage of the general igonrance people have about computers, making all "oh so easy", in order to make a business out of it. Topping it off with the "computers for poor people" (which, in itself, is VERY questionable) that's a trend nowadays. Sick.

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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 25.04.2011 - 07:31 ]

Are you sure you are not in Seybold's payroll?

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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 25.04.2011 - 07:32 ]

Quote:

Sorry to hear that. My comment is not an insult. I could react the same, and feel harmed by your response, but I won't.

Quote:

I won't. But yes, it can be considered lousy. Not false, because it's not an affirmation.

Quote:

It's a pity, because I've enjoyed very much your comments elsewhere in this site. I'll live with that.
I feel frustration coming out of you, am I wrong again?

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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 20.04.2011 - 06:41 ]

Velcro, could he have been speaking sarcastically? I don't think there's a personal insult intended here, but I could be wrong.

Didn't mean to start a war here, I was just curious about the hows and whys of the Cherrypal Africa net book, which seems a good idea.

btw, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!