Before i start to talk about CubieBoard it's best for you to know about SoC first. what is SoC? according to wikipedia.org, SoC (System on a Chip) is an integrated circuit (IC) that integrates all components of a computer or other electronic system into a single chip. [caption id="attachment_262132" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="CubieBoard"][/caption] Basically, SoC is the most basic form of computer with very basic functionality too. But with this card-name sized computer you still can do things such as browsing, check email, office, play music or play your high-definition movie collection. There are few name for SoC products in the market. Arduino, Hackberry, CubieBoard or Raspberry PI. If you're new with this SoC, i suggest you start with Raspberry Pi Model B product. it has large community and a ton of documentation  to make you easy to understanding how to install or troubleshoot the product. But personally, I choose CubieBoard for its higher-specification between others. For comparison between SoC you can refer to this document. My CubieBoard just arrived yesterday, i bought it last week from cubieboard.myshopify.com. With only $49 you can have SoC board with 1GHz ARM processor, 1G RAM, 1 ethernet, 2 USB interface, you can see the full detail from this link. I also bought transparant casing and Wifi dongle for my mobility needs. [caption id="attachment_262135" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="CubieBoard Package"]
[/caption] I suggest you to read this
documentation to install your CubieBoard. It's a good place to start. Or for easy tutorial, you can search it too on YouTube. By default CubieBoard shipped with Android 4.0.4 installed on nand (internal memory). But CubieBoard also provide flexibility for us to choose Operating System, let say popular Operating System like Ubuntu (Both version desktop and server are available), Fedora, LTSP (thin client), Puppy and few more. But not only that, you can make your own flavored Operating System to fit your need. [caption id="attachment_262136" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Android on CubieBoard"]
[/caption] The good thing is, you can install as many Operating System as you like on single memory card. System will arrange each Operating System requirement on Boot Loader. so each Operating System wouldn't interrupt each other and keep everything isolated unless you already make some changes. Remember, your Operating System is installed on memory card. And the Android still on Nand memory. so whenever your Operating System is crash, you can simply plug off your memory card and boot back to Android. And yes, you can replace your Android on nand to other Operating System. So as i mentioned before, you can do many thing with your SoC like CubieBoard. For general purpose or maybe for your SOHO. for example, you can use it for media server, LAMP server, VPN, DHCP Server, Thin Client, Device Automation.. anything! so what ever it is, your creativity is your limit.
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