Holy smokes, I actually touched some LimePCs today!
This was at an unlikely venue, the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, CA. The ESC is a geek-oriented event primarily for engineers who want to touch the latest toys, and for engineering managers who wish they had stayed engineers. So I was quite astonished to see LimePC there, since ESC is NOT a consumer show like CES. In fact, LimePC was there to sell design and manufacturing services, and the products were there to show prospects what kinds of things LimePC can make.
So here's what I saw. Most of these are not at their poorly-maintained web site, so details are from a hard-copy brochure.
1. LimePad: this is an interesting combination of a iPad-like 10.1" LCD tablet called the E10, which can be inserted into a clamshell with a keyboard to become a netbook. Processor is "1 GHz minimum Cortex". I assume they mean an ARM Cortex-A8 or A9, as they're the only ARM Cortex that run that fast. 512MB DDR2, 8 GB SSD (250G HDD optional), Ethernet, USB, 3G, Wireless LAN, Android/LimeOS. 12 hours video time, 240 hours standby.
2. LimeLite: "Your mobile entertainment center" with pocket-size unit with 5.0" LCD which plugs into a base station with USB and Ethernet. Freescale MPC5121e, 512MB DDR2, 8GB SSD, Ethernet, 3G optional, Wireless LAN, Android. Plugged into the base station LimeLite reminds me of a Chumby, but you can unplug the unit and carry it around like an iTouch.
3. LimePC X1: the same product that was sold as CherryPal. I finally got to touch one!
4. LimeBook A9: cute little netbook with 8.9" LCD 1024x600 and "1 GHz minimum Cortex processor". From the name I would guess it is indeed an ARM Cortex-A9. 256MB or 512MB DDR2, 4GB or 8GB SSD, optional 30GB HDD, Ethernet, 3G, Wireless LAN, 2 USB, SD card reader, VGA, Android/LimeOS. Comes in white, black, pink, yellow, blue, or green. This one I actually played with a little, but it couldn't do much because there was no Internet connection. Still, it seemed like a nice little netbook.
5. LinkBook: same as LimeBook A9 but with a Freescale MPC5121e. I think its called the LimeBook at
www.limepc.com.
6. TWR-MPC5125 Freescale MPC5125 processor card for Freescale's Tower system, described earlier in the thread.
LimePC also had LimeNAS (Network Attached Storage) and LimePC X1V which both use VIA C7-M or VX855 processors. I think these are x86, but I'm too lazy to check. They also had a LimeSTB which is a set-top box.
Quite a lot of products, most of them showing pretty pictures and apparently working. I have no idea when any of them might hit the USA or under what brand names they might sell. Still, an unusually interesting booth visit.
ESC continues Wednesday 4/28 and Thursday 4/29.