I think Imagination made a decent attempt to bring a MIPS based board to market. The I/O specs seemed well thought out for makers, and the datasheets were comprehensive. It lacked any sizeable community, but there were enough skilled people around at the start to make it useful.
It was certainly one of the most enjoyable boards I've used - the hardware was very accessible, the flash was easy to program, and you pretty much owned it from the first block read from the NAND.
It's a bit of a shame the board didn't get much traction.
You must've been lucky, if you check the forums there's a trail of people who had hardware issues, there was a known issue. And they simply stopped responding to anyone. I spent $80 and got thoroughly ripped off; it was a half assed effort and they deserve to go under.
I was as unlucky as you - my board was from the initial release batch that crashed intermittently. Ultimately I took up the refund they were offering to anyone with a faulty board.
It was an unfortunately evasive and insidious bug - the board could run perfectly, maxed out, for hours or even days before freezing up.
From my own experience, I though Imagination handled things about as well as they could, though I understand this may not have been true for everyone.
It was certainly one of the most enjoyable boards I've used - the hardware was very accessible, the flash was easy to program, and you pretty much owned it from the first block read from the NAND.
It's a bit of a shame the board didn't get much traction.