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Delivering some hardware, I'll concede as not that tricky. Delivering a fairly advanced piece of kit at a very low price is another matter. Doing it on the relatively limited scale we are talking here (Kickstarter's statisics would suggest not too many over 800 kits going out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console?ref=live - add up the numbers for the $699 and above pledges) is particularly tricky.

I can't find any off the shelf Tegra 3 boards; the nearest option is the KTT30 ( http://emea.kontron.com/products/boards+and+mezzanines/embedded+motherboards/miniitx+motherboards/ktt30mitx.html ) which is unpriced and "Coming Soon!", despite a number of articles expecting it to come out in Q4 2012. The devkit board retails for 529 Euros ( http://shop.seco.com/carma-devkit.html?___store=eu_en&___from_store=eu_en ) by itself, for comparison.

It's worth saying that the Nexus 7 hadn't been announced when I said this, and even if it had you have to wonder whether removing the touchscreen is enough to save 50% of the price, especially with Google's ability to use economies of scale to mitigate R&D costs. I would point out that the Nexus 7 is predicted to be selling around a million a month ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9645052/Google-Nexus-7-tablet-sales-approaching-1m-a-month.html ), or over 20 times the pre-orders for the Ouya. Even then the Nexus 7 is generally presumed not to be making a profit on hardware (which the Ouya will have to do).

What is the reason for big-endian requirement, you will have hard time finding something that could be called "open platform". Did you look into x86 network appliances? Something like these (other embedded vendors have similar offerings):
http://emea.kontron.com/products/systems+and+platforms/communication+rackmount+servers/ip+network+servers/ip+network+server+nsw1u.html
http://www.msi.com/product/server/#/?sk=Security%20Board
http://www.ibase.com.tw/2009/fwa8207.html
http://www.nexcom.com/Products/network-and-communication-solutions/mainstream-appliance/mainstream-appliance/communication-appliance-nsa-5130

good man! feel free to fill in the preorder form

How can I even consider buying the product if your "web site" (which is just a Wiki) doesn't offer specifications, interfaces, power needs, thermal considerations, mechanical drawings, software, and many other things that are required to seriously consider using your product? Have you passed FCC testing, for example? If not then you probably can't sell the thing to the public at large.

It may be that your company just wants to announce a product and have thousands of backorders the very next day. But you need to at least explain to your customers why they should buy your product. Make a rendering in SolidWorks if you don't have a prototype. This is a technical product for geeks, so you need to supply all the appropriate pr0n.

Here is a good example to follow.

It's a shame that Paulsbo, the low-power chipset for Atom, is designed for MIDs

Some people are actually making SBCs based on Atom/Poulsbo. While certainly not fast enough to use as a desktop PC, I'm sure people can build a lot of interesting appliances with a board like that.

Our team(SONIA) is working on autonomous underwater vehicles and we are using Linux with Java for the AI part. For communication with actuators, we use the CAN bus, which is fairly common in the industrial automation and automotive fields.

There are CAN bus adapters that plug into serial or USB ports and there is Linux support for these. We're using one from Vector.

As for hardware, we use the Kontron JREX SBC with JFlex I/O boards to add the I/O ports we need(firewire and serial, mostly). Of course, if you're not cramped for space, you might go with something a bit larger.

I hope this helps, feel free to ask more questions.

Depends what hardware you are looking for...

http://www.dspdesign.com/products/index_html?categ ory_id=1

http://www.embeddedarm.com/

http://www.phytec.com/

http://www.gumstix.com/

http://us.kontron.com/

Most people use whatever stock cooler they get when they buy the CPU, which in this day and age is both reasonably quiet and keeps your CPU reasonably cool, without either the need to actively monitor or actively tweak it.

People who want a faster gaming rig buy faster graphics cards and more graphics cards.
People who want more CPU power buy faster CPUs and more cores.

Ignoring for the moment the bare few whose environmental conditions /really/ warrant custom cooling, most people I've met who buy this shit are people who could have gotten more benefit with one tenth the hassle by putting their money where it mattered. What we collectively and commonly term "idiots".

What DOES give value to many people today, however, is:

[a] QUIET
[b] Low power consumption (which, for me at least, translates into hundreds of dollars a year saved, plus some warm fuzzies for being eco-friendly)

Now if they were to review worthwhile solutions to THAT, both me and most of my geek friends would be getting much much more value and useful information out of said "journalism". Too bad they're still stuck in 1998 catering to overclocking pissing contests.

I recon I can do better, so here goes:

CPUs break up into the following catogories:

Desktop - 60-120Watts
Laptop - ~30 Watts (Most mobile core duo/core 2 duos- 5x00, 7x00 fit here)
LV - ~10 Watts (Celeron M xx8)
ULV - ~5 Watts (Celeron M xx3, Via C7, AMD Geode NX [1.5GHz ULV AthlonXP]
"REALLY REALLY" ULV - 5 Watts AMD Geode GX/LX [p2/3 class CPUs]. See Jetway 8x00 boards.

The latter three can use passive cooling.

Now consider the following suggestions:

Core desktop platform:
Kontron 986 board+CPU. ~900US$. A bit tricky to source, but can be done.
Uses a Yonah-based 1.06GHz ULV CPU (what you find in ultraportable laptops). ENTIRELY SOLID-STATE.
Being mini-itx, uses all standard ATX cases and PC hardware (RAM, PCIe, IDE, SATA, etc)
fast 16GB CF card for OS ~ 200US$. (remember to tweak XP/Vista to disable on-access writes, or you'll kill the flash card in a matter of months).
PicoPSU-120 - 60$.
60 or 90 Watt power brick - ~20$.

Machine profile: 30-40 Watts.
Core platform has NO MOVING PARTS (fans, drives, etc), hence SILENT.

For >16GB storage: replace CF with harddrive.
For casual gaming: Even being a low-clock CPU, it's still a Yonah core, has resonable L2 and a PCIe slot. Add Geforce 8800GTS-320 and any 450Watt PSU (the rest of the machine takes almost nil), it'll kick ass, just note that an 8800 eats 250Watts on idle, closer to 350 when under load. If you're concerned about power consumption, I'd start powering the machine down when not using it.

For less casual gaming: bump up the CPU from a 5Watt profile to a 30 Watt profile. Consider mini-itx solutions that can take some form of a T5x00 or T7x00 (Merom, dual-core) CPU and have PCIe. This will give you the rough equivalent of an E6400 (or even more) for half the power, and *MIGHT* even be palatable with some silly 2kg passive copper brick to keep the thing quiet.

For living room PC:

Via EPIA EN-12000 (1.2GHz C7 CPU) with GbE - ~300$ (Mobo + CPU).
PicoPSU 120.
12V/5A power brick.
2GB Flash with Winows XP.
Use networked RAID as storage.
Add haupage PCI card to make it a PVR.
Plays back MPEG2, DivX, what have you.
Core platform has NO MOVING PARTS (fans, drives, etc), hence SILENT.
Machine profile: 30-40 Watts.

For Fileserver:

Jetway J7F4 12000. (2xGbE, 1.2GHz CPU, 2 SATA). ~200$.
OS: 2GB CF with whatever server OS floats your boat.
PCI 4-port SATA card - 30$
Core platform has NO MOVING PARTS (fans, drives, etc), hence SILENT.
Add 4-6 400GB (or whatever cheaply-available sweet-spot drives you can find).
Option to make it nice and tidy: Cheap removable rack for ~100$.
Movi

(http://www.kontron.com/products/pdproductdetail.c fm?keyProduct=32501)

Here it is...was linked ta very end of the article.

Here' the link to the mobo in the article(http://www.kontron.com/products/pdproductd etail.cfm?keyProduct=32501)

I wonder why there is no ferrari-like niche in the laptop world -- ultimate performance that makes a lot of sacrifices that most people wouldn't make. How hard would it be to slap this dual processor motherboard onto a 20" LCD screen, and add a few SCSI 2.5" drives in a raid? There are people who'd go for it, even though it would weigh 20 pounds.

(related link tadpole sparcbook)

300mhz Geode processor (I have seen up to P3 700mhz boards)

256 memory

512 flash drive (for OS)

compact flash (why use a HD?)

OS? Windows to linux to a half a dozen others..

for under 600$

Hmm, now I may have to tinker and build a car PC now... in any case.. I will have 10 of the above in a month :)

info to get ya started:

kontron
winsystems
arcon
versalogic
m-systems (storage)

In Antarctica, 1997. I had two rugged military laptops (Kontron) for data acquisition and an HP Vectra desktop for use indoors. One of the laptops video fried when a snow machine started a few feet from it and the other didn't have the right connectors. I had to program an eprom on some equipment outside and just put the Vectra+Monitor on a box. For 4 hours at -45C and it worked fine. I even have a picture. So it's not because there's a thicker case around a motherboard that it makes it more reliable...

But they're not all that rugged. One LCD screen failed when a snowcat started just next to it. And I had to use my backup indoor machine outdoor; an old HP Vectra that had to sit outside for 4 hours while I uploaded firmwares into weather forecast systems. With gloves.

BSI makes some inexpensive rugged laptops. Kontron also makes some unique field computers, particuarly the In Rave. Wescom also makes some field computers.

There are also about 85,600 more matches on GOOGLE. Just do a search for industrial laptops.

BSI makes some inexpensive rugged laptops. Kontron also makes some unique field computers, particuarly the In Rave. Wescom also makes some field computers.

There are also about 85,600 more matches on GOOGLE. Just do a search for industrial laptops.