Slashdot Mirror
Credit-card sized Linux system
FnH writes "Swiss startup Smartdata unveiled a credit-card sized embedded Linux computer called -computer Chipslice. The tiny device, which runs uClinux, is intended to be used in a wide range of mobile, portable, and wearable computing applications. Read more about it here " I can already dream of several possibilities of one of these combined with wireless internet access.
my predictions usually end up wrong, so don't listen to anything I say;)
But since before they were called PDAs, when the height of technology was a calculator that allowed you to store memory when it was off, I always expected them to die. "Too small!" I scoffed. "Desk calculators are cheap and easy to use, have printers. Who would want to carry a less capable, clumbsier device?!"
Talk of handheld computers did the same thing "Why would you suffer the indignity of whatever painful input device you must use to input text, and forget about pictures or color! bah!"
Things like the Sharp Wizard and the various Casio gizmos only reinforced this -- either they had tiny QUERTY keyboard (bad enough) or else sequential numbers and letters which made text entry a horrible joke on the user.
I laughed at the Palm, too, when I first saw a picture and read about it, and even when I saw other people using them for things that I thought could be better done with an index card and a rollerball pen. Things like a tiny uCLinux-running credit card thing would have made my eyes roll back in my head.
Now I am converted. Afer playing with friends' Palms / Pilots over the past few years, I got a visor and discovered that numbers I have on the visor aren't subject to getting crumpled or smeared, that directions I have there don't mysteriously acquire chewing gum decorations, and games on it are disproportionately fun. (Parking Lot! Parking Lot!) Perfect to keep a travel journal, dream diary, contact info.
So though this ChipSlice thing looks destined for more specialized applications and a more focused userbase than the do-everything Palm and Visor, I'm much more optimistic than I would have been a few years ago that it can be useful and successful.
But please, Chipslice, if anyone there is listening -- use file formats that other people can use! Plain text! XML! html! Dots and Dashes!
Make it simple for someone to use one of these for data transfer (you do say it's USB compatible), as a download station for a digital camera, as a hotel-room key via expiring codes, as a million other things, but in some way that they don't have to worry about carrying tons of equipment for "compatibility" with cousin Joe or the New York office.
That's all:)
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
"his company has applied for a patent on 'technology that enables the production of cost effective credit card sized modular pocket internet appliances."
The device is very interesting, but what gives SmartData the right to patent it? 3Com's devices are very close to credit card sized considering they include a screen. And why should one company have a patent over the "size" of a computer? It isn't like everyone isn't going down the road to fingernail sized computing, so why don't we collectively patent, "Technology that enables production of cost effective finger-nail sized computing devices."
The idea of patenting the technology used to create it, appears to keep the "freedom" of competition for making devices of this size open. That's can't possibly be. Manufacturing computers is done in exactly the same ways, if someone happens to patent a process which is slightly more efficient, than all they are really doing is slowing the progression of the industry, and I don't think we should stand for it.
As it is, any single company which introduces new technology can already stand to suffer under some competition, that's what keeps them producing there devices for a reasonable price and with enhancements.
Look at the amount of time it took for Palm devices to drop drastically in price, and offer peripherals like... software to go with the modem, or keyboards, nice screens, now color screens. This is because 3Com introduced a great device and only improved on it as the market demanded. They introduced a modem, but nobody had professionally developed syncing or internet apps for it. The modem's still a 14.4.
As open-source supporters, we should oppose vague patents on any new technology which are only to be used as scare-tactics and for monopolizing new markets.
Ace
I saw it a couple of weeks ago on local TV (I live in Geneva, Switzerland), and was impressed. The concept is, AFAIK, you can add/remove/change "slices" of the computer, just by changing one or several credit-card sized slices that stack together. One of them being the screen, anoher one the CPU, then a GSM receiver or whatever you want. I guess the battery is another "slice".
Basically, the possibilities are quite huge... And you can build a dedicated PDA in a matter of seconds. One of the interresting applications is to "stack" your credit card (the ones with the chip, pretty much standard in Europe) in the PDA and be able to pay straight from it. Mix it with a WAP module and you got a perfect system for electronic buying.
Cool.
max.
-- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
Cracking encryptions and opening locked doors.
This is the second OS Card story on slashdot today!!
:p
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
My god! Someone mentions a patent on slashdot and the sky falls! They're not patenting thin-ness! They're patenting a specific implementation. Try finding a microprocessor or motherboard that doesn't have a few dozen (or few hundred) patents on it. You can't. It may be Intel, AMD, Cyrix, IBM, Motorola, Sun, or any other company that makes a buck on their own hardware designs.
Yes, there are stupid patents out there. Too many, in fact. That's still no excuse for jumping to conclusions like this based on a VERY short quote that doesn't describe the nature of the patent very well. It sounds to me like they're just going through the standard procedure of patenting their own engineering. Take careful note that he mentions a patent on the production method, not the concept. There are many different ways to produce things. Relax, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong here at all.
WARNING: there is a trojan on your