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Project Pengachu: Handheld Linux for $50?
ContinuousPark writes: "The folks at the MIT Media Lab have been working on a $50 handheld Linux computer. 900MHz, 1mW, 200Kbps peering or hub-and-spoke internet gateways for wireless mode and a RS-485 wired LAN: 1Mbps multidrop. Loads of software on less than 1Mb footprint. They've called it the Pengachu Project: Cheap Wireless Linux for Everyone. Read about it here, an article on the kickoff event for the Digital Nations project."
... will it electrocute anybody who it doesn't know as a security measure, just like that another *chu we all despise.
J
Umm, a DragonBall runs closer to 20MHz than 100. What I really want to see is somebody reserect the Z380. At 66MHz, you could make a damn nice TI-83 compatible machine! Think about it, znibbles at 66MHz!
(On a related note, I think the KDE and X programmers should be forced to spend time coding for these calculators. Fast, tight, optimized code. That's how REAL men program. Some guy wrote Mechwarrior for the Ti86, which has around 32k of RAM and a 6MHz processor!)
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
like I said, it being free was a small portion of the deal... They wanted an open-sourced, free, small OS. It already has a lot of tools for porting applications, and many have been extremely successful at bringing over basic apps to the handheld market (ala Mutt, etc).
This reminds me of the windup radio developed by Trevor Baylis for use in regions such as Africa where radio is the primary method of distributing important information but electric power and even batteries are difficult to get.
The windup radio was sold in the west for a pretty high price as a curiousity to subsidize the distribution of these radios in Africa.
The Pengachu has short-range IP wireless commuication. What about wide area communication in infrastructure-poor areas? The two options I can see:
1. Satellite communication - a VSAT terminal that is shared by multiple Pengachus using the short range wireless link.
2. Terrestrial radio. Yes, this is one-way, but it's a very cheap and effective way of distributing information, software upgrades, etc. You can piggyback the data onto existing transmitters (RDS for FM, phase modulation a-la AM stereo for AM)
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Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
1. The $50 price tag is OEM cost in bulk. Our goal for this project is to build these devices and give them away to people in the developing world as information access devices. We're therefore not including the 300-400% markup that a commercial product would experience. If you consider the bill of materials cost for a Handspring Visor you will find that something around $30-$40 OEM cost in volume translates to the $110-$120 retail price.
2. The LCD is the single most costly component of the device (about $10 of the $50 cost target). While it would be nice to have a bigger display, you pay dearly for it. So it makes more sense to figure out how to build a decent UI model for limited screen real estate than throw all your budget into the display, which will cost more, break more easily, and eat up more power. This is especially important if you charge your batteries from a solar or wind-up power source!
3. This made it to Slashdot before we finished a proper documentation set. We wish to acknowledge the uClinux/Lineo team and TomW (http://www.openhardware.net) for doing the groundwork that made it possible to build these devices. TomW's commitment to open source hardware is especially laudable. Our device is not based on their netlists or board layouts, but their work with other uClinux hardware made it much easier for us.
-- Matt Reynolds, matt@media.mit.edu (hardware engineer for Pengachu)
In 1987-1994 Russian market was flooded with hobbyist designs of ZX Spectrum and ZX 128 clones. I was in the university back then.
That cheap, small Z80-based thing had HUGE impact on my generation. The parts cost (including blank PCB and keyboard) was about 20USD. Almost every student in every technical school built one of these and played games nights away. Many learned to program using these. Many went to sell them on the black market and earned seed capital for their later, more interesting ventures. This was truly a quiet revolution. Russia owes large part of its technical and enterpreneural talent to ZX Spectrum.
The moral is : a good affordable computer design CAN make a differnce in 3rd world countries.
You probably have the cover on, though, providing EM/RF shielding :P
My friend runs his box coverless. It runs at a 100MHz FSB. He can't get any radio stations in the 100MHz range.
"If ignorance is bliss, may I never be happy.
-- Veni, vidi, dormivi
128x64 pixel onboard LCD, possibly VGA or NTSC output in next version
I don't think so... Maybe the next version will appeal to those used to dedicated monitors, but they probably won't cost $50!
If you're running your computer coverless, yep.
"If ignorance is bliss, may I never be happy.
-- Veni, vidi, dormivi
Do you really want to use vi/emacs with slow handwriting recognition? Or a command line at all? /. about this a few months back...general consensus is that you'd use the OS kernel and build a new GUI on top of that, instead of using commandline, as that paradigm Just Doesn't Work(tm) for handhelds.
There was an article on
"If ignorance is bliss, may I never be happy.
-- Veni, vidi, dormivi
The project's goal is to be able to make many for a low per-unit price so their sponsors (or the foundation funded by those sponsors) will be able to buy many for distribution in the countries where they are needed. How much sense would it make to try to bootstrap an informed user community in these desperate lands if only a few could be distributed because of high cost?!
That 900 MHz is for the radio band, not the processor speed. This is still cool, but I'm not drooling quite so much any more.
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
Pokemon Pengachu vs. Pokemon Itsy!
You know, Palm already can sell the m100 at 100 and still make a profit. They simply don't have any competition at the low end market.
By the time this thing is out, m100plus will be something like 59.99. And Tiger Electronic will be selling purple Barbie Palm.
More low-end keyring PDA to keep Palm honest, yes. A better OS than PalmOS, I don't think so.
CY
Assuming that it has adequate performance regardless of processor speed, at just $50 they could very well saturate the market place. At least that many more people will be learning Linux. Can anyone say the youth market - ages 8 -18? $50 computer would make great stocking stuffers.
www.enthea.org
The system sounds like it would be a huge hit, but I really have to wonder if it could actually be sold at $50. That is a prety low price. Cell phones cost more and the companies mass produce them and make the money on contracts. Still, for $50, this could put linux in a lot of peoples hands.
"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people in the world?"
The specs for Pengachu are here
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WolfSkunks for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.keenspace.com";
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Wasn't that the level select code for Sonic 3? :P
Yeah, I played waay too much sega.
"If ignorance is bliss, may I never be happy.
-- Veni, vidi, dormivi
Are you serious? MW for the 86? :P
Gimme a link, I -have- to see this.
"If ignorance is bliss, may I never be happy.
-- Veni, vidi, dormivi
[
For what it's worth, the MechWarriorCheck out some of the ASM programs for the various calculators. There are several impressive ones on the top downloads list, but there are also some less popular gems buried in the archives that never got as much exposure.
Enjoy!
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
See ticalc.org to satisfy your curiosity.
For what it's worth, the MechWarrior
game for the '86 isn't as impressive as it sounds - yer standard TI-BASIC fare.
Check out some of the ASM programs for the various calculators. There are several impressive ones on the top downloads list, but there are also some less popular gems buried in the archives that never got as much exposure.
Enjoy!
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
from Pengachu PDA block diagram found at http://rehmi.www. med ia.mit.edu/~rehmi/pengachu/v3_document.htm
it uses a Dragonball CPU, the same used in the Palm handhelds. much less then 900mhz, probablly more like 100 or so.
it also has a 128x64 LXD screen. not to usefull by it self, but does provide moniter hookups
it has 8M Flash RAM, pretty cool. Linux is going to eat up about 1M of that.
The neatest thing is that it can use "winup" power.. I can't imagine running a stable web server off winup power, but if you just lugging it somewhere and want to read your mail, what could be better?
-Jon
this is my sig.
it has a 100 kb/sec 900 Mhz radio
Congratulations, Sir. /.
You and post #3 beat the Editors to the act of reading the article. I do believe "Correction +1" should be a moderation option. It seems to be used/needed so often on
Well, Mobile Linux will only be useful if it is done right... so that it is actually stable, usable, and as "idiot-proof"/easy to use as WinCE and PalmOS... Palmtops are a user-driven market, and most of the users are not engineers... While Linux gives access to cheaper, more familiar development environments (Gnu compilers, etc.) for OpenSource engineers, there needs to be more than just that...
Some more Linux Handheld links, including the actual specs of Pengachu, which reveal that 900mhz is the RF band (in case you thought it was the clockspeed), etc...
The Project Pengachu home page (specs, etc.)
MobiliX has various Mobile linux links / resources.
Gmate, the Korean company producing a (somewhat expensive) Linux PDA that looks rather a lot like the one from Samsung
Compaq Itsy
o/~ we are pissed, we are pissed, we have to resist... o/~ - ec8or
haha, ya. bigfreakinserver is a dual proc celly. it's not a monster machine. it was a place where I would run as many servers and junk as I could. kind of a testbed for tech. Right now it's down as I have moved to Austin and haven't got the DSL hookup yet.
anyway, it's a joke name. laugh.
-Jon
this is my sig.
I can just see it now; people complain about comand intuitiveness now, what's it gonna be like with a device like this? Can you get a console on it? tilt left,left,right,up,up,down,left for directory listing. tilt right,down,up,right,left,followed by a shake,left,up,more shaking, right, and up once more to change dirs. throw it in the clothes dryer to randomly recompile the kernel. God forbid you drop the thing down some stairs and accidentally issue "nohup rm -rf /&"
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Society has traditionally always tried to find scapegoats for its problems. Well, here I am.
Sounds great, but it hasn't got that much in it from what I can tell (based on current specs). The fact that it's using Linux will actually make a difference - not only for the geek factor, but because it's less costly. While some major work will obviously have to be done (I don't think the current kernel supports the stuff in these kinds of systems), it will likely pay off.
Summary:
Pluses: -Uses Linux, this means less cost and a
major "geek" factor.
-Has modularity extreme, strong point of
the kernel.
Minuses: -Has to compete with Palm...This may be
overcame, but it will be hard.
-Major mods needed; the Linux kernel
just isn't meant for these
kinds of systems.
-You've gotta pay for all this. Even if
major effort comes free, it will still cost a whole lot. You've got to not
only equal the competition, but surpass
it enough to stand out.
-Can you imagine recompiling the kernel
for you palmtop?
In conclusion: It's got good potential, as long as the obstacles are overcome - but they sure are some pretty huge obstacles.
SIG: HUP