Slashdot Mirror
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."
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)
----
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.
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
The specs for Pengachu are here
--
WolfSkunks for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.keenspace.com";
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
[
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 /&"
--
--
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