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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."
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)