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Adorable Little Linux Boxes
An anonymous reader wrote in to tell us about an article describing the CerfCube. 192Mhz StrongArm, 32MB RAM, 16MB flash, ethernet, CompactFlash, 3 serial ports and a USB port. Not impressed? Well how about that it's only a 3 inch cube? The box runs Linux and Apache. We did a previous story about it, but this is much more informative about the internals.
Yes, I agree with you it's easy - BUT go ask a company why they use Linux anyway...
It's the licensing issue. If I was selling embedded stuff - I would rather have grabbed Linux then CE - because I can sell much more, and I don't need the licensing or paying Microsoft for each copy. That way I can charge less the customer and probably get a good stand point to sell my products..
I'm sure that someone will make a version of Linux as easy (or easier?) to use then CE - all the players here are commercial players, and one of those will probably make it.
Hetz (Heunique)
The IBM Microdrive is a CF form factor hard drive with sizes from 350MB to 1GB. Maybe that's what you found in your pocket?
Or maybe it was a USB hard drive?
Or maybe, since it has onboard ethernet, you could just have it nfs mount its root directory?
David E. Weekly
David E. Weekly
Code / Think / Teach / Learn
h4x0r for
"Is that a Linux Box in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"
...
"Oh. It's a Linux Box."
You probably don't want to cuddle up to an 802.11b device - 2.4 GHz is the same frequency used for microwave ovens, though 802.11b uses much lower power of course.
~200 StrongARM, flash, and memory. Sounds close to the iPaq handheld, and the empeg-car. And the Netwinder I suppose as well. ArmLinux is definitly growing in it's uses.
You're not going to see this in any Slurpee or other embedded type machine. The more complex and interesting machines of this type all use PLC's (Programmable Logic Controllers). Small base model PLC's can be had for $50-$100. You program them in "Ladder Logic", which is amazingly friendly for machine language. They are actually really cool.
For embedded controls like this you don't need fast or powerful. You need rock solid reliability, a lot of tolerance for abuse, and a very simplistic programming language that makes it difficult or impossible to do something stupid. Of course if you want something with more pizzazz, like a graphical screen and touch control, I can see this little Linux device fitting right in.
Chris
-- I need more coffee. It's Monday. There is no such thing as enough coffee on a Monday.
What I really want is an in between system, smaller than a microATX desktop, but not so small as the box in this /. article. Something on the order of size of an old Sun 411 case or a "lunchbox" case at the largest, would be about right. I would be looking for 2 versions, one with and one without harddrive. The harddrive can be a smaller laptop (2.5 inch) type. I also want this to be i386 based, but it doesn't need to be the fastest processor, so the slower and smaller i386 embedded processors will probably do the job.
What I found when I went searching for this a few months ago was several companies making various SBCs, but no one making a complete system based on it. I don't want to get into the hardware building business over this. One problem was that these components were not designed to fit right into a small box with others. In most cases they were not all integrated (e.g. no ethernet ports ... I need 2 since these will be firewalls) and depended on add on slots they had, which if used made for setups that would never fit in a decent box.
The configuration should be simple enough. Based on an embedded chipset and CPU, such as a 200 MHz embedded 486 class CPU, with one or two DIMM slots for RAM, one or two IDE interfaces, one or two serial ports, minimalist VGA video and keyboard (if not console over serial) and maybe even a mouse port. I do need dual ethernet and it needs to be integrated, so whoever builds this is clearly going to have to think "firewall market".
I bet I'll get several people suggesting that I check out this company or that company. I've gotten those many times before and these companies turn out to make SBCs, but none are configured right, and none come fully built in a box with power supply. So if you are temped to make such a suggestion, it probably already has been made. If you do know that they do make this box, then it hasn't been made because I have seen no such company, yet.
If you are interested in starting a businesses building hardware and doing something with SBCs, you might consider this firewall market. But do remember that the higher end "firewall" will also be a web proxy and mail (SMTP+POP3) server as well, and maybe even more than that. It's more of the next evolution of a smaller system box.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
I already do this with microATX machines. But they are 2 to 3 times more volume (mostly wasted air) than they need to be. This is why I am looking for the next step smaller. Sun used to make the Sparc IPC, IPX, and LX machines about the right size. But I need dual ethernet, IDE, and prefer an Intel CPU (but it doesn't need to be hyper fast ... one of the embedded x86 CPUs would be fine ... 200-300 Mhz is plenty of speed). Since it will be a firewall, fancy video is not needed and serial console would be acceptable (but one serial port for backup dialout modem would be useful, too). To keep the internal geometry in control, it all needs to be integrated on one board without requiring the use of any PCI slot cards to achieve the basic requirements.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
take a look again. They offer a Reference Board, a Developer's station thingie, AND the cube.
And yes, the reference board is for integrating into *other* devices.. Nice nifty setup.. I can think of half a dozen projects right now..
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Sure -- pick up a Power Mac G5 Sphere when you get a chance.
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Daniel from Intrinsyc:
You can actually hot swap the CF cards on the fly. The static issue is becuase the PCB is exposed, so there is a chance for the individual to touch some component and have it burn out.
The static grounding makes it safe to touch the electronics inside. You don't have to tiptoe around the thing with the fear of frying it.
My words, are my own, thanks.
By taking a position of superiority you show how nearsighted you are. Thus Spake ADRA
Bye!
With all the empty space in the cube, you could easily add the guts of a lighter to it..
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This is not a reasonably unbiased forum, this is slashdot.
-- free as in swatantryam - not soujanyam.
I'm looking for a cheap and simple "appliance"-grade storage scheme. An ethernet jack, fixed IP address or DHCP, some Samba and FTP, and a drive bay. Nothing more. No shells, no boot sequence, no integrated USB jacks.
It would seem like this CerfCube and a matching DiskCube device would make a great little pair for simple stuff... of course you wouldn't want to host 10Khits/hour on it, but it could probably run a few fetch-and-store daily operations.
[
My friend at work bought one of them because he thought it looked cool and nifty... He plugged in a 64mb Flash card he had and it fried the flash card and the cube.... I would stay away from these hunks of junk personally...
The iPaq 36xx handheld models have about 206MHz StrongARM processor, with 16-64MB Flash and RAM. They have USB, they have everything. The price vary between $300-$600. ...and the size is about 5x3x0.6 inches, which is much less volume than the cube has.
But, of course, the iPaqs come with LoseCE preinstalled, although Linux works too. I don't know if Apache has yet been ported, but it might have.
While they are not cute cubes, they fit much better in your pocket.
What I'd like to see is server farms based on tiny ipaq-sized low-power processor cards. Just stuff one 4U box full of those and whheeee....
... you will be assimilated ... resistance is futile! The only problem is that the external power supply is bigger than the computer itself.
embeded devices. It's not designed for end users, but for OEMs to incorperate into thier own creations. The OEM attaches things to the hardware, adds a chip or 2, updates the OS, and sticks it inside thier "Talking plush Tux Doll" to sell on Think Geek. I also believe this is sort of a demo to get the OEMs interested in the product.\ =\=\=\=\=\
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"Despite the plentiful extra space inside the cube, the unit is powered by a rather large external wall-mount power supply." (Quote from this page, in the middle above the larger image.)
So much for a 2.2 x 2.4 inch CerfBoard in a 3x3x3 inch box! Anybody know how big the power supply is? They imply it's huge by not mentioning anything about it's size other than what I quoted above.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
If only there were an easy way to hook a Linux equipped PS2 to a battery supply...
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
CerfCube for Linux
Specifications
CerfBoard-SA 1110 CPU Board
Processor - Intel® StrongARM(TM) 1110 microprocessor @ 133/206 MHz
Memory - 16 MB FLASH (3.3V or 5V); 32 MB SDRAM (100 MHz)
Flash Programming - TAG support through CPU, download through Ethernet
Data Connectivity - 10BaseT Ethernet RJ45 port; USB Type B port, 1 RS232 serial port (2 line) from 10-pin row header
CompactFlash+ header - supports Type I and II cards, including IBM microdrive, CompactFlash memory cards, barcode readers, and wireless modems
I/O- 16 digital lines (all lines have programmable interrupt capability, and the first four have buffered LED indicators)
Size - 2.24" x 2.73" (57mm x 69mm)
Power - 5VDC regulated, 400mA (with no CompactFlash device; peak of 800 - 900 mA (for example, with IBM microdrive)
Software Support Environment
Intrinsyc Standard Linux distribution (Kernel 2.4)
Apache Webserver
Sendmail
Blackdown Java
Perl
SSH
DHCP
Each CerfCube Kit Contains
CerfCube
Cables
Power Supply
Documentation
Other Kits Available
Linux OEM Developers' Kits (ODKs)
CerfPod for Linux ODK - Intel StrongARM(TM) 1110-based PDA reference design with 5.7" LCD and touchscreen
Windows CE ODKs
CerfCube - Windows CE
CerfPod ODK - Windows CE
Intrinsyc Software Development Toolkits
Compatible with Intrinsyc Software Development Toolkits, including deviceCOM for Linux and deviceOPC for Linux
NOTE: ALL SPECIFICATIONS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.
Only $379... not too shabby!
r ms/cerfcube.html
http://www.intrinsyc.com/products/referenceplatfo
I'm a-fixin' to buy me a couple to control some analog video switch gear. I love Linux, but I'm a cheap bastard, too.
*f*
PDF HERE
Looks good. Could be a fun box to fart around with, but for $400, man, that is a lot of beer money!
AK
Schweeet! I'm already wanting to order one.... truly the first cube computer I'd ever buy!
Like these Cerfcubes are running the website. Maybe it'll be over the /. effect in a few hours.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
"Honey, have you seen the computer?"
"Yeah, I think I saw the cat playing with it again."
"The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
They could make them snap together like Legos and _build_ a supercomputer in the shape of the eiffel tower.
.
"The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
Why would anyone care what OS the Slurpee dispenser is running?
;)
No one would, but that's the point. Use linux and no one would notice or care. Install a Windows based OS and there would be stickers all over the damn thing. Not to mention the crashes.
you're officially worse than Microsoft.
How is he "officially" worse than Microsoft. Has he been endorsed by a standards body. Is he ANSI Worse or W3C Worse?
"The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
How about buying two of them and setting up an Oracle 9i clustered pair for a high availability OLTP application. You could probably get funding.
..snort..snort..
Damn, this is some good shit.
"The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
Distributed Annoyance.
"The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
I wonder what kind of heat dissipation this thing has. I can imagine some enterprising fellow crowding a whole rack with them only to have the ambient heat become suffocating. Or is it simply not a factor?
Honorary Member of Jackie Chan's Kung Fu Process Servers
Well, I don't think that the issue that I brought up was submissions, because I don't see anything wrong with submitting stories of this kind, but yesterday I submitted an Ask Slashdot about what people thought about mp3.com hosting a large group of big name artists and whether that would negatively affect the users ability and motivation to find independant artists.
Information wants Coq
Because if the maker of the Slurpee machine didn't have to pay a license fee for the operating system, it means Slurpee's can be that much cheaper. (No, $0.00003 per slurpee isn't going to matter, but the savings would be more noticable in other consumer electronics.)
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
That, and how many of us own a computer that could be mistaken for a Post-It Note holder?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
They have a contest to win one of these cool little things plus some star wars robot: http://www.intrinsyc.com/contests/contest.asp
"Pussy: You spend 9 months trying to get out of it, and the rest of your life trying to get back in..."
I lost my concept of community when my community lost all concept of me.
I just want it in a toaster. Everybody's been telling me that one day I'll have an Internet-enabled toaster, and I want one.
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
The Cube is a cute little box, however I can't help thinking $379 is a tad on the expensive side, true, it does have a 206mhz ARM chip and a nice case. Seems like an iPaq with ethernet.
However, iButton produce a java-based embedded computer called TINI that sells for $50, including Ethernet, RS232, 1-wire & can buses. A new version is due later this year which has a 10x speed increase, it also integrates all the functions of the device into a single chip, excluding flash.
Yeah... check this post. (legit link).
You could built a 'similar' system from standard off the shelf PC parts which would be cheaper and faster, grab a MicroATX case for $25, uATX m'board for $110, a Celeron $60 (?), Hard Drive (~$100), and some RAM which is ridiculously cheap right now $30 (one benefit on an economy balancing on the edge). It adds up to about $300 if you need to buy everything, but any self-respecting techie has a box they can salvage components from.
The board has audio, video, Ethernet integrated, granted integrated components are often lacking, but this wont affect anything if you use it as a small server or NAT/Firewall box.
This is obviously different to the actual Cube, that being a true embedded system.
There's smaller FlexATX and NLX kit about too. The parts and thermal solutions are scarce though.
The article that you link to doesn't mention CE at all... although I'm definately not a CE fan, it has it's uses, and should have been mentioned in any reasonably non-biased forum.
Pity... as much as we accuse Microsoft of being eletist and anti-competive, things like this don't make the Open Source / Linux movement look any better.
MadCow.
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
- Dan I.
If someone started marketing a teddy bear sized Tux doll, with one of these stuffed inside...
We could all curl up to a linux box at naptime.
It's easy to write songs, you just sit down and write them.
Why would anyone care what OS the Slurpee dispenser is running?
You or I may not care, but 7-11 sure does. Embedded devices are not usually known for their interfaces. They work hard at small jobs for their whole lives (like my elves (elfs if you're anal)).
Note that the board also supports WinCE. I'd wager that CE was the first OS ported to the device, the ease of setting up a CE system compared to setting up a Linux system is amazing.
Dancin Santa
It's a board. This is where Linux can really have the chance to shine. Beyond the obvious possibilities of setting up a beowulf cluster of these things to handle server requests, it looks like they designed the thing to fit into OEM devices. You could have this in your car, airport ticketing booths, interactive kiosks, or even Slurpee dispensers.
If this catches on, this is where Linux will see huge (but perhaps invisible) growth.
Dancin Santa
Though, perhaps this is the nefarious side of my brain speaking, this seems like it would be the perfect packet sniffer for a large network. Would you notice a three inch cube hidden in a server rack? Probably not unless you go looking for it.
If god had intended you to be naked, you would have been born that way.
It seems as if they're running their website from one of these boxes. Maybe they should get a faster machine =P
Reb
A cerfCube made for Smurfs!
Have you seen the Linux script kids @ MIT? This is the way to go:
CerfCube(TM): Part Computer, Part Hackisack, All Linux
- colin
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