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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.
David E. Weekly
David E. Weekly
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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
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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..
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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.
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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....
Only $379... not too shabby!
r ms/cerfcube.html
http://www.intrinsyc.com/products/referenceplatfo
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Get a 2 of them, cover in fur, paint some little dots on them, and you'll be the 1st on your block to have fuzzy dice webservers hanging off your rear-view mirror. :)
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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.
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.
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.
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
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