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Little Linux Systems For Whatever Ails Ya
An Anonymous Coward writes: "Looking for small pre-built systems for custom Linux-based projects or products? Look no further. LinuxDevices.com has assembled a handy reference list of small systems that can serve as ready-made platforms for prototyping applications, or as the basis of application-specific Linux-based systems and devices. The style, performance, and costs of these systems vary greatly."
I really have only one thing to say:
3dfx Voodoo3 3500TV.
Support for 3D is pretty obvious, and open source. Support for the TV-out (and in) is HERE, and the sourceforge project page is HERE. The code is pretty hairy, but it works. Not only that, but the TV out works at the same time as the 3D. I've seen it myself on my box. Only one problem - good luck finding one of these cards, considering that poor 3dfx is defunkt.
This link was posted in the comments to the embeded linux article: http://www.soekris.com/
It's the 21st Century Do you know what your government is doing
This is one place that can make a buck with Linux. Embedded stuff is required and not having to pay a tax per unit sold is preferable to what has been the way.
So far it's been a bit painful, but an OS as a give away is going to be the way to go. Hardware and service all the way.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
UNIX - Not just for Vestal Virgins anymore
It's nice to have a reference list, but unless I have some anecdotal evidence as well, I'm always reluctant to set out for uncharted territories and leave behind what's been tried and true.
Does anyone have any realworld experience with these systems? Often, what looks good on paper turns out to be a complete waste of time and money because of some small inconvenience or incompatibility left unspecified in the specs.
I'd love to hear what anyone has to say.
Read the rest of this comment...
And what do you use it for?
Have you tried the Linux or *bsd or even beos compaitable products?
Were you trained with windows and so you didnt go on to anything else? How about Macintosh? How do you know linux is unstable? Did you configure it right? There are a million more ways to think about this, but its a biased ideal that makes it so that windows will have a large user base. I think linux is better than windows for the home market. My grandma doesnt want a blue screen, but she can install debian from start to finish with a clear concious because she knows that she is helping.
"Not my manner of thinking but the manner of thinking of others has been the source of my unhappiness." - M
has anyone tried to purchase one of these units? I would like to build a nice little firewall box or something... so where can I get one of these little gems? Of the ones that DO have any sort of place you can buy them they are waaay overpriced. I mean the darn PPC bRIQ (or whatever it is called) is $2,500!! I can get an iBook for almost half that complete with CD, monitor and keyboard.
It is all very well that these devices seem to be available but if they aren't easy to get or are priced prohibitively... what is the point?
"Don't sweat the technique."
At work, we've been searching for a product that we can use as an IPSEC-enabled router.
So far, we've just been giving out PC's with FreeS/WAN. But this gets a little bit expensive, so we've been trying to find an embedded solution. Any such product would have to meet the following requirements:
* Cheap
* Small
* Reasonably powerful (At least 200MHz for x86 processors)
* And hopefully, sleek looking.
LinuxDevices Mentions a product called the STBMX1030, which meets all of these requirements, and much much more. But it seems as though the company that makes them, Allwell, has stopped making them. Anyone know of anything else that fits the bill?
- James
While I'm still learning about design, I sometimes question the effectiveness of trying to put linux onto anything you can get your hands on.
Wouldn't it be more effective to for some of these smaller devices to move more of their functionality to a hardware level? This is not a rhetorical question. I actually would like to know...
II. TV-out (RCA and/or S-video)
That's why you see tech sites talking about how to make your own TIVO-style device, or how to make a traveling MP3 jukebox, but none that mention 3D games. Only Nokia's planned Media Terminal is supposed to have both, and adding a VGA-to-RCA converter isn't cheap.
Think that Nvidia, ATI, or Matrox have this fixed? Nope.
At first glance, most of the /. minions out there will probably say "big deal". Well, smarty pants, I dare you. I dare all of you all. Find such a card. After much searching, it turns out that you can have either 3D or TV-out, but not both.
Any GeForce, Radeon, or G400 can pump out great 3D. Some -- but not all -- can be tweaked to output video to a standard TV using the Linux frame buffer...but in the process, you loose all 3D hardware acceleration.
Yow. Scratch 3D.
Enable 3D, and the TV-out ports aren't supported.
As for projects that are actively attempting to address the TV-out problem, they do exist. Sourceforge hosts a few, and Freshmeat has pointers to a few more. None have it licked, though. Most TV-out ports have some propriatory muck that makes supporting them difficult at best. If we're lucky, one of these companies will release a Macrovision-encrusted, binary-only, x86, version sometime in the next couple years.
How depressing...what was the story about the Zerox printer driver? How is it that 20+ years later, something so trivial is still a sticking point.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
Does everything you require, plus a whole bunch more, and it's portable.
Plus it has a sexy case :)
It's perhaps not the cheapest option, but then, you do get a free, very powerful PDA thrown in with your MP3/Vorbis player...
I am looking for a very tiny linux based system with wireless internet so that I can hook it to that new camera in a pill and do live video confrencing from the inside of my large intestine. Let people know what I REALLY think of their ideas.
The best part would be the puns that would naturally form from this system, I leave you to figure them out yourself...
"Better hurry up with your briefing, I had taco bell for lunch and the bottom of the toilet bowl gets poor recpetion..."
Papa Legba come and open the gate
The same kind of logic applies to many embedded Linux applications. Rather than spend resources designing custom hardware and custom software, it makes sense to use an off-the-shelf and well-understood hardware platform, along with an OS which comes with source, which allows it to be customized and stripped down as small as you need it, to the point where it can fit on a floppy or even a watch.
Instead of wasting time reinventing the wheel, smart designers will choose and customize components that already do most of what they want, which frees up resources to focus on the specific functionality they need, rather than on features that don't have much to do with the application, like memory management and task scheduling.
On some technical level, it might be appealing to have a machine that's been designed from the ground up to do one function, and only one function, with nothing extraneous. But in practice, this tends to be expensive, and the end result is often less flexible.