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Where Can You Buy Cheap, Tiny Motherboards?

Posted by Cliff on from the smaller-the-better dept.

Adam Ernst asks: "I'm trying to build a low-end tablet PC type device for giving tests to students in a classroom. The touch screen TFT wasn't hard to get and the WiFi shouldn't be too hard either, but the most difficult part has been finding a motherboard! I tried Via's Mini-ITX, but it was too tall at about 1.5 inches. The motherboard needs to be just three quarters of an inch tall; the length and width can't exceed 8 inches each, but the smaller the better. No fans allowed--this has to be silent. The -only- requirements feature-wise are that it is able to connect to a TFT-LCD, has either USB, CompactFlash, or PCMCIA for WiFi, and has enough power to run Red Hat or SuSE (the only Linuxes my IDE supports). No ports, no ethernet, not even sound. Preferably it would take straight power (just one wire in and one out, at some set voltage) so I don't have to mess with power circuits. Of course, the most important factor of all is cost, since it's for schools (preferably less than $100 in small quantities ~90 units)."

4 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. What about... by *xpenguin* · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just using using a scantron?

    1. Re:What about... by revmoo · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Yes, because heaven forbid someone try to push the limits and advance technology.

      Cars cost soooo much money! Why not ride horses?

      You'd think that a nerd-centered site like slashdot wouldn't have so many of these attitudes...

      --
      I would expect such blatant racism on Fark, but on Slashdot? Mods please ban this asshole.
  2. Some choices... by YourPreferredNicknam · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The only computing device less than $100 today with a screen is a used Palm.

    Google has some interesting summary of educational computers:
    http://members.aol.com/KMyersPsion/edc om.html

  3. One ready-made option by uradu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You could consider the Zenith Cruisepad, which is a pen-based thin-client tablet from 1995. You can buy them individually for $27 or 100 at a time for $1500. They use Citrix metaframe technology to display a remote computer's screen on the LCD. It works just like remote desktop because it IS remote desktop. I believe they can be made to work with Windows Terminal Services in W2K Server. Alternatively, since you're talking hardware anyway, you could hack them and add your own software into the flash, using the wireless network just for lightweight communications. They use Proxim RangeLAN 2 wireless technology. I've even managed to get them talking to my Proxim HRF card with the (original ancient DOS-based) terminal server running inside Windows XP Pro on a Dell notebook. Only happened once and after a lot of fiddling, and I never had the patience to find out again what exactly I did that time, but it obviously DOES work.

    Anyway, just another (cheap) choice. I've got two of these and find them quite interesting.