Mobile Linux Project In Ammo Canister

Chaosrider writes "Army Linux is a mobile development platform constructed from a 50-caliber ammunition canister. This site documents the development of an embedded Linux project, which features a backlit LCD screen, a VIA technologies Mini-ITX form factor motherboard and a 1U power supply. The site covers construction techniques, costs and hardware installation." The site also points to a similar PC-in-ammo-box project at Epiacenter.com.

Comments

Embedded.

[mindstrm]

The idea of an embedded system is one that seems to be badly distorted nowadays..
.
A small, but otherwise fully functional PC in a strange case is not an embedded system.

The computer that handles your car's internals is an embedded.

Your tivo is kind of an embedded system... not sure on that one.

But a full on PC inside something weird certainly isn't.

As it was once described to me.. an embedded system is a computer inside something that isn't a computer. A case doesn't count.

Those little boards the size of a dimm slice with a processor, ram, i/o, and other stuff on them are good for embedded work.

It's not about what version of linux runs, or what OS, or even what it does.. but a PC in a disguise is still a PC, not embedded.

Re:Embedded.

[Miniluv]

DirecTivo is technically more of an embedded system than a standalone Tivo, in that the DirecTivo is technically a satellite receiver, that happens to also have some linux stuff bolted on to do PVR functionality. The Tivo is just a nifty case around a PPC processor and a harddrive which has a TV-IN card.

A real embedded system is the controllers for, say, an automated automobile assembly station. The device builds cars, it just happens to have a brain composed partly of linux/qnx/tron/winCE/PalmOS to do the car building.