Japanese Pocket-Size PC Cube Demonstrated

rocketjam writes "The Japanese company, Personal Media Corporation, has demonstrated a prototype of a cube-shaped pocket-sized computer called the T-Cube (tentative name). The T-Cube runs the T-Engine OS, an operating system apparently being developed by a consortium of Asian companies for embedded devices and networked computers. The machine is about the size of an orange, uses a CPU made by NEC and sports a desktop written for the Chinese Market supporting Multi- and Super-Chinese Character sets. It is scheduled to ship in Q1 of 2004."

Comments

Larger photo

[Karamchand]

Get it here.
Looks quite nice to me. Even an integrated ethernet port, audio... - nice, where can I get it? ;-)

Re:Larger photo

[Frogg]

easily concealed inside a fanny pack

It's worth pointing out that in the UK we call 'em "bum bags" -- as the word 'fanny' is slang for that part of the anatomy that is particular to only the female of the species.

[insert variant on obvious joke here..]

Article: New PC T-Cube as small as an Orange

[thedillybar]

At the TRON 2004 Show Japanese Personal Media Company shows off the T-Cube a pocket-size PC running T-Engine.

T-Engine is somekind of OS standardization project for networked computers in Japan that started in 2002. Seems they want to build something that does not require to license Windows. Don't know why they not just adopt Linux.

The T-Cube runs the current T-Engine OS and uses a CPU from NEC VR5701. The desktop is written for the chinese Market supporting Multi- and Super-Chinese Character sets.

The T-Cube (tentative name) is supposed to ship in Q1 2004. Press-Release (Raw Translation)

See also the Java Wrist Watches that were presented at the TRON 2004 show in Tokyo.

alternatively

[Bram Stolk]

Alternatively, you could get a cerfcube,
which *does* run linux, and is smaller.

see:
http://www.intrinsyc.com/products/cerfcube /

tcube site is slashdotted, but I suspect
that the cerfcube consumes less power as
well.

more pictures

[morcheeba]

USB and CRT ports
pictures of ports
inside board stack (looks like it's 3 boards total)

better picture

[paradesign]

better picture here .

it comes in many colors!

T-Engine to Linux

[mekkab]

Just to bring this to reality for you geeks out there, Some info on the embedded OS word.

See? It all comes back to Linux! ;)

Actual size of the T-Cube

[base_chakra]

The T-Cube's dimensions are 52x52x45mm. That's pretty damn small!

For those outside Asia, comparing the T-Cube's size to an orange may be a little misleading, although it's apparent from the photo that the oranges are smaller than navel oranges. To further clarify the point of reference, djqed is right in that the oranges in the photos are mikan. 'Mikan' is the Japanese word for mandarin oranges, of which tangerines are one type (but the oranges in the photos aren't tangerines).

Re:Potential Form Factors...Geekbook?

[RevAaron]

Such a beast exists, although it runs WinCE. My main machine has an 800x480 screen, though only 5" in size. Touch typable keyboard, etc too. sigmarion III. Fits in my pocket though, unlike a clamshell with a 7" screen. $500, which is very cheap compared to the handful of contenders.

Buuut, there is a similar beast with a bigger screen and very similar stats. The Zupera Smartbook. Has a slower CPU though- 206 MHz StrongARM. (XGA = 800x480)

Now all someone has to do is port Linux, NetBSD, whatver. Shouldn't be that bad, though I don't know what support chips it uses, which really is where the work comes in with these PDAs.