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World's First Linux Computer In A CF Card
An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices reports on the world's first Linux computer to fit inside a CompactFlash card. The 'Compact Flash Computer' (CFC) can be mixed and matched with third-party CF cards to instantly create minuscule Linux systems based entirely on CF cards. A wide variety of third-party CF peripheral cards can be used with the CFC, including RS232/485, Ethernet, Bluetooth, USB, 802.11, GSM, GPRS, GPS, and more. A combination power supply / bus expander module on a separate CF card, as well as a tiny 8-slot CF card backplane, are available as options."
An anonymous reader adds "The card is based on a Freescale MPC5272 system-on-chip processor and contains 32MB of SDRAM and 8MB of Flash memory, and it comes with a uClinux based operating system and GNU development/debug tools."
Well Well that is pretty impressive - can embeded MS do this?
Yes but would a Beowulf cluster of CFCs harm the environment? Yes, the Compact Flash Computer has the unlikely acronym CFC. I move that we change that acronym to CFCC [Compact Flash Card Computer] in hopes the ozone doesn't sue.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
According the article , there are no connectors - all are snap together stuff. This might however be higher on the cost side (800 bucks for a underpowered linux card ??)
:) .. Yeah linux is cool, dice it , slice it, even put it in a CF.
... voila , a hidden PC :)
The good thing about this is however the "show off" effect
I'm still thinking about building my own small PC , probably will be an old 386 or 486 chopped down to fit inside an OLD telephone case I have , add an LCD display (100x96) hooked off an old casio and then I'm stuck at writing drivers. If I can hookup the telephone keyboard and put the LCD in the telephone address book slot
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
That is not a Linux computer on a CF card. That is a Mini-ITX-based computer _with_ a CF card.
A group of hackers in Europe announced today that they got Linux to run on a single NAND gate. Quote the project leader, "This way, a single 74x00 quad-NAND chip can be used to build a four processor supercomputer." In reponse to this news, Intel chief Craig Barrett removed his CEO hat and punched his fist through it in a fit of exasperated consternation.
Unknown host pong.
I've created a embedded linux system out of a piece of tofu. Its superior to regular tofu in every way! Of course, since tofu has no I/O ports this is kinda useless, but wow is it cool.
Come back next week, I should have an embedded linux system running in a fried chicken drumstick.
No, not that microsoft, the kind from Neuromancer. The idea of placing fully functional software systems on small, portable pieces of data storage that can easily be slotted into different hardware reminds me a lot of Neuromancer and similar books, as well as games like Deus Ex. I don't know about the more complex microsofts from Gibson et al, but I can certainly imagine something that could translate spoken language being stored on something like this... visiting France? Just slot your French translator card into your portable wearable computer.
In the short term, this could be part of a counter-revolutionary movement against the notion of ubiquitous wireless computing - rather than making most devices dumb terminals that rely on a remote centralised server for their data repository, this could effectively make any dumb piece of hardware a fully fledged computer, even without a network connection (indeed, it might be preferable for security or logistical reasons not to have to worry about a network).
I wonder what kinds of things we'll be able to do with this type of technology when memory cards can hold 100s of gigabytes of data?
Read Pynchon.
...computing (it was duped 3 times so you must have all seen it) just got 0wn3d?
Tempting, isn't it :)
You know, this could be a great way to bring upgradeability and extreme customizeability to portable devices.
One could imagine a sleeve where you plug in a cpu card, some data storage cards, a wifi card, and so on. Sleeves could be upgraded to provide new peripherals. You would use firewire, usb or some other generic protocol to provide the interface between the sleeve, the cards, and the outside world (possibly using stub cards that transform a cf card to a usb data storage card).
That way when you need a bigger screen, you'd buy a new sleeve and dock your old cards into it. Cpu not fast enough? Just upgrade the cpu card, no problems with having to replace the entire pda.
Why hasn't this been done yet? It seems like an untapped market just waiting to be discovered.
...was the one that was hidden in a pocket calculator. Replaced the original, made enough of a mock-up to pass any inspection, voila... suddenly you had a computer to bring to every exam, didn't get caught either. Though I hear rumors he spent time equal to or greater than the time he'd need to actually learn the subjects programming that damn thing.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
that is not the size that matters, but how you use it.
An LCD driver and USB interface. They should put on one the mother board. Other than that looks prettyd good. Could this be a new standard for embeded systems? How about a PDA that you can update the CPU on?
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
C'mon! I'm waiting for the usual highly moderated
That product is uber-geek, but its price could completely cancel the advantage of using Linux in a small system like this. There already are slightly bigger Linux ready single board computers in the $200 - $300 range.
I don't really understand the rush to make linux as small as possible. I mean honestly, Feather and Damn Small Linux can already fit on USB thumb drives. Has this just become a contest to see how stripped down of a distrobution people can produce? We understand that Linux is versatile, and that we can apply it in small storage spaces if need be. But really, to what extent do Linux developers need to keep hammering the point that Linux can fit in spaces that the Windows kernel would need a magnifying glass just to identify? I think this is a case of Dead Horse meets Mr. Stick.
Anyways, yes - we can make linux small. But wouldn't it be even cooler if we could make linux even better within the comparatively small spaces it fits already? Or maybe it's that I don't use CF cards enough to really see the full potential for this.
If you are really into tiny linux computers, you might want to check out Gumstix which are about the same size, in a different shape (like a stick of gum... get it?). It comes with USB (client not host), rs232, bluetooth, and a MMC/SD interface. Running the Intel Xscale, you can have a 200 mhz machine for a little over $100. Now if I could only justify buying one of these... maybe the tiniest wireless webserver?
Yawn.
Hmm...speaking of LCD displays...that's actually a very interesting idea.
Currently, smartcards have one huge hole for use in secure environments -- they have no secure user-input or user-output channels. This means that if someone sets up a bogus ATM/card reader (which has been done oh so many times), they can swipe your PIN and since the interface, including hitting "OK" or not is all done through the reader, can hit "OK" for you.
But if you can build a small computer with a simple interface (CF is a good choice, though a smartcard interface would also work), you can slap a display on it (actually, all you need is a calculator-style alphanumeric LCD strip) and a nine-button numeric keypad. You can enter your PIN directly to your card, and you can trust that the price being displayed on the card is the price that you are actually paying, and the payee being displayed is actually who the money is going to.
For a long time, I've been wondering how long it will be until smartcards become standard for sales. The attacks on smartcards are largely doable because of a lack of untrusted readers (as I said, no keypad or display on-card). Smartcards are great for e-commerce, where you can have a reasonably trusted reader in the form of your computer. I figured that one day AmEx or someone will partner with Dell and Dell will start bundling smartcard readers with their systems (the cost of a smartcard reader is very, very low, and the potential savings with not having to deal with constant fraud attempts on credit cards, and the ability of vendors to actually trust and allow purchases coming from, say, Nigeria, is a significant benefit). Nobody's got around to shipping lots of computers with smartcard interfaces -- but *lots* of computers have CompactFlash interfaces. All that's needed is an open standard for communicating with "smartcard on CompactFlash", someone figuring out where they can get their paws on some cheap, durable LCD displays, slap some buttons on it, and you have one hell of a compelling commerce mechanism to replace the credit card.
FWIW, while I'm sure credit card vendors have no interest in allowing such a thing, a smartcard vendor could provide actual privacy, not knowing about each one of your transactions, since your transactions cannot be (reasonably) forged.
God, that would be cool. Anyone know how many mW CF can provide?
May we never see th
Motorola spunoff (all|a large section) of their IC department and thus was born Freescale. They've been making CPU's for apple for decades.
IIRC, PowerPC was engineered to be backwards compatible with 68k. To preserve apple's software. The main dis-advantage of this is that you'd have to support the umpteen billion addressing modes.
There is a RISC'ified alternate side though: The ColdFire processors. They've been a uClinux target for a while.
However, whats truly notable is that the new MFC54xx series has a mmu. No need for uClinux, it runs real linux. Quite well i'd imaging: 133mhz DDR ram, 433 mhz, pci-interface, dual ethernet (100 mbit), usb and onboard crypto accelerator. All with a low advertised power consumption.
Still awaiting the Base Support Package. C'mon Metroworks.
Myren
You are another failure in a long line of spectacular failures. Keep the tradition alive, son.
SCO had IP code in its UNIX IP for Flash cards and part of the kernel this card runs on is stolen SCO code!
I cant show you the code, just take me work for it that it is there.
If one was to obtain (peel or print) an appropriate sticker, it would be relatively easy to create an ethernet or wifi card with a sinister personality.
--
"we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.
-__-
i didn't see mention of it in the article. anyone know what processor it uses?
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
I laughed and laughed ... nice one. :-)
i read the blurb, and skimmed the article, and immediately an idea formed in my head.
i have a newton messagepad 2100 (two of them, actually). i'd love to be able to shove this little CF module into its PC card slot (with one of the PCMCIA/CF converter doohickeys i have) and use the newton's display with the processor (and all the other good bits) on the card. 8 megs of flash and 32 megs of ram is considerably more than the newton's 4 of each. i'd love the capacity to run a good, scaled down linux install built for PDA installs on the newt's half VGA screen and still-impressive battery life.
this would be a sweet hack, if someone could manage it. hell, i'd buy three.
incidentally, the newt has a strongARM 110 running at 161.9 MHz, which i've read does 150 MIPS (considerably more than the 63 the CFC does)
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree
The CF card is actually RUNNING linux, not just storing it.. Its an actual comptuer in there... Just is a CF ( standard ) form factor.
Ans yes, size matters. so you can shove it into your toaster, microwave oven, etc..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Seriously, it's much too expensive.
This CF card could be an absolute killer, not if marketed as a Linux system (that would attract only us geeks), but for bespoke applications for which your PDA or phone needs extra muscle.
However, that requires the price to be waaaaaaaaay lower, probably not more than US$200.
This is a very nice product for those of us who like to play with systems containing lots of CPUs.
... so a $800 CF card is not even on the map of feasibility.
Personally, I'd like nothing more than to fill a very shallow 1U rack unit with these (maybe 2U if the 8-slot backplane is higher than 1U). Sheer multicomputing heaven.
The price is a concern though. An Atmel AT90 series or Xscale has a price in (low) 2 digits, and they can run uClinux
I'm not sure whether to be excited by this announcement, or treat it as irrelevant because of pricing.
The potential advantage of this CFC thing over the gumstix (which is cool) is that the stupid client USB port on the gumstix means that it's going to be a struggle to attach USB peripherals. With the CF bus, I should be able to attach CF peripherals to the CFC easily. Presumably the next gumstix will based on a part with the new USB 2.0 controllers which can be switched between host and client modes. This would be good.
OTOH, the gumstix ARM should be substantially faster than the CFC Moto ColdFire part. Neither has an FPU, so CPU speed will matter in some applications. Not sure why the CFC didn't go Xscale like everyone else these days. Jamming 8 400MHz Xscale parts into a CF bus starts to look like a little low-power NUMA supercomputer node :-).
Im sure u can fit linux on a microdrive and boot it off there, isnt that more effective?
The cpu used here is a part of the "Coldfire" range. /routers and the like.
The 68K compatability come from the fact that it's
evolved from the 68060 RISC core.Lose the FPU/MMU &
other funny knobbly bits and you have a cool
embedded CPU cheap made in millions for HP printers
The spec is very similar to the evaluation board supplied by motorola for $400
or one of the upmarket palm pilots at half that price. The CF card is cute damn
expensive way of buying $40 of parts.
the question is, will it run skype?
Anyone have a better $150 solution?
Now this is what I want someone to do: hook this up a bluetooth module and a gsm/sim card unit and encase it in a little box with a battery large enough (and it doesn't mean mega amperage, 'cos there's no screen!) to last a week or two.
Why, you wonder? Well, so I can throw out my cell phone and replace it with a matchbox I just need to carry around my person/in my jacket pocket and use my shiny new Tungsten T3 as a cell phone!
And this is for those of you who say "wait for a smartphone or get a treo"; I don't need a smartphone, I want a PDA which I can call with (kinda like the XDA thing, but then that runs windows, which I don't want). And a treo? Come on...I can't really read and work with spreadsheets on that tiny screen, much less a book (which I do frequently).
And as a final thought: yeah, maybe in five years time I'll get a pda with a large (roll out OLED) screen which can also make calls...but I'd buy a little matchstickbox sized linux/bluetooth/gsm/sim-unit NOW.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
Does it inclue a mini case of Bawls?
My ideal tiny system, which has been discussed before, is one which is physically tiny, but has two ethernet ports.
/sbin/init program.
There are many great applications for such tiny systems.
A Linux kernel with little more than a special
The device is used in a corporation, such as in an office or cubicle. It is plugged in between the ethernet jack on the wall, and the legitimate device, such as a PC.
During normal business hours, it captures the mac address of the legitimate PC. It then simply forwards all ethernet packets in both directions. (Not IP, but ALL ethernet frames.)
During business hours, it also captures and stores any interesting packets that it sniffs, including passwords.
Late at night, it uses the mac address of the legitimate device (so nothing looks fishy) and makes an IRC connection to a private chat channel where it just silently listens for coded commands from its master, including commands to upload anything interesting that it captured today.
Unfortunantly such dual nic tiny computers are so pricey as to require careful selection of where one would choose to install them. Zombied winboxes are much cheaper.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
...as long as I can get it to run Windows XP Pro instead of Linux. Does it have a mouse port and joystick port? Can I use it to play MP3s?
. ,
Help end the use of Sigs. Tomorrow
So, is this the predecessor to the Isolinear Chip arrays found under nearly every control panel on the Enterprise?
Once these things are cheap enough, commercial software will be sold with its own computer. The code will be in ROM on a CF sized module with its own CPU, memory and so on. You plug it in to a slot and it will be on a network in your PC. Doesn't matter if the OS is Linux or whatever. Your PC just presents the UI. It can help out with co-processors for things like games etc.
Buy a word processor and you have to buy a physical thing. If you want to be a software "pirate", you have to steal an object and take it away from someone else. There aren't any license agreements, you own it or you don't.
Intelectual property works for books because they're physical things and the cost of making a copy approaches the cost of the book. Basing the software industry on enforcement of IP is doomed to failure. Unless of course, the industry is the new IP enforcement division of the Justice Department where you wear a blue windbreaker and bust down people's doors for copyright infringement and violating license agreements.
Haha, this comment proves that I can't spell worth a shit! Carry on.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/compactbsd "CompactBSD is a powerful set of tools that allow you to build your own customized, lightweight distribution of OpenBSD and then burn it onto compact flash so that it can be run on an embedded PC platform such as FatPort's FatPoint (www.fatport.com)"
It is called Zaurus.
Could probably be made and deployed rather easily. Hopefully they'd be very low maintinence and perfect for those city-wide WiFi projects.
But I have a Linux-based Zaurus SL6000 handheld, which takes CF cards. If I plug one of these in, won't it reach critical mass and explode?
fyi,
f
a SINGLE FILE, *not* single disk, linux distro
http://linux.in.th/ftp/SD-OS2/SFLinux/vmlinuz.s
http://linux.in.th/ftp/SD-OS2/SFLinux/readme
So where are the patches for the Linux/m68k tree?
Since I've heard about the Coldfire V4e about 3 years ago, from time to time this story comes up: someone or some company is rumoured to work on a `full' Linux port. But a few months later the project turns out to be abandoned...