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World's Smallest Linux Box Fits in RJ-45 Jack
An anonymous reader writes "German electronics company Kleinhenz is shipping a network-enabled Linux system built into an RJ-45 Ethernet jack. "Picotux" has a 55MHz ARM processor, 2MB of Flash, 8MB of RAM, a serial port, and five lines of GPIO. It measures 0.75 x 0.75 x 1.4 inches (19 x 19 x 36mm), and weighs 0.64 ounces (18 grams), packaged in a metal housing. A wireless 802.11 version appears to be on the horizon, too. So, if you've ever wanted to network-enable, say, a robot, boombox, or model airplane, this could be the system for you." Is this really the world's smallest? It looks a bit chunkier than a tiny gumstix machine.
comparison:
picotux: 19x19x36mm (12.996 cc), 18 grams
gumstix: 20x6.3x80mm (10.080 cc), 12 grams?
packaged gumstix: 36x15x83mm (44.820 cc), ?? grams
Okay, so the gumstix is smaller. But the picotux has built-in eth.
The "nothing to see here, please move along" comment finally makes sense.
99€?! Okay, so it's not that expensive. 55Mhz processor, 2MB flash, 8MB RAM, serial port, 10/100 Ethernet... but I can go buy a cheap desktop for that. I hope it gets substantially cheaper with volume. If not, they're making a killer profit.
Note the article doesn't tout it as world's smallest, but it is smaller than the gumstix
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
ack!
Oh yea, it does...
My linux PC is so small nanites use it to post on Slashdot!
...never mind.
Blarf.
Thats faster than my Amiga 500.
beowulf cluster of these!
var sig = function() { sig(); }
For only Eur 99, though, a fair deal if you need a whole lot of tiny servers for something. Who needs virtual servers, when you can stick real ones at the end of each ethernet cable?
Yes but will it run Windows N
Dunno. But it might run Windows T: The official OS of Bosco Baracus. I pity the foo' who don't run dat version!
Coooooool!
Back to old style computing.
I miss circuit diagrams and detailed information.
liqbase
Linux in processor
"Steve Jobs invented the world" -- Bill W. GATES
True, it's no workstation, but still the specs are enough to leak trade secrets across the Internet, and the size is such that the bug may go unnoticed by your employer's IT maintenance department. So if you are infiltrating an "evil" company and you value your afterlife more than you value your life, go for it!
I belive Rectalux is the smallest distro, but you have to install it from a Penux boot loader.
Sounds like a cool way to firewall individual rooms or areas.
So cool, I may have to give some to the cleaners at my favourite multi-national corporate..
Computer Techies don't need to overcompensate for anything, unlike most professional sports players. Or do small potatoes make the steak look bigger?
Where is the LCD screen?!
http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/7a619ff68b3628144 0ce8c14d21197d5/index.html
IMO, the Wi-Fi model they have there looks more interesting than the wired one. Hopefully, they'll get picoTux to work on that and be able to make the antenna less clunky.
--
Want a free iPod?
Or try a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox. (you only need 4 referrals)
Wired article as proof
Good going. However, can't you get it as small as an RFID chip? The average sweater section in a Wal-Mart containing 300 Linux servers. Now, that's cool.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Great as a wiretapping device! ;)
1's and 0's should be free.
I wonder if the Airport Express is hackable enough to give you similar results.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
First thing I thought, if you could power it with ethernet, you could put this in remote locations for sensors. But 250mA is pretty efficient.
I could see a use for the wifi+serial setup, you could put this on older serial based nodes and remotely access them. Big market for HVAC when everyone wants them to replace hardware. Our schools here in the Washington state is saving millions by using linux and other technology than going with Honeywell or some other company to rip out the entire system and replace with modern (aka expensive) controls.
A wifi serial setup would be cool, to pop in a router, and then access via my laptop, so I dont have to run a wire when I'm testing or racking it up.
Lots of uses. Very cool idea.
The wireless version is cool as well, but the systems need two more things:
a: For the wired version: Support for Power over Ethernet. This way, separate power isn't needed in many installations.
b: A single USB port for both versions.
Do those both and you now have a general purpose wired and wireless glue for attaching pretty much arbitrary devices to the network.
Test your net with Netalyzr
At last, someone is addressing the computer needs of a forgotten sector of society. The insensitive clods: it's just damn unfair that Arietty, Pod, and the rest have been shut out of the information age! Now, Lexmark, where's cornflake sized printer?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
This is a Digi Connect ME, which has been around for a while. I have one, and it runs uClinux nicely.
Dunno what Kleinhenz is shipping, but I'm gussing it's just the DCME with uClinux flashed onto it. Nothing new here.
IIRC, old newsgroup threads when these came out suggest the quantity cost is ~$50/ea, so this product's convenience comes at a bit of a premium.
Somebody (Gordon Bell?) predicted that in the future the computer will be "just a bump in the cable". Looks like we're there. Can anybody find the original quote?
...will be in the next version (with appologies to Dilbert).
"My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." --Senator Carl Schurz (1872)
That would make a cool serial console for some linux boxes......
When you lose the network cable, you also lose the power source. It will get much heavier than current weight.
Awesome A-Team ref.
Wish I had mod points.
Tech 1: "Hey super, we're all done replacing the melted server components after the Slashdot horde raped and pillaged us last January."
Tech 2: "It's smoking again."
Meh.
----- Open Source = More Secure (mmmmkay)
As it is, it looks like you'd have to provide power to the unit from other means?
[
Me, I'm hanging out for the mobile phone in a ring (perferably one which sends its audio signals through bone, so you literally stick your finger in your ear, talk into your ring, and away you go!)
Physicist, consultant, science communicator
OK so with suitable codec interface, plant it in a wall jack (take your pick, ether, rj-11, wallplug). Wallplug would be best for the power, anyway, the unit upon power up, scans for open AP's if it finds one, it tries to get out, if it can get out, it sends voice activated audio to an embedded ip addr (or via some ip discovery protocol). If it cannot find an AP its useless. If it finds one with WEP, it will begin a slow patient crack on the WEP key. Let it sit there for weeks working to crack it, it successful, great, if not, oh well.
Hedley
Ha!
If you have a ring-phone that makes you turn invisible, crawl underground, and eat raw fish for 700 years, let me know.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
We are currently using a Gumstix for a robotics-project, and eventhough the size is amazing, the really big advantage of Gumstix' are their build-environment, and a really efficient and responsive support there.
In addition they have a Wiki-page which has a nice tutorial (I must know it, I wrote it;) and other helpful tips.
Add to that: cutting edge software (latest Linux kernel and gcc) and bluetooth (do you remember the bluetooth-sniper from some days ago? It was based on a Gumstix).
Really cool!
And if its too small you can just "click to enlarge". That's a handy feature!
Just imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!
... inside a Mac Mini.
;)
Oooooh, *buuuurn*!!!
Just the little tool I need to setup a wireless router into some corperate network...
And corperate security folks were worried about usb drives.
Let's see you cram WINDOWS into that space!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Mod this troll, mod this flamebait! Is that all you got, huh? Are you nuts? Come at me!
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Now, take two and put them back to back running a variant of iptables/whatever to build a "on the cable" firewall.
meh
My first thought is that this could do something for infrastructures security and control. Years ago when I was in the IT department, we occasionally had rogue computers on the Intranet. I thought having an intelligent panel in each cubicle could reduce the cable-chasing in the partitions and other places.
I realize that others by now may have made products to do what I figured would be the smarter way to deal with massive amounts of wired hardware. But, since many companies and individuals are not encrypting nor using Wi-Fi out of fear of rogue waves going out anyway, does it make sense for the smart panels idea to take off again?
IF that happens, and if these Linux jacks could be sort of like nano-bot security bots, these could ensure that NO rogue wired hardware could be easily planted on the local net. Of course, I realize that someone with skills could do some sort of man-in-the-middle hijacking of packets and obtain service or illicitly move company secrets off-site, but for IT departments such dealing with less secure data, but which need to keep rogue machines at bay, would these devices make sense? (This assumes that wireless is either forbidden, jammed, or just not being used at all...)
But, will these Linux Jacks play a role in distributing and deprecating the expensive Cisco-type routers, firewalls, and switches? Not that Cisco hasn't already thought about and quietly stashed away a response plan, but isn't it inevitable that devices like these will begin to erode the market for the big, expensive companies which have a motive to push/sell large quantities of expensive iron?
Seems to me, programmable, managable things like these, provided they have few exploitable pieces of code in them, could act as very intelligent, distributed ports, monitoring, reporting, and even honey-netting and more. With a little secure wireless feature set, though, imagine all the Cat 5/Cat 6+/e/n wiring that no longer has to be purchased. I guess then Belkin and others will band with the Ciscos/Redbacks, and others.
David Syes
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Witherworth: "Jenkins!!!!"
Jenkins: "Yes Boss?"
Witherworth: "The server is DOWN. Your department spent our good money on that "Luxux" or whatever you call it. What the hell can be wrong with it?"
Jenkins: "Ermmm. sorry, sir. I sneezed and it blew out the window."
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
You will die cold and alone, within this century.
The Linux powered asschip is a reality!
"And then I visited Wikipedia
looking at the gumstix....why not call this the chickletstix?
But funny.
Digi already makes a wireless version too:
http://www.digi.com/products/embeddeddeviceservers /digiconnectwime.jsp
A common application for this sort of device is that you can just plug it into an existing device that doesn't have ethernet or wireless ethernet and voila! Ethernet connected device!
For example, say your company makes heart monitors with an RS-232 interface or some other serial or GPIO controllable bus. You can just sit this device in your design and instantly have an Ethernet-enabled heart monitor running with a command line or a web-interface, etc. It's a pretty cool way to upgrade old hardware designs cheaply.
-AP
That's not much of a prediction, huh? I mean, most of us will probably die alone, unless we take some other folks out with us, via car accident or mass cult suicide or something. He's old enough to type, so odds are good he'll die in this century. And cold? Unless you jump into a volcano, I think ending up cold is part of ending up dead.
The development kit/toolchain/support may be $250, but single unit quantities of the computer itself are $55 from Nu Horizons.
Test your net with Netalyzr
I mean 2 ethernet ports, making it look like a cross-over connector, and you've have a great firewall gizmo.
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
"So what if it's a lot smaller than a Apple Mac Mini. It isn't nearly as powerful and doesn't look as sleek and aesthetically pleasing as my Mac Mini. When will these Wintel companies stop trying to copy Apple's brilliant and groundbreaking innovations and innovate themselves for a change?"
Did I leave anything out?
Michael Crichton is currently writing a book about a handful of these devices that start talking to each other and manage to take over the world.
Do not eat Picotux.
Talk to the hand, 'cause the face don't wanna hear it!
Doesn't run Windows. No market.
In the course of every project, it will become necessary to shoot the scientists and begin production.
What use is it intended for? Seems to me the market for things like this would be a firewall yet they always manage to screw it up by only putting one nic in.
but I can go buy a cheap desktop for that
Just because you can doesn't mean you should. This is an embedded systems solution, not a desktop replacement. If you play in that world than you knwo 100 euros is quite inexpensive.
The PC is just too big, too fragile, too power-hungry and too unreliable for a lot of tasks where these tiny machines could be used--even if the computational power-to-price ratio is so much larger for the PC. People in the automation world probably remember a few years ago how the PC-based "soft PLC" would reduce costs and replace all those proprietary, expensive traditional PLCs. Never happened and never will because PCs are too general purpose and inefficient. To this day all I've ever used software-based PLCs for is simulation.
For those who are unaware, PLCs, or Programmable Logic Controllers, are esentially purpose-built embedded computer systems used to monitor and control industrial equipment. The bulk of them today are about as powerful as a 286 PC or even less and they cost as much as or more than a high-end PC. Despite that, the hardware and firmware/software in a PLC is designed from the ground up for deterministic, hard-real-time operation and I/O intensive applications. They also do not have processor fans, hard drives and other unreliable mechanical parts.
That is why these tiny Linux machines are so interesting--even if they cannot do as much as a PC or are more expensive. They could be the beginning of a standard, truly open platform for embedded systems. If the processor unit can fit in an RJ45 jack, then in the future we could do away with racks of PLCs and make field equipment control itself. The stuff I can imagine is mind boggling to say the least.
The gumstix has a larger surface area, the gumstix has a larger average visual cross section when viewed from a random angle. German shipping services like to define the size of a packet, for the purpose of determining fees, as the sum of of its dimensions.
Which is smaller - a gumstix or a sheet of paper ? If you say it's the gumstix, then the picotux is smaller.
Otherwise it does not make sense! The german postal service says the picotux is smaller, so the picotux is smaller; but what do shipping fees in Germany, which are paid in Euro, have to do with the size of the gumstix in comparison to the picotux ? And why am I comparing it to mice which are mammals which are rodents of the genus Mus as computer input devices ? It does not make sense.
Therefore you must admit the picotux is smaller.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of those! No, really. All you'd need is a switch and some ethernet cables and you could have yourself a nifty 8 node cluster for under a grand... and bragging rights for probably having one of the worlds smallest clusters.
Considering that it really isn't running Linux either, why should we bother?
There are several companies doing this...like Lantronix's Xport (which are less powerful, but much cheaper)-
LosT
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."
Packetdoppen resultieren aus supposojammen mit antennasertion.
Finally, I can put goatse.cx and tubgirl in the flash memory and set up a tiny httpd. I believe that I can put one of these into the professor's office and sustain the goatse.cx community indefinitely. My life is complete.
Make your penis look bigger, get testicle reduction surgery
Popped into your head? Try just popped into my inbox!
This thing would make a great network sniffer.
I could make it look like a normal RJ-45 cable end, replace a couple of cables and let it wait for something interesting or password related.
It could even run an irc client to send encrypted results to my channel. I'd have to have to hack off the serial IO connector or box it somehow. I wonder if I could get enough power off the ethernet to run it... rectified and a capacitor could do it if poe is not in place....
MOO's Open Operatin's system
(With a few exceptions) I think most of the comments made are missing the point...generally is type of device is for TCP/IP enabling- existing hardware for example...and that's about it. To build a 'device' around it you still need 'control' (read: uController, processor, etc, etc)-
As a previous poster pointed out to take something that already can communicate via serial this just webenables quickly and easily for you...(or even I2C, 1-wire, etc)- this is just communications on a chip, not computer in a plug.
You have to look at what these types of devices are designed for...
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."
but can you fit that bang up your bung?
"This picotux. This picotux was in your Daddy's pocket when he was shot down over Hanoi. He was captured and put in a Vietnamese prison camp. Now he knew if the gooks ever saw the picotux it'd be confiscated. The way your Daddy looked at it, that picotux was your birthright. And he'd be damned if and slopeheads were gonna put their greasy yella hands on his boy's birthright. So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide somethin'. His ass. Five long years, he wore this picotux up his ass. Then when he died of dysentery, he gave me the picotux. I hid with uncomfortable hunk of metal up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the picotux to you."
music lover since 1969
Or does it fit in only an RJ45? Sorry, inquiring minds want to know.
These days you can program your switches to shut the port off if they detect an unauthorized device accessing the network.
I'm sure there are ways around this, but it's much easier to configure at the switch level. Consider that the port itself is just a set of wires tracing back to the switch, it's not "live" unless you are plugged into a live switch. So rather than have lots of little microcomputers controlling the ports themselves (which increases installation and maintenance cost) you have an intelligent switch which can turn off the port when unauthorized access is attempted.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
This is *exactly* what I've been thinking of for a weather station. Add the processor to the sensor, place one on the anemometer at 10m, another on the temp sensor at 10m, but have it tightly networked to the 2m temp/humidity sensor. Presto! intelligent heat flux calculations. Tie the 10m anemometry to the 2m wind speed, voila`, 3d wind data.
Lose a sensor, no problem. The rest of the site's up. Lose a data collector? No problem. It's the same as losing a sensor.
Wow! This is great!
Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by tenure.
..."The network is the computer."
Cheers
why only 2Mb of flash??
it would be better with a miniSD reader... (256Mb, 512... 1Gb)
ack! the days when you can use the excuse "sorry I ate my server" is drawing closer..
Wireless version will take no space, and will consume power directly from the air. Just put it anywhere near the microwave or keep it close to your cellphone... but how do you keep something those dimensions are zero?
Take that Mac Mini!!
Philosophy.
...it's about what you do with it! :-p
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
It does not make sense. Chewbacca is a Wookie, but he lives on a planet full of ewoks. It does not make sense. Why would an 8 foot tall Wookie live on a planet full of 3 foot tall ewoks. If it does not make sense you must admit the picotux is smaller.
Anyone ever think to maby put a second RJ-45 jack on the other side? it would still be small enough that it looks like a simple coupler, while you could haqve it sniffing network traffic, and if a internet connection is availible, it could send data back to you!
That's right... I forgot about that.
I guess it would be an upgrade nightmare, too, if some of those partition-blocked nodes failed to remotely upgrade.
But, is there any idea or possibility that these things could make Cisco squirm? Or are these things just great for tech innovation?
Interesting, tho, how "toy" software can be found in the smallest of places... Maybe will will, in Solid State form, get those Wi-Fi Linux servers another guy in this forum was asking for...
Hmm, what is scary, tho, is by the time that happens, we could have sub-dermal patches with computers on them. Well, scary if abused. OTOH, they could help out the physically-challenged...
David Syess
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Part number info from Digi Connect
Use the numbers to search on Nu Horizons.
Test your net with Netalyzr
If Wookies are from Endor...
i forget
I think they need a better arm in their webserver because their site has been /.'ed.
PLCs are also integral components of avionics and flight control systems. I can imagine an individual picotux unit wired directly to each cluster of sensors or actuator drivers in a giant network of tiny pieces, all broadcasting their respective data chunks over 100bt. Instead of having a single computer driving the whole contraption, you'd have a swarm of little guys.
Originally posted March 2003 on Slashdot! Looks like the same device.
0 3/ 12/1649258&tid=126&tid=95&tid=137
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/
Wow, I guess every laptop in the world is also overpriced, being less powerful and more expensive than a similar desktop.
Mods are sniffing glue today...
Aside from all manner of innovative little projects, I think these devices could be used to setup a quick snoop on the network. They might actually be more useful for breaking security than enabling it. Most companies don't have their networks secure to the port level, so popping one of these on an open port and hiding it under the cable mess could be easy enough. You'd be limited by the small buffer, but it might be possible to grab password hashes and then dump the stuff off over the net to a remote server. Or run scans and exploits internally on the LAN, since most LAN security tends to be more lax than the Internet connection security.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
...not just because it is a new way of doing things...also because it is far more robust. If that single computer were to fail the result could be catastrophic (which is why there is one or more redundant one in mission critical applications). If one of a hundred picotux units were to fail you'd likely barely even notice.
They're for adding to existing devices, to give an ethernet interface to it, so you could have a web interface to your DVD player/recorder for example (admitedly, a crappy example... wifi remote control plane?) In which case, the main device is where it draws it's power from. What the hell would a little box like this on it's own plugged into a network solve?
-2A
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
In Soviet Germany, the network connects to you!
Seriously though, I think this is a fantastic idea...and is where computing should be headed. I can imagine in like 5 or 10 years having dedicated embedded systems around my house/car/workplace that handles specific aspects, like home heating, media/entertainment systems, home security monitoring. REMOTE ACCESS to all of these systems from anywhere via GPRS/WiFi would be the best...of course by that point everything will be 100% secure because all the 'sploits will have been found already...right?
Scenario: You are at the store picking up groceries, you pull out your PDA and your fridge and cupboards tell YOU what you need, because, of course they know due to the RFID (ugh) tags placed on everything. Also, you can instantly voice chat with anyone in the house to ask if they want anything (VoIP, YAY!). They say they want pizza tonight to eat, so instantly your favourite pizza recipe pops up and tells you what you need to buy, and how much to meet your requirements. You then tell your PDA that you want to speak to your wife (hey, it could happen to a slashdotter) and it knows she's in her car, and it hooks you up so you can ask what she needs.
Alright alright, so there's little chance a geek will be in a grocery store, but I'm sure you get the idea. Everything (I hope) will be interconnected and secure according to voice prints/biometric passwords or whatever is considered secure then.
We already see the tip of this iceburg. Your NAV system in your (higher-end) cars, PDAs, this 'network enabled' network jack (?!)... The next step is to Johny Pneumonic-ize my brain to accept a few gigs of pr0n my girlfriend can't 'find' by accident and I'll be all set.
Yep...I'll plug in, no problem.
Inject.
Thats just too expensive for something that has very little computing power. Yeah the size is small and wonderful and all, but give me a call when its $30. Thats when I'd be willing to spend money on it and do some cool shit.
That's a very cool device, and the others just like it are interesting as well, but even for a minimal intranet webserver, 256KB of Flash ROM for file storage is just too much.
However, given the nature of the 3G iPods, could it be possible to make iPodLinux support Firewire networking via the Firewire 400 port in the bottom of it and just use that as a server?
Think about it. Most Cisco switches support add-on cards with Firewire - or what looks suspiciously like Firewire - ports on them. Plug an iPod's Firewire plug into that, you've got a nice 400Mbit link into a LAN. It's a hell of a lot cheaper than going for a major OEM's servers, and while the microdrive's a bit slow and there's no RAID, it's not a bad deal if you're just looking for something small.
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
They aren't very smart businessmen. The market the parent described would be several order of maginitudes larger. Every Tom, Dick and Harry who surfs would go for an unobtrusive firewall but not everyone is game for networking their toaster.
key-chain computer...
.....Again! I lose my keys on a daily basis....I can imagine what I'd do with one of these
Making it a key chain would not help either...
OpenSource is only free if your time isn't worth anything
See? Because of me they have a warning.
It seems to me that the guys at Atmark in Sapporo already did this quite a while back (but their Armadillo-J is priced for the Japanese market).
They do have a fairly extensive "HOW-TO" section (in Japanese) and several downloads available from their site, though.
> a serial port
Too bad they couldn't fit it into an RJ-11 so they could actually use the serial port.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Page 14 of the PDF states that a reference design of POE is on the CD that come with the development board.
Plug it into a length of network cable and it would definitely be a case of "the tail wagging the dog" :-P
The device in question looks neat, but I need analog I/O, and this doesn't appear to do it.
A quote posted to Usenet, in 1995.
and we thought the Mac Mini was cool huh?
befuddled (noun) 1. Unable to create a pithy sig
The network IS the computer!
Its a nice idea to think linux can do anything anywhere anytime. My father program's PLC's and various other types of machinery for Rockwell Automation. He currently works in a papermill where they have sensors for everything. at a given time they are capturing 160, 170 things in 1 area at 10 ms at a time and its being logged to a server. PLC hardware that my father codes in is speically built for automation tasks and its software is usually totally customized for the task at hand. They provide realtime soultions. I dont think linux or other types of PLC's will have a break in anything remotly related to that because as im told his company still holds a lot of market compared to its japenese counterparts.
http://www.cushingproductions.com
Make it so small it doesn't fucking exist. Linux sucks. Get over yourselves. It's a worthless pile of crap code.
I mean, like I'm going to lug this thing around with me all day???
Call me when they make a linux box that fits in a staple.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
Does it have an Ethernet port?
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
Especially if Picotux is male, because eating him will spawn child processes.
I don't get it.
"Shhhhhhh...." (Puts on Tin Foil Hat)
"They're leesteening..."
(Removes Tin Foil Hat...)
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
I don't see this is as being TOO expensive -- particularly when it is a "new device" hitting the market place (though as you've mentioned PLC's are old hat :).
:) X10 config for their house. Wealthy, works out of the house (office) -- already has Linux based mail/web/file type server buried in the basement somewhere. The perfect solution. Now -- without the _need_ for a full blown "computer" I can easily control, and custom program using heyu with little added headache and expense ... for the average "Joe Blow" (a person who "don't want Linux" and doesn't have an extra computer lying around and would see a full computer as a major expense).
:) The point being -- this device makes such setups that much easier to sell with a combined product/service and NOT have the headache of the computer (Windows) not working. Less wasted time and $$$ all around IMHO. :)
:), along with logging and control of various phone systems. Places that currently _already_ had a Linux computer installed, but by no means wouldn't also work very nicely with just a plug in the wall -- and that's it.
I come across _this_ as I'm working through the next clients (though currently _rare_ for this request
For me, Un*x was a way of life -- and a Linux box has always been accessible. Sure, you could do the SAME with Windows, but I tend to forget about my computers -- they just work, and I digress.
I have serial hookups to the X10 device (home and offices), alarm system hookups (*I* get pages before the police are typically even called by central-station, thankfully rare and so far always false
(but, imagine a beowulf cluster of these *cough, cough*)
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
microsoft ad come from?! argh!
hm. I've lost a machine.. literally _lost_. it responds to ping, it works completely, I just can't figure out where in my apartment it is.
The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.
I'm quite sure that's smaller, but obviously this product has a more general use.
The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.
... Intel slaps a digital watch on an M&M ...
Perhaps I'm just being a Linux/FOSS zealot. Fair enough. I'll be happy to wear that badge ---note that he's posting AC.
But their home page for this Linux embedded device is built around some extensive documenation that makes the assumption --which strikes me as completely bizarre-- that you are using WindowsXP and refers to this not as WindowsXP, but as your "main machine" as though nobody would consider using a Mac or heaven forbid an embedded developer might actually prefer one of the dozens if not hundreds of Linux distros.
It's left to the reader to convert all the information there from Microsoft Windows XP to their own distribution if they don't happen to be using XP. I can understand this kind of assumption in the case of say a spyware ridden p2p gui or perhaps even a little animated critter that you install on a whim and which periodically pops up and begs you for money or something charming of that nature where only XP would make sense, but embedded device development? It's not like the device runs CE.
In fact, these same on-line manual pages assume the reader possess detailed knowledge of the Linux kernel and is intimately familiar with the boot process and then makes this bizarre twist in assuming that anyone with such a degree of sophistication would still be running XP as their main OS as though that would be more convenient isn some bizarre way. I don't get that.
Ditch the ethernet socket, I want my star-trek comm badge now!
www.boznz.com Simple solutions to complex problems.
But will it run Lin--....oh, wait.
Warning: Could be fatal if taken seriously
If you really want to make this something to play with, take the dual end idea a little further and make one of them male perhaps with a very short cord. Then put a little packetsniffer on it set to redirect to the ip of your choice. That way you can easily check the security of transmissions to the host/subnet of choice. I wonder what kind of throughput a device like this could redirect...anybody know?
A small step forward in wireless technology, but I think I'll pass. I can find no current use.
The Computations of AdamR
http://www.adamreyher.com
When you consider that some of the first micro computers were huge- like the zenith data point for instance. With its 10 inch hard drives that weighed over 75 lbs...Or the Apple 2 plus...I would say this little unit will find alot of uses quick. Science would of course be the first and foremost use and then prob military later on... I can already think of serveral uses for one myself.
Yeah, that's what I want... flight control data broadcast over a "best effort" network protocol that chokes and starts discarding data after as few as 16 collisions... using copper wiring none-the-less!
...and I suppose that you think you could recoupe the money you spent on your "swarm of little guys" by networking them all to a crappy $16 SMC 10mbps hub.
That'd be f'ing brilliant.
Sombody needs to stop feeding you coolaid, buzwords and the false hope that you might actually make the world a better, safer place to live and just give you a job digging ditches for the sake of humanity and people who use air transport more than once every 10 years.
Chewbacca is a member of OSWEA
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Nice piece of hardware, but why run that linux crap? Will it run a real OS like Windows CE?
Didn't even get to play with Linux on it since Gentoo's been compiling since I got it last week.
It has an 55MHz Arm Processor, runs Linux and has busybox aboard. Enough control for me.
then in the future we could do away with racks of PLCs and make field equipment control itself.
This has been around (for industrial control applications) since 1994.
http://www.fieldbus.org/
Basically, the devices have all of the PLC functions (PID control, math blocks, logical operations) and once configured, there is no need for an external control system (except for external monitoring.)
I figure I could fit an awful lot of those in my bedroom but how many would I actually need to get 1000wu/day processing speed?
No sig today...
This thing could make a great little Dallas one wire to Ethernet bridge. There are a lot of weather sensors for the one wire system.
Now for something very cute. For a remote station could have the device log the data and then down load it using the the wi-fi interface. A few solar panels and a battery system and you are all set.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
http://www.partiallyclips.com/pages/archive.php? id=1018&b=1&c=
Why would an 8 foot tall Wookie live on a planet full of 3 foot tall ewoks?
He eats them.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Did you see the 802.11 version? finally I can put my RC buggy on the net. Cats watch out! Yippee!
AB HOC POSSUM VIDERE DOMUM TUUM
I could see it as a secure firewall/router, and I could see it as a "utility' Webserver - no content on it.
But add several of the 1G hard drives that fit into cameras in place of flash memory, and jacks for ethernet, CD, keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and you've got a computer in a belt buckle.
On the downside, if the FIB, er, FBI's after you, better check your jack.
mark "even paranoids have real enemies"
Wanted this machine:
1. Monitor with usb port + built in video memory
2. usb hub
3. this tiny RJ45 computer
4. usb keyboard + mouse
5. linux kernel
This lets you have a machine in 1/10th the space at 1/10 the electricity.
Ah the famous Wookie defense. (South Park reference)
Yeah, I know paranoid. Unfortunately I've seen more break-ins and attacks come from inside the network than through the perimeter. Most commonly from compromised laptops being plugged in.
So I keep my tin foil hat handy when I need to think about security. I've seen to much weird stuff not to.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
Hi,
someone knows about a related "pico" box that has a soundcard onboard?
Like a picotunes?
greetz
xben
Well, it provides a 55 MHz ARM7TDMI with 2MB of Flash and 8MB of RAM. Sure, the non-network interfaces provided are a 230kbps async serial port with 5 (actually 7) GPIO options, so no SPI or I2C, but it in my mind it still very much qualifies as a "computer in a plug" for a wide range of applications.
BTW, a Japanese company also made their uClinux port for the Digi Connect ME, which is used on the Picotux, available for FTP downlad.
Check out the related posting on ucdot.org:
http://www.ucdot.org/comments.pl?sid=366&cid=193
http://www.ucdot.org/comments.pl?sid=366&cid=193