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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!
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?
in other words, imagine a 24-port network switch! :P
"Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
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!
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!
Sounds like a cool way to firewall individual rooms or areas.
Where is the LCD screen?!
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)
It doesn't have to store much if it can open an outbound network connection to something with logging.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
When you lose the network cable, you also lose the power source. It will get much heavier than current weight.
Off the top of my head..
-Port scan to find local e-mail server
-Arp spoof e-mail server
-Port scan to find local proxy server if no direct net access
-HTTP PUT proxied email data to website x
Ok, there's lots of conditions and many different implementations. I'm just trying to point out that local storage is not necessary - or probably wanted.
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."
Though you were joking, it might be possible to embed a SOC on a LARGE FPGA, and include a micro linux on-chip...
---- Booth was a patriot ----
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
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!
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.
should I patent the idea?
"Steve Jobs invented the world" -- Bill W. GATES
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
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.
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.
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.
Also do not taunt happy fun picotux
ZZ
(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
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.
Plus, it only has 1 network socket. Something that has a male and female RJ45 could plug onto a cable already in use by another system.
We're only a few short steps away from the computer-security paranoid's worst nightware - cat 5/usb cables with computers built into them.
ack! the days when you can use the excuse "sorry I ate my server" is drawing closer..
Take that Mac Mini!!
Philosophy.
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!
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.
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...
well, that may be true, but until the mesh topology network technology becomes more popular and more advanced, we're still at the mercy of the network. in a large network of small processing cores, the importance of network integrity is significantly greater than in smaller networks, especially if redundant systems share a common network. if a switch dies, the potential for stranded data is larger if there are more nodes connected through that switch.
this all begs the question of when this technology will be applied to neural networks and artificial intelligence.
.....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.
A quote posted to Usenet, in 1995.
Especially if Picotux is male, because eating him will spawn child processes.
I don't get it.
Although 5 GPIO lines and an RS232-style serial connection does allow for connecting other interesting kit, what would have been really nice here, would have been a larger number of such general digital IO lines, and perhaps some additional peripherals, such as a timer/counter, ADC, and DAC.
SIGBUS @ NO-07.308
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.