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$12 MIT Computer Based On NES, Not Apple II
ericatcw writes "The $12 computer that a bunch of designers and grad students are talking up at an MIT conference this month as a potential, cheaper alternative to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) for Third World students is actually a knockoff of the original Nintendo Entertainment System gaming console released in the mid-1980s, reports Computerworld, and confirmed in a comment by the project's spokesman, Derek Lomas. According to Lomas' account and pictures, the Victor-70 is an 8-bit NES clone that accepts its cartridges and is wholly contained in the keyboard. It is also likely to be an unlicensed clone made in China, according to Lomas, though he notes that may not matter patent-wise in the US, due to the length of time that has passed."
In addition, the console in a keyboard comes with a fully illustrated manual explaining the proper method of blowing into the cartridges in order to make them function properly...
Just another ignorant American.
Now we can teach children in developing countries the importance of gold coins, magic mushrooms and floating stars.
Blowing can actually damage edge connectors of NES Game Paks and other PCBs by depositing humidity, which attracts more dust and more corrosion. I've made an illustrated guide to cleaning cartridges.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8517523543573905150
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SymbOS
http://youtube.com/group/symbos
Check those three links if you're in doubt about what can be accomplished on 8-bit system.
One that hath name thou can not otter
Well, strictly speaking, by definition a $12 game console is a $12 computer as well.
It may be all very ho-hum for you with your GHz PC and internet connection, but I think it's interesting. It has :
- Keyboard (important step up from the traditional game console of old).
- Known / Familiar hardware, being a NES clone.
- TV-out, which means that any low-income family that has a TV, can get a relatively cheap computer.
Combine that with a decent software cartridge with :
- Word processor
- Spreadsheet
- Good kids educational software
- BASIC (or Pascal,if you're feeling sadistic. The logical steps/sequence in programming apply across all programming languages.)
- A few MB of flash ram for storage of docs,etc
- File manager / DOS of some sort.
- A port or two would be nice for a printer/modem, but it's probably pushing it.
annnnnd with all that you're suddenly on par with the IBM PC-XT of 25 years ago, and it helped revolutionise personal/business computers then.
So, seeing that the hardware's done, all MIT has to do is come up with a NES cartridge with decent software. Seems doable.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
Totally a dumb idea as they are trying it. But it could be done and be practical.
1. Forget putting it into a keyboard. Standalone keyboards are such a commodity they are dirt cheap and by leaving it external the possibility of different layouts becomes much easier since a small outfit doesn't have to make a gadget in a dozen flavors. Plus it lets you leave out the keyboard/mouse and let people scrounge or buy a bulk lot locally.
2. Forget 8-bit. Go just a bit higher up the food chain. Admit up front that even if you avoid it on 1.0 you need a future upgrade path to a web browser and it would be best if that didn't mean tossing the entire platform and software base. Today's word is ARM.
3. Build a tiny little box with several USB ports, an S-Video (easy to adapt to composite) port, audio i/o, possibly a VGA port and depending on pricing a pair of PS/2 ports. (If the cost of adding the ports is less than the cost of two more USB + price diff on keyboard/mouse.)
4. Develop a SIMPLE Operating System for it. Linux is way too big for the sort of cheap ARM chips available today. Most modern BSDs are also probably too big. Think much smaller. UNIX used to run on small machines though so it could be POSIXish.
5. USB drives would be the software delivery method. When writing software for a machine with at best a megabyte of RAM and 2D TV graphics you can fit a boatload of software on a single 256MB flash drive.
6. Ship them with a software development environment. The oldskool machines always had BASIC available and it spawned a generation of users who, if not outright developers could at least read code and make small changes. A modern BASIC wouldn't be the worst thing to ship and there are good Free implementations available. I'm afraid a fully self hosted development environment probably isn't possible on such a limited platform but ship the cross compiler on a CD in the box or make it generally available for download.
Democrat delenda est
Copyrights should only last 20 years as well. Lets all just start acting like that is the case.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Well, duh. That's why in Soviet Russia, you play Tetris.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard