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Space Cube – the World's Smallest Linux PC
Barence writes "Meet the Space Cube — the world's smallest fully functional PC. Primarily designed for use in space, it somehow manages to cram a working PC with USB ports, card readers, audio outputs and proprietary interfaces into a tiny cube chassis measuring just two inches square. It runs a basic Linux front-end, which the blogger takes a look at, and there are some great photos of the device being loomed over by everyday objects like coffee mugs and cellphones. It has connections for controlling various electronics used by ESA, NASA and JAXA, but it will also apparently be for sale to the public soon, for use by amateur engineers and robotics clubs."
In terms of volume it looks bigger than a beagle board + CF card. The Beagle board is 3" square, but it can be a lot less tall than this. It also has a much faster CPU and (to me, most importantly, since it means I can actually connect it to a modern monitor) DVI output.
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does it run... oh... it does? Awsome.
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...measure two inches square?
I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
Yes. Just paint it to look like this.
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It is enormously expensive to launch things into orbit. Making a smaller and lighter computer saves on launch costs, and the weight allowance can be used for other things. Then again, presumably you still have to launch a mouse and keyboard and VDU for this thing, so it's not quite as great a saving as it sounds...
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
This thing is obviously aimed at special applications.
For these kind of things there are much better solutions than x86 chips. They are smaller, faster, cheaper and more economic than classic HW.
Take a look at TI's daVinci program, for example, or maybe some small Coldfire from Freescale or maybe some cool Arm from NXP etcetc.
Behold Picotux!
Or, less dramatically, gumstix.
The spacecube is cute, I admit, I'd be amused to have one; but the notion of it being the smallest is silly.
The second line of the article states that it is one of the smallest computers in the world, not the smallest.
yp.
Dumbass, its a "Space Cube". It should be measured in the fourth dimension as 2 square inches/sec.
Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in trouble again.
Then again, presumably you still have to launch a mouse and keyboard and VDU for this thing, so it's not quite as great a saving as it sounds...
Depends on its job. It could be a headless device for logging/collating/forwarding sensor data, controlling a robot, whatever.
Exactly the same question. My puny phone has 64MB RAM, 369 MHz CPU, screen, battery, built-in speakers, mini-USB port and minimalistic keyboard and internal volume of 66cc (roughly 4 cubic inches). I really do not see the point of that gadget except being really cheap and expendable - and that product is not.
This is Not a PC.
From the Manufacturer's web site, it runs a fairly standard MIPS SoC from NEC... a Vr5701. There is not x86 compatible CPU in there. Since it's MIPS, don't expect to just use RPM and install anything, and clearly it doesn't use RedHat. The OS might be derived from RedHat, but I suspect it's just bad journalism (everything Linux is RedHat, right?).
I'm not saying it's not cool, but it isn't a PC. And I think if you want a Space capable device, you'll have to deal with the radiation hardness yourself. www.gaisler.com has some perhaps more suitable chips that are rad hard (SPARC based).
Not necessarily. You could (for example) have them control all kinds of things with no peripherals attached for most of the time (that is, except in the case when a problem needs to be diagnosed).
In case of a problem if there's need for diagnostics, you can then plug some small screen+keyboard and you're set to go.
They're running linux so they should be ideal for monitoring sensors and reporting, transmitting ping/heartbeat signals for any kinds of devices, for controlling hardware, basically for anything that can run autonomously.
Tie two birds together: although they have four wings, they cannot fly. (The blind man)
Ahh, so Locutus has a mini-me and this is his home. How cute!
Plus I hear it can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs!
Imagine a beowulf cluster of these puppies! You might actually be able to run a GUI.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Actually this stuff IS available to the general public.
It's called the PC-104 formfactor and it's been around for decades. Hell I got a 386 with A2D inputs and digital in and outs as well as VGA, CF interface and audio interface in the basement that is slightly larger than that that I used for wearable Computing in the early 90's.
It's not new or special. It's standard industrial PC gear repackaged and sold with a "Ooooooh space technology" marketing twist.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
On http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/07/03/introducing-the-space-cube/ (which is linked from the linked article) they mention that the thing is about 2x2x2 inches, so each side is about 4 square inches.
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That'd be cool for far more than just airport security, I think that might just be the coolest casemod idea I've ever heard of.
Since a Rubik's cube is 3"x3"x3", you could literally fit a shell that looked just like a standard Rubik's over it, and have removable squares for the ports....
The mind boggles at the coolness of that!
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