Slashdot Mirror
A $25 PC On a USB Stick
KPexEA writes with this excerpt from geek.com:
"[Game developer David] Braben has developed a tiny USB stick PC that has an HDMI port on one end and a USB port on the other. You plug it into an HDMI socket and then connect a keyboard via the USB port, giving you a fully functioning machine running a version of Linux. The cost? $25. The hardware being offered is no slouch either. It uses a 700MHz ARM11 processor coupled with 128MB of RAM and runs OpenGL ES 2.0, allowing for decent graphics performance with 1080p output confirmed. ... We can expect it to run a range of Linux distributions, but it looks like Ubuntu may be the distro it ships with. That means it will handle web browsing, run office applications, and give the user a fully functional computer to play with as soon as it's plugged in. All that and it can be carried in your pocket or on a key chain."
I seems to have five extra wires, that could be the power supply connection. Also it looks like it goes to a hub, so that might be where it will get it's power in the production version.
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
Except it is a complete computer, just no IO devices. This isn't a USB device to plug into a computer, but a computer with a USB host port for plugging in a keyboard.
In spirit, it's similar to the early Apple or Sinclair computers, using a TV you already own as the monitor.
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.
...than designing cheap low-end computers ? Like releasing freaking Elite IV already ???
get your ass back to work !