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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."
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those! Hey, someone bemoaned this no longer being a popular Slashdotism, and I agree it should be brought back.
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
Eat your heart out, OLPC. This is 10 PC's per pocket.
If the HDMI is on one end, and the USB is on the other, is this thing battery powered?
"His name was James Damore."
If the idea is to plug in a keyboard, then why does it have a male USB plug, and not a female ?
I'd love one of these if it had networking as well. It would be a great thing to have a portable computer that could fill in for a emergency terminal, not just a dedicated machine with no connectivity, I guess I could carry a hub and such too but then the usefulness of having it on my keychain is gone.
HDMI one end, USB the other for keyboard. How is it going to connect to the web? Maybe you can chain a USB-ethernet connection through the keyboard.
What other people think of me is none of my business
It looks freaking awesome :D
If you connect it to a PC's USB port, will the PC recognise it? If so, will it piggyback the network connection?
Or can just connect it to a USB phone charger or USB hub?
This is the sig that says NI (again)
If it only has a HDMI and USB connection for keyboard/mouse, how do you power the thing?
Not quite as capable, in certain respects, as the Gumstix line of similarly sized ARM boards; but, on the other hand, you'll be lucky to walk away with change from $200 after getting your main board and an I/O expander if needed if you go that route. I wonder where the cost delta comes from?
One minor nit, this system doesn't appear to have any onboard networking(aside from the USB port which, from the picture of it connected to the B port of a hub, would appear to be one of those 'OTG' master or slave jobbies, which could easily enough act as a USB CDC or RNDIS connection to a host PC(which is kind of a waste for a single user; but a basic cheapy desktop loaded with USB cards could easily act as a gateway/fileserver/host for CPU intensive or x86 only programs over an X tunnel for a classroom full of the things)). I have to wonder if a "Flash drive sized" computer that basically doesn't work unless connected to a powered USB hub and a USB network adapter or CDC host PC might be rather less useful than would be a "pack of playing cards sized" computer that actually has a NIC and at least enough USB ports to support a mouse and keyboard(and ideally one extra for miscellaneous purposes)...
2.5W should be ample to power it off a powered USB hub (though they have up to 5W from them). There could be wifi onboard, else a USB ethernet/wireless.
Now we just need to get Lego on board.
froody...
throw in a network interface, and I'll buy enough for a beowulf cluster.
~men are from earth. women are from earth. deal with it.~
Does "1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode" imply hardware decoding?
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
Stop procrastinating and gives us our damn Elite 4 already.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Sound would also be nice. And networking.
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
Definitely want one! I am curious about how the device is powered ... maybe it leeches power off the monitor?
Put OSX on it to debug when plugged into a Mac when OSX goes poof.
#slashdot: A $25 PC On a USB Stick - The new danger in air travel comes with a $25 fee /.0 oh no "PC On a USB Stick" http://bit.ly/iqij2R (PS: /.0 stands for -)
The HDMI spec requires a 55mA supply at 5V. This seems to be enough to power this little computer.
It might not work with a lot of usb devices without a hub that has external power but a keyboard should be possible.
Maybe he developed this hardware so everyone can play Elite 4 when it comes out? (Elite 4 is proving to be the next Duke Nukem....)
Agrajag: "Oh no, not again!"
Doesn't this have the possibility of replacing the computers in the computer lab? A PC for every kid that is their own person machine. All they do is plug it in when they go into the lab. Of course, troubleshooting problems on these things might be a nightmare, but you'll have that.
Audio would go over the audio pins of the HDMI jack.
This could be a godsend for MAME DIY builders... vastly cuts down the cost of the computer segment, and simplifies the video connection to HDMI. Plug one end into your controller and the other into the monitor. Boom, done. You could store a buttload of classic games on a fairly small SD card.
Ya know, I always wondered how my computer output sound to my TV even though they're only connected by an HDMI cable, then I remembered, you can send audio signals across that same cable. Albeit, ups the price of the monitor.
Yes, I am obsessed with ellipses.
Since 2 years ago you can already get those media player box like Patriot Box Office for around $50 that run Linux and can play many 1080p media, with network port, HDMI (cable included)+composite video, multiple USB port, IR remote and power brick.
The spec list mentions composite output as well, though it doesn't seem to be broken out on the dev board(to a standard connector). All but the nastiest TVs can handle that. In the case of schools, I assume that the use case would be making the computer lab cheaper(even the cheapest nettops run ~$150 on a good day, and Thin client hardware, presumably because of its Big Serious Corporate provenance, can run rather more than that. Bottom end business-line PCs that can be more or less relied upon to have a standard hardware profile are ~$200 in off-lease refurb, ~$500 new). Even if you are using a bunch of Windows only or x86 only software, these little puppies would be substantially cheaper than most thin-client offerings(and linux-on-ARM is supported by Citrix and VMware, and has support for RDP and X, which pretty much covers all the bases). If you are doing things that are supported natively, you could skip the terminal server and go cheaper still.
Plus(somewhat sad to say), there probably are a reasonable number of families where a TV ranks higher than a computer. A basic nasty "HD" LCD setup will almost always come with HDMI now, and is pretty accessible(even if by rent-to-own or usurious credit card borrowing) for people pretty far down the totem pole. Kiddo might well have better luck sneaking in some computer time when the parents aren't watching soaps or sports than having access to a standard computer....
It sounds to me like the $25 cost is the cost of the assembled unit. The likely retail cost will be something on the order of $100-$200.
fully-featured computers would be a bit more useful to system integrators...
I'm /still/ waiting for someone to build an nVidia ION as small as their (not for sale) pico-ITX reference platform that came out years ago:
http://www.mini-itx.com/67219812
The fit PC2 is pretty neat, but they still need binary blob drivers for Intel's crappy PowerVR GPU, which severely limits Linux distribution... if they had that form factor with an ION chipset I'd be sticking those little buggers all over the place :-P
I totally forgot about that. Sweet!
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
Hopefully it will include a C64 emulator and Elite
At the hardware level, it should be no more or less inscrutable-and-functionally-unfixable than essentially any modern board. At the software level, it probably depends on where the providing entity falls on the "Let them explore" vs. "Lock it down, we'll tell them what they need" spectrum: If you give the user full control over the device, in the spirit of hackerly independent exploration, you'll probably have them show up in fair variety of conditions. If you control more or less tightly, you probably won't.
Barring direct physical destruction of hardware, though, it wouldn't be total rocket surgery to have a rescue bootloader that, say, causes the device to expose its entire internal flash as a USB MSC volume if a particular sequence of inputs is given. Somebody fuck up their stick? Plug it into a computer, enter the rescue sequence, dd if=base_image.img of=/dev/SD_borked_stick Wait a minute or two, unplug, back in business.
Technologically, these should be no harder(and quite possibly easier) to deal with. Philosophically, the tradeoff between making a computer "theirs" vs. making sure that it is ready for class is only partially a technological problem, and much more a problem of educational philosophy(though the OLPC project did some interesting work on technology to reduce the sharpness of the tradeoff...)
I'm pretty sure a 700 MHz ARM can't remotely handle 1080p in software, so, yeah.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
Windows 7 will boot with 96MB...(Install in a VM with the minimum-required 512MB; reduce VM down and down, once I hit 88MB it BSOD'd) - and no, it wasn't as slow as one would think...
Raspberry? - My blackberry isn't working
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
What kind of storage does it have?
How do you plug in a keyboard and a mouse?
How do you power it?
Can it play Crysis 2? (j/k)
But it does sound like a cool idea to use as the start of an even cooler idea.
The USB-port seems to be an USB A plug, not a USB A Receptacle (port). A keyboard cannot be directly connected to it. Either it uses rather odd off-spec USB cabling, or it is not an USB host but an USB client device.
It appears to have a third connector for power. In the picture this appears to be connected to another USB cable.
0x or or snor perron?!
All this thing needs is a micro SD slot and a slightly more powerful processor and it would be fantastic. Tape it to the back of your tv and you're set.
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
Most people already carry around this much computing power with them in their smart phone. You can get adaptors for the USB perhipheral interface on most smart phones to turn it into a USB host with a hub, which can then be used to connect a keyboard. And I'm sure I've seen someone do a video-over-usb off one of those as well.
Why not just add a USB host port and an HDMI out to an existing smart phone? The incremental cost over the existing smart phone would be less than $25, they generally already have network connectivity via wi-fi or 3G, and it's still just about usable even if you don't have an external display and keyboard to plug in.
Raymond’s Rule of Smartphone Subsumption: if neither the physics nor the ergonomics of a gadget’s function require peripherals larger than will fit in a smartphone case, the smartphone will eat it!
Why doesn't the gene pool have a life guard?
http://semiaccurate.com/2011/01/19/compulab-shows-embedded-amd-brazos-system/
1.6GHz dual-core, HD6310, no moving parts. Sure its Industrial-design, so it won't be as cheap as a bare board; but it should last a good long time. Add your choice of SSD or moving-parts 2.5" HDD, RAM, and 2 optional Mini Card PCI-E cards, and you're done. I'm hoping multiple companies come out with these, and I can pick one up for under $150 myself...
Interesting that it can support a touch screen, though I guess it would just be another USB device. Does seem kind of like a cop-out that it depends on an external hub for much of it's hardware (like networking) but still a pretty cool overall design. Hope they include a wifi/bluetooth chip in the final version. Aren't there ARM designs that include those built in?
AJ Henderson
By the time you've added a keyboard, mouse, display, a decent sized SD card for storage and/or WiFi connectivity so you can actually get data in or out you're probably closer to the cost of a netbook or OLPC, but have lost the benefit of portability.
I guess that a school could provide fixed monitors/keyboards in classrooms, so kids could sit down and plug in their £25 dongle, rather than entrust them with a £150 netbook (and suffer the inevitable loss and damage) - but then (a) the computers could only be used in suitably equipped classrooms and (b) you might as well fix the computers and give kids an even cheaper USB drive to carry around.
Yes, the kids could use their dongle computers at home but its going to be a while before you can assume that everybody has an HDMI TV, and unless kids have a HDMI-equipped TV in their own room (If they do, its good odds that they already have a PC anyway) they'd still have to persuade the rest of the family to miss The X Factor so that they could work on their project.
Nothing wrong with cheap-as-chips single board PCs, but I do wonder why people are so obsessed with building them into wall-warts and USB dongles, when t something slightly bigger (with more room for connectors and space for a couple internal USB devices or a micro HD) would be far more flexible and portable.
Also from TFA:
Braben argues that education since we entered the 2000s has turned towards ICT which teaches useful skills such as writing documents in a word processor, how to create presentations, and basic computer use skills. But that has replaced more computer science-like skills such as basic programming and understanding the architecture and hardware contained in a computer.
Strongly agree - but there's a second string to that, in that ICT has not only supplanted "proper" computer science (which did, once upon a time, exist as an optional high school subject in the UK) but has also tended to pull computers out of maths and science. I've encountered maths teachers who thought, for example, that kids "did" spreadsheets in ICT (they did, but only to turn out pie charts for the annual cat & dog survey - when faced with a fairly trivial modelling exercise they used calculators to fill in the spreadsheet). "ICT" was responsible for many BBC micros being ripped out of subject classrooms and thrown into skips to be replaced by the new ICT (PC) suites. Heck, I'm not advocating it, but even today you could make good use of a good old Beeb (bristling with inputs and outputs and easy to program) in a science classroom!
Overall, I'd welcome the demise of "ICT*" as a curriculum subject (about as sensible as having "handwriting" as a separate subject) on the two conditions that the other subjects were given the necessary time and support to teach IT skills in context, and there was a CS option at age 16-18 (with some sort of "teaser" in the compulsory maths curriculum).
Seems to me that these micro-PCs would be good for the latter, but effectively tied to the computer lab.
(*Note - the 'C' stands for "Communications" and was mandated by the UK Department of Redundancy Department in the UK, who, presumably, didn't think that 'Communication' had anything to do with 'Information' . Figures.)
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
Where can one buy it that cheap?
I have been looking to build something similar. The closest thing to what I'd like to see is the ISEE IGEP MODULE http://www.igep.es/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=109&Itemid=123 If this had a Standard USB Type A plug rather than the miniAB it could plug directly into a computer, connect to Wifi (for Internet access), and then Enumerate a Ethernet device over USB. This would provide a basic USB Wifi module as well as providing a powerful Linux computer in-line.
It's sad that there doesn't seem to be any reference files for the ISEE IGEP MODULE. It looks like I'll have to scale down a larger development kit. I really think there is a market for such a product...
Has anyone seen anything close out there?
Encryption: I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to encrypt it...
lose the webcam and add a nic. then tape that thing to the back of a monitor, boom, thin client.
lose != loose
... I have a new favorite thin client! 1000 kiosk machines for $25,000 is a great deal. The problem is locking the damn things down to keep employees from walking out with a handful in their pockets.
I8-D
I'd really like that thing if it had some kind of networking instead of HDMI. I'm currently in the market for a cheap, low-power computer I can use as a low-traffic Jabber server. Unfortunately "cheap" and "low-power" don't seem to go well together.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
This sounds silly then. It's £15, but then you need to buy a keyboard, a mouse, and now an LCD television? Just buy a netbook and be done with it.
How about nVidia ION plus Penryn in 180 x 166 x 61 mm (7.1 x 6.5 x 2.4 in) including 8 GB DDR3, 2.5" HD, and slim optical? Screw that Atom crap and the designs that just can't cool themselves adequately. This has no oddball hardware and runs any distro you can name. Mine idles at 21 W AC input to the power brick. Here you go
Here is some more info I got from a mail list I follow:
> > 1) How long do you think it will be before the boards become
> > available?
>
> I'd say three or four months. As you can see from the screenshots, we
> have usable Linux, but we're waiting to get final versions of the the
> chip from our supplier.
>
> > 2) Are there any plans for a version with onboard ethernet?
>
> I don't think we're likely to do onboard Ethernet; we will have an
> onboard 3-port USB hub so people can add an external adapter.
>
> > 3) Are there any plans for a version with onboard wifi?
>
> Yes. The final version (though maybe not the first distributables)
> will have onboard WiFi (probably 802.11n) in the price point.
>
> > 4) What are the power requirements, both under load and at rest?
>
> At rest I'd say 50mW (we could trim this if it was really important,
> but it gets a bit fiddly below this point), under serious load
> (original XBox class graphics or 1080p30 H.264), 700mW.
In the video he kept mentioning Twitter and Facebook, but i see no way for this thing to interface with any form of internet connection, other than maybe via USB and that would be taken up by a keyboard wouldnt it?
My first thought too. However, then it seems that everyone and his dog (except me... and my parents) seem to have thrown out the trusty CRT and gone flatscreen. Even (especially?) people in the low-income segment seem to do that. Why? I don't know. In that regard, this would be on par with the good old C64 back in the day... Fight for whoever gets to use the TV (For whatever application, watching TV, this thing, or whatever you can come up with.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Two of TFA links say it has a 12MP camera onboard. That's nearly one third of the system's 128MB RAM used for a single image capture - I wonder if they mean 1.2MP?
I really hope this makes it to market. The projected price is a killer.
With the small size and low price, this would be awesome for low-cost robotics - maybe schools or FIRST could buy them in volume.
All you need to add is a small powered USB hub and then you can add a USB servo controller, bluetooth/wifi, camera etc.
I apologize if I didn't make it clear: Because of the enthusiasm for televised entertainment, penetration of basic CRT TVs with composite or RF ins has reached(at least on the neighborhood level) down to people who live in shacks and have highly intermittent access to electricity siphoned off the nearest utility pole and no running water.
Now that flat panels have gotten cheap(and a combination of shipping costs, consumer tastes, and environmental concerns have largely eliminated the CRT TV from the first world retail channel), you will find that many low income households have a TV(almost definitely capable of composite in, if purchased in the last couple of years, or going forward, probably a cheap and nasty LCD with an HDMI port). They've already gone out and purchased one. It's a sunk cost. This hypothetical board would be capable of exploiting the money already spent. I do think that they pared it down a bit too far in terms of I/O; but between composite and HDMI/DVI, video output doesn't seem too serious an issue(the only issue would be lack of VGA-HDMI is electrically compatible with DVI-D; but does not include the analog signals broken out by a full DVI connector).
...than designing cheap low-end computers ? Like releasing freaking Elite IV already ???
get your ass back to work !
What is the point of making this a USB stick? It obviously needs to be connected to a powered USB hub. So, why not make a USB hub PC? i.e. include this device with its hdmi port in the hub, so that in the end you only need one small device, instead of this tiny usb stick device PLUS one small device?
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Not sure I really see the point of this. If you already have a computer to plug this device in to, what's the point of adding another one? Why not just get a simple USB WiFi dongle?
Just junk food for thought...
ARM 11 is the older tech so when you think of your smartphone it's running a Cortex A8 or A9 which are about 2x faster per clock speed. top that off with the 128MB of memory and you have something which can run Linux with a very light desktop and one smallish app. As an educational aid this isn't a problem but as something most /.ers would be thinking of doing it would be under powered.
;-)
But! A Beowulf cluster of these....
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
How is this thing different than a Gumstix? Perhaps the price which is about 10% less, but on the other hand it is has yet to be sold so we don't know the price. And as for fitting a beowulf into a shoebox, well Gumstix was there first
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Except it doesn't come with keyboard, screen or power supply.
From the article, specs appear comparable to the Wii. Plug in a USB joystick (or several through a hub) and an HDTV, and you have the fourth game console. And 5 volt power supplies are cheap in any cell phone shop.
I can see the excuses now:
"I'm sorry Mrs. Smith, but the dog ate my computer."
"Damnit, where did I leave my computer now?"
"Crap, I left my computer in my pants and washed them."
"So, I was hacking the Gibson naked, slipped, and fell, and that's how my computer got stuck up my butt."
You're going to entrust a kid with the physical security of a keychain sized computer when chances are that they're only going to use it in the lab? And then theyire data is basically stuck on that device. There's no simple way for them to get that data to another computer to work. A simple flash drive would be better. Or better yet, store their data such that it is accessible form anywhere there's a 'net connection and you don't have to worry about students losing/breaking their data.
FTFA - Each one of these devices has an SDCard slot for storing data. This would provide each child with their "own" data they can easily transport and access. Outfitting a computer lab with $25.00 per child computers versus purchasing an outright PC to fill it might be a cheaper alternative. Maintenance should also be lower. In addition, this may provide some energy savings for the school if they are only powering an HDMI monitor and not an entire PC as well.
As to yor suggestion that they purchase everyone a USB flash drive, essentially it is a USB flash drive with a computer built in.
It has a SD/MMC slot, so you can put a 4G card in for $6 (pricewatch). That's enough to stash a desktop version of Linux, Office Apps, and still have enough room for papers or anything else you're going to do in a semester at school. The other advantage is that you can pop out the card and drop it into another shell if you step on it.
I wonder if the SoC they chose lacked a RAMDAC or something. I imagine that, if you are trying to hit that size and price point, you don't really have the luxury of tacking on more support chips than you absolutely need, and most of the ARM chips of the world with any display support at all are presumably mostly designed to deal with legacy/embedded mini LCD screens, or to cope with the contemporary/near future set top box/TV-cellphone connection, etc. use cases.
I told people years ago that some day we'd walk into a drugstore and buy PCs next to the cigarette lighters and cheapo fans.
It just seems like a logical conclusion to the "cheaper, faster" trend. I started thinking this way in the late 90s. Prior to that, it was always $2000 for a PC. They just kept getting faster. Once they got fast enough to do video it seemed like there was not much more need for speed. It seems like price competition really heated up after that.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Have you seen the kids walking around with their $200 iPod Touches and iPhones? I'm talking about little kids, like elementary school kids. If they can keep those together, a $25.00 "computer" about 1/4 the size shouldn't be a problem. You just have to make it seem important enough to them that they don't want to lose it. Throw a half-eaten apple on the front and I'm sure it'll be gobbled up.
It has a micro-SD slot.
Put identity in the browser.
The power comes from the HDMI cable which supplies 5v.
Work Safe Porn
But the phone is useful to them. They have motivation to keep it safe and working. But a tiny computer that only plugs in at the computer lab and at home if they happen to have HDMI, keyboard, USB wifi, etc? Meh. They don't care. If they really need to work in a lab, we already have thin clients and servers. There's just so little value in letting them walk around with a fully functional computer that requires a very specific external hardware configuration to be usable.
Let me know when I can embed it in my brain.
I want a few of these quick. What a wonderful product if they can hold price it would be wonderful times two.
2 ports and the size of a pack of gum? That sounds like Apple's roadmap.
Mactini: The macbook with one key
To make it easier for everyone the device could use a DisplayPort rather than an HDMI and USB connectors. The DisplayPort has audio, video, and USB in it. Ethernet-to-USB would typically be in the dongle that splays out the connection. The problem is that the dongle to convert DisplayPort to USB, Ethernet, stereo audio, mic, and HDMI costs more than the mini-PC, but standardizing on the DisplayPort would make it easier for the kids and the schools to use them.
What percent of TVs have DisplayPorts in addition to HDMI connectors?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort
I want this thing, but I need it with 2 ethernet ports. Who needs a firewall/router appliance, when I could stick this in front of a cheap switch?
mark
ROT13, dude! It appears to be a collection of quotes about the medical profession.
Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it.
If this works out he should be knighted. Good job David!
So all it's waiting for is the retina display and a neural interface...
HDMI to DVI/VGA adapters are pretty cheap too.
Seems like they created a device that aims for "cool", but missed having targetted usefulness.
Requring that you have an external USB hub to do any useful I/O, just kills the "hey, a small portable computer!" factor.
As it stands, it makes kind of a neat "Output Only" device. Plug into HDMI display, and you could have a neat animated wall decoration or something. Presuming that it can draw enough power from hdmi to actually run. Making it functionally targetted for merely non-interactive eye-candy.
It cant even handle streaming video feeds or something in that mode: No wireless, or other networking onboard!
Personally, I'd find it more useful if they can make a variant that can operate in pure HDMI-powered mode, with no other external power. Somehow rig up a low-power keyboard connection for it, and/or joystick, and you then have the ultimate cheapo game platform for this generation of hardware.
A typical portable audio player (e.g. Sanisk Sansa Fuze) has a dual core ARM processor, 32MB of ram, gigabytes of flash, a few UI buttons, a USB device port, internal rechargeable battery (charged by USB), and a video screen. They are cheap, like $30 for the 2gb Clip model at newegg.com right now. You can run your own code on them by downloading Rockbox and modifying it. I've wanted for a while to program them for use as crypto coprocessors.
There are many little ARM boards, some of which are priced as low as $39 in quantity 1. These are useful for applications where the ATMega in an Arduno is too limiting.
The choice of peripherals these guys made is unusual. With a USB port and an HDMI port, you can build a game machine, which is probably what they had in mind. Most such boards are more suited to embedded applications, and have I/O - digital TTL ports, Ethernet, LCD drive, etc.
A problem with these minimal machines is deciding what to put on them. The lowest-price devices tend to have too little of some resource and too much of something you don't need. This leads to a proliferation of little embedded boards with slightly different options, which runs the cost back up.
For hobbyists, the Leaflands Maple may be interesting. It's an ARM board in the Arduno form factor. It's compatible with Arduno daughter boards ("shields"), and has some commonality with the Arduno development environment. Not enough memory to run Linux, though.
The $25 price is a vaporware price - they're not actually shipping. NXP is shipping LPCExpresso for "under $30", and that includes the entire tool chain (Eclipse, GCC, JTAG debugger, etc.)
The Atari 2600 did analog audio and video over a single RCA connector decades ago.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
HDMI to VGA/DVI adapters are $5, and a VGA to RGB adapter is $10. So it becomes having a few cheap peripherals at home (USB Hub, Keyboard, Mouse) and a Monitor, or decent TV for a Display. It may not be a help to the very poorest family but sure would be to those that have an extra tv, and could spare $25 so the child could make use of a computer at home.
I could see plenty of cases where this could be helpful.
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
Video Wall.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
The video at the top of this article, didn't indicate they were targeting 3rd world countries. They were targeting the UK to provide computers to many of the families that can't afford to purchase a computer.
So, siphoning power off the nearest power lines or not having running water and toilet isn't really at issue here.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
Then why not give each kid a $5 SD card and leave the PC (even if it's one of these tiny ones) in place?
.sig withheld by request
Indeed. I was just emphasizing that(between composite on the low end and HDMI elsewhere) the ability to coax video out of this thing has really trickled down. The only really gaping hole, ironically enough, would be having a VGA out to drive all the aging CRTs and cheapy early model LCDs that you might be most likely to find in a school with budget issues or scrounge for cheap somewhere.
Doesn't this have the possibility of replacing the computers in the computer lab?
Depends. Is David Braben going to give school administrators better kick-backs than Microsoft?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Actually I think the specs said SD/MMC/SDIO and nothing about micro. You could use an adapter, of course. What I want to know is if the SD is SDHC.
I'm not sure where it is in the picture, or if maybe it's planned or it's an option in place of HDMI, but the site of the foundation says it has composite video, too.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
Now, if it has NTSC as well as PAL, I'm definitely on board.
Will also certainly want network access. So add that in. At some point you just have OLPC, except far less convenient. Better to just package everything the child will need into a cheap laptop. A computer on a USB stick is a neat trick but mostly useless for the masses. If all of those accessories are required to use the computer, why wouldn't you package them into the case? Congratulations, you've reinvented the laptop.
...until it can run Duke Nukem Forever.
"We live in a global world" - Harvey Pitt, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
I guess you could do that. It might be a little easier to lose an SD card than a USB stick, but whatever works.
Smartphone - Baseband processor - HID - Display
True, it can display a screen full of high-definition text. But being able to display a high-definition picture doesn't imply being able to display a moving polygonal HD picture. The Super NES and Sega Genesis had 480i screen modes, but very few games ever used anything but 240p due to memory requirements. PC VGA could display text and low-color graphics in 480p (VGA mode), but Doom, Doom 2, and the first Quake ran in 32-bit DOS in 200p mode 13h. The original PlayStation and Nintendo 64 likewise had 480i, but still, most games with any sort of motion in them ran at 240p.
I want one or two to tinker with. Highly constrained
little gems like this are worth giving a good hard
look. Systems full of bloatware are too hard to maintain.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.