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$9 Open Source Computer Blows Past Crowdfunding Goal
An anonymous reader writes: A team of engineers and artists has launched a Kickstarter campaign for C.H.I.P., a small computer that costs $9. The campaign met and far exceeded its $50,000 goal on the first day. The device runs an R8 ARM CPU clocked at 1 GHz, 512 MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage. It has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and runs a version of Debian. The price was enabled by two things: super-cheap Chinese tablets pushing down processor costs, and support from manufacturer Allwinner to make it even cheaper. The team is also building breakout boards for VGA and HDMI connections, as well as one with a tiny LCD screen, keyboard, and battery. Importantly, "all hardware design files schematic, PCB layout and bill of materials are free for you the community to download, modify and use."
$9 with $20 shipping is an old ebay scam, but evidently still effective
And yet a graphing calculator with a fraction of the power will still run you $109.
"Importantly, "all hardware design files schematic, PCB layout and bill of materials are free for you the community to download, modify and use."
I guess you people have never heard of Allwinner, a fairly serial GPL violator. They're also pretty hostile towards the OSS community.
No Linux device tree that I can tell, which means no support for shit.
Oh, also - $9 computer with $20 shipping cost? That's the oldest eBay scam in the book. That thing only weighs a couple of ounces at most - $5 maximum even WITH insurance.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Who needs a display? For small job, low power ARM servers and embedded controllers that need more power than an Arduino can supply, this thing looks nice.
All the display hardware in the RPi and Beaglebone does for me is waste power and drive up the cost.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.