Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.
Tiny, sub-$100 PC runs Puppy Linux
linuxdevices.com — This tiny device can serve as an ultra-low-cost platform for thin-client, kiosk, and electronic signage apps, or as an affordable PC for students and others in developing countries.
deviceguru- 1463 diggs
- digg it
- RegisPhilbin, on 10/12/2007, -35/+6Very interesting, but come on, a Pentium 166? That's not for Puppy Linux, it's for Embryo Linux.
- shrewduser, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26pentium compatable, as in x86, don't underestimate a modern small low powered 166mhz processor.
- Ninjab3ar, on 10/12/2007, -26/+15Eat your heart out Mac Mini!
- treelovinhippie, on 10/12/2007, -24/+8At that processing speed could it even handle your standard email, internet, word processing, IM chat?
- felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -10/+33I don't think I'd worry about choosing between this and a Mac Mini. This one costs $120 and runs at 166mhz. My PHONE runs at 312mhz.
This is developed for use as a thin client in industrial situations - it's not a consumer device. - Ninjab3ar, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5@treelovinghippie
yeah, it will. the computer is aimed more to people at developing countries, all they will probably do with the computer is use their browser for internet, and probably a simple text editor to help them write any documents they need etc. - mwolfzorn, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12"Pentium-compatible processor" it's not a Pentium 1, it's a custom processor for this purpose
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+37"I don't think I'd worry about choosing between this and a Mac Mini. This one costs $120 and runs at 166mhz. My PHONE runs at 312mhz. This is developed for use as a thin client in industrial situations - it's not a consumer device."
Your phone also needs to be much faster, due to it running a DSP to convert your voice into a set of digital signals that can be broadcast. Meanwhile, this machine can do everything your 10 year old computer can do.
While it may seem like a step backwards, this machine is almost perfectly inline with what most consumers today actually use their computers for; email, web surfing, typing papers. To boot, it's even got all of the video and audio hardware onboard and is fast enough to decode an MP3 so you could actually listen to music while typing those papers, and you don't need a seperate chip to provide a video interface. Think about it; most of the people in the world can't afford computers simply because their computers do more than what they need them to do. Some people would just be happy to get their hands on these things. These tiny machines make it possible. I could populate a school with 2,000 students with 2,000 of these things for a bit over $20,000 ($90/computer, plus bulk purchases of old monitors and a file server). Where my friend used to be an admin, they just spent $26,000 on 25 new Dell computers for a student computer lab. That speaks volumes in and of itself. - ashika, on 10/12/2007, -19/+10Where does it say 'developing countries'?
Nowhere. It's for geeks who build stuff like wireless print servers for fun. Not Joe Developingnation.
I swear. Why does everyone think people in the developing world want sh*tty computers? - geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -3/+21"Where does it say 'developing countries'? Nowhere. It's for geeks who build stuff like wireless print servers for fun. Not Joe Developingnation. I swear. Why does everyone think people in the developing world want sh*tty computers?"
Who the hell said "Developing Nation"? I said "people". There are people in the "developed world" who would snap up these machines just as fast as the "developing world"; imagine every single kid in a school being able to have a computer that they can do research on, write papers, listen to audio presentations from teachers across the world.
Secondly, the developing world doesn't care if the computers they get are "*****", they're COMPUTERS, something they don't have that would greatly appreciate their quality of lives. Imagine what a developing country could do with the Internet. No more relying on people coming over and doing things for them, they can learn to do things for themselves. They can publish about things they learn to help each other. They can communicate needs for goods to each other, they can organize, they could even govern over computers.
No, I don't know if it's penis envy that you have a computer and they don't, or if you just don't care about anyone but yourself, or if you are some rich bastard sitting on a pile of cash and simply don't understand what it's like to be without, but judging from the number of countries and people who are jumping on the One Computer Per Child project, I'd say you're vetoed. Get a life. - adam.skinner, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6While it may drive a small linux distro itself, it's intended for thin client computing. It simply views stuff, and the processing job is offloaded to an LTSP cluster running OpenMosix =)
- tybris, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12You do not realise the power of the puppy. Puppy Linux is small enough to fit itself completely into memory and have plenty to spare. Imagine that, no swapping, no disk delay, no reading from cd, just the full speed of your computer. It will make even a Pentium 166 look very good (except for the time required to boot that is).
- cazabam, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1@geminitojanus said "Who the hell said "Developing Nation"?"
well, ninjab3ar did, for one. - sbrown123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I use a Kurobox at home. It has 128M ram and runs a PowerPC processor at 266Mhz. Costs approx $150. With it I Installed a 400G drive, linux, samba, subversion, a torrent client, and plugged my printer and scanner in to it. It has become the always-on, lower power, and quite workhorse for all my XP machines.
- merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"To boot, it's even got all of the video and audio hardware onboard and is fast enough to decode an MP3"
Sweet. Attach a big hard drive, and shove it in your car. Boom. Half terabyte MP3 player for your car, for about $250.
No, you wouldn't wanna try to play WoW on it, or probably even surf digg, but this thing means you can have a familiar, programmable platform for controlling whatever the hell you want controlled. - uidzero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5A pentium 166 is more then enough for thin client usage.
- nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If I ever need a little router or firewall, this sucker is going to be it! Awesome. Though I might run OpenBSD on it, I think pf's config file is much nicer than configuring iptables.
- SocketNine3Nine, on 10/12/2007, -57/+6they mentioned Pentium M or somthing that sounds like that @ 166 MHz (do they mean 1.66GHz) or acually 166 MHz? ( I have never seen a cpu of that clockspeed in any market yet.
- radu79, on 10/12/2007, -5/+58How old are you? 16?
There was a time when I upgraded to a Cyrix 166, and I was so happy with the additional speed. - pbaehr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+38Kids these days, honestly!
- FishersJEFF, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16And the Cyrix 166 was a heck of a chip had one that ran non-stop for years. The only issue is that they ran a little hotter that the Intel chips. But they have most certainly had clock speed of 166 MHz on the market. Just like there were times of 1MB of ram and hard disk of 150MB. Just because you weren't around to see them doesn't mean they didn't exist.
- wvdavis, on 10/12/2007, -17/+11Hey give the kid credit... he is just being honest. He can't help it he's young.
- adam84a, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17I remember when I yearned for a 166MHz Pentium (thinking it would blow my 133MHz out of the water).
- brhad56, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18I remember aweing at a guy who purchased a 200MHz machine (mine was 60 MHz at the time). And I rememeber thinking that noone needs a 200MHz computer.
- B111, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Fsking kids! Back in my day computers had a 1 MHz (Motorola) processor, 128K RAM, and we liked it!
Or course all we did was play Oregon Trail. - jpbro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9@B111 -
Are you talking about the C=128? Amazingly, you could put it in "fast" mode (2 whole mHz!), but it would blank the 40 column display, so you had better have an 80 column compatible monitor unless you were just "crunching" (lightly pressing maybe?) numbers :)
My first computer (Vic 20) had a mind blowing 5K of RAM (of which 3.5K was available to the user). It's hard to believe how far we've come sometimes! - desheffer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Well, if it helps any (about the whole kid thing), I'm only 18 and my first computer had a 90 MHz PII
- dbalaski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Just cause the Processor is slower than what we use on our desktops, doesn't mean its not useful ... Good clean code can make it sing ( I hate to say I started with the Original IBM XT -- old fart I guess lmao )
Plenty of older tech I find it migrating this path --- I can see lots of applications for this machine (Kiosks, teller & POS terminals, machine controllers etc)....
(I actually have one in mind for me -- local units processing RSS feeds for display on large screens at my company -- hell this would save a lot of $$$) - jejones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@B111: Speak for yourself. We Tandy Color Computer users ran a multitasking OS (OS-9) on our .89MHz systems. Of course, in 1986, we moved up to twice the clock frequency, 512K of RAM, and windowing, and ran UUCP and a port of the KA9Q TCP/IP code.
These days the serious CoCo user has replaced the 6809 with a Hitachi 6309, moved to NitrOS9, and uses SCSI or IDE (or both). We can use VGA monitors now, too. Next year will be either the 15th or the 16th annual "Last" Chicago CoCoFest. - zetsurin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Ahhh the days. I remember whether I should go the extra dough for the 166MHz or the 150MHz. It made a difference back then...
- dbalaski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@jejones -- wow I remember OS9 (had a Coco too ) digg for the memories ;)
- pixelmixer, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2I'm 20, but I never came accross a processor like this. Maybe its just the fact that I never payed attention to stuff like that until a couple years ago. I dont remember anything like that because it wasnt important to me at the time. I may have used them, but never realized there was something called MHz that actually meant something.
Nowadays its much different, i've been a web developer for 5 years and I now know how important processor speed is, especially when doing 3D rendering. ;p
So all you OLD GUYS, give us a break, we couldnt have cared less back then. - jafojsharp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Man, I remember all those Radio Shack Tandy's I used to beat the snot out of those dual 5 1/4 drive bays (1 4 da Boot floppy, 1 4 da Game/Wordperfect/Leisure Suit Larry whatever disc). My fisrt REAL PC was my frankie built 166MHZ and the crazy 2mb video, 2mb 3dFX voodoo setup. Oh the thrill when 233 w/MMX came out !!!
- kahrn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@desheffer, I assume you mean 90MHz PI right? ;)
I'm 16.. was given a 486 not sure about the specs, but I remember it running win3.1. Speed was never really problem because I was thrilled with the encyclopedia interactive CD thing.
I can remember using my first pentium quite well though, 150MHz non MMX with 16MB Ram with 1MB Onboard GFX memory. Perfect for playing games like flight unlimited (the original) and sometimes flight unlimited 2 if you tweaked it enough)!
The things you *can* do with a system like this is limitless. People are all wondering if you can even view web pages.. well, yes. Of course you can. Infact, there is no difference other than speed in what I can do with a 486 than anyone else can with the latest pentium 4.
If the software is written well, then you can find many uses for boxes like this. I'm always looking for low spec systems to experiement with and get them running on the network doing small jobs and just seeing what YOU can do. It's not about what the box can do, because the box can already do everything. - B111, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@jpbro
I don't remember the model number of the chip, but it was in an apple ][e (or was it a ][+, ][c, I don't remember exactly, but it was one of the later ones).
I remember learning programming in BASIC as a kid and loving it, in fact, I thought at the time how powerful the machine was, not because of the specs (I was like 6 y/o), but because of how much it could do.
I think we get too caught up in the specs and fail to realize that computers are meant to empower us to do things we could otherwise not do.
Personally I'm salvating at the possibilites of this thing. - cazabam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Of course, I had a GenuineIntel P166MMX. Those Cyrix were just 133MHz with 166 written on them ;) Of course, it took me a LOT of saving to upgrade from my 486 DX/4, but boy was it worth it!
- rbanffy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Those kids... My first computer was an Apple II. 48K of memory, 143K floppies, TV screen and a 1 MHz 6502 processor...
Really, the first one was a Sinclair ZX-81 clone, a Prologica CP 200, but I wouldn't consider that a computer. Not even at that time. - bhasden, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Say what you want about young guys. I'm 23 and my first computer was a hand me down 8086. Can't remember exactly how fast it ran, but it couldn't have been more than a handful of MHz. I remember it couldn't run Q-BASIC, so I had to settle for GW-BASIC. The 40meg hard drive was always full and I spent most of my time dialed into BBS systems on the 1200 baud modem.
Anyone who remembers ATDT, ATH, etc. can agree with me. Those were the days.
I remember my parents financing a Packard Bell for 5 years back in the early 90s after I killed the 8086 with a soldering iron. I wanted so bad for the 486DX, yet they got the 486SX (no co-processor). Either way, I was a happy kid, that's for sure. First thing I did was download RipTerm and dial into the compatible BBSes.
I guess what I'm trying to say is don't dismiss all the young guys. I've actually been around the scene for longer that some of my professors. - jpbro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@B111
I too am intrigued by this machine, particularly as an MP3 jukebox. No noise & low power consumption sound too good to pass up. I have programmed my own jukebox software running on an "old" PII, but it is noisy as hell. I also didn't mean to make it sound like I had no appreciation for those old machines. I was using my Commodore 128 & my Amiga long past their primes, trying to squeeze every inch of performance out of them, and force them to do things they were not designed for.
When I finally (and somewhat sadly) broke down and got a PC for work purposes, I wasn't terribly impressed initially. I now have a decent laptop and every once in a while I look at it in awe however, when I recall my past stuggles with ageing hardware. Being able to wirelessly surf the net in my backyard, while listening to music stored on a remote computer (not to mention having my entire CD collection on a removeable/transportable hard drive) and ripping/transcoding a DVD to PSP format (for a friend of mine, I neither have nor want a PSP myself) all at the same time seems *just* short of a miracle sometimes! - kLacK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I'm dissapointed in you guys, I'm 23 and my first computer was a Commodore 64 :)
- akinder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Ack, way too much ePenis comparing going on in this thread
- Aninhumer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Until very recently (a few weeks ago), my friend was still using a 90+Mhz PC.
So there! - noGoodNamesLeft, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Yeah? Well I'm only 7 and my first computer was an ENIAC, so *there*!!!! ;-)
(Anyone up for turning this into a variant of the Four Yorkshiremen sketch? It seems to be heading that way already...) - kLacK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Ok Ok, when I was 3 month's old I had a speak n spell.
- radu79, on 10/12/2007, -5/+58How old are you? 16?
- RegisPhilbin, on 10/12/2007, -15/+3The Pentium 166 was a common CPU in the Stone Age. Today, I have a faster CPU in my wristwatch. :)
Intel Pentium 166 - A80502166
Introduction date 01/04/1996
Manufacturing process 0.35 micron
3.3 million transistors
Data bus width 32 (64 bit data bus) bit
Package 296-pin Staggered Ceramic Pin Grid Array, 1.95" x 1.95" (4.95 cm x 4.95 cm)
Socket Socket 5 or Socket 7
Speed (MHz) 166
Bus frequency (MHz) 66 - gadgeek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14It may be worth noting that this is a P166 with three integer units. Hence, it should be capable of up to three times better performance than an old Pentium 166. The chip is said to outperform Cyrix's MediaGX, for example, which is a Pentium compatible that can be clocked close to 400MHz.
Given that Puppy fairly screams on my old HP Omnibook with a 166MHz Pentium, these clients likely work very, very well under the Pup.- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20It's worth noting that this isn't a Pentium processor at all, and is in fact /pentium compatible/, which is to say it complies with the 80586 instruction set. In fact, this is a SoC design that utilizes a reimplementation of the Pentium that is more superscalar than the original Pentium. This chip is literally what a Pentium would be today if it were reimplemented, except for the fact this chip is integrated on-board with all of the rest of the necessary hardware to make it a computing platform.
The fact this chip has a 2W TDP is truly amazing, and is exactly the direct computing should be heading. Add in a cheap $20 CRT and you've got the ideal computer for schools everywhere; no harddrives to keel over, wireless built in, incredibly cheap in huge quantities, and it does everything a normal school kid would need to do. - rockefeller, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9On that same note, have you noticed that even though processor speeds keep increasing, your computer, for the most part, runs at the same speed over the years, I mean like 10 years ago.
The problem is that as computers get faster, software gets more demanding. How much of that extra functionality do you really need in the latest and greatest software? Try running Windows 98 on a 4 GHz machine and it screams. Realistically I could use 98' for the majority of the things I need to do, without the 4GHz machine. I've never tested this, but I bet Windows XP on a 4 GHz machine will run at about the same speed as Windows 98 on a 1 GHz machine. I'm refering to common things like internet browsing and opening documents, etc.
IMHO, it seems as though it's a market issue...the only way to sell faster pcs is to make software that is more demanding, but not necessarily more useful. Get people to install the more demanding software, their computers start running slow, time to upgrade hardware. - beni, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Does it have any floating-point units? The article mentions 3 integer units, but if floating-point is weaksauce like VIA's chips, forget about it.
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"Does it have any floating-point units? The article mentions 3 integer units, but if floating-point is weaksauce like VIA's chips, forget about it."
It has a modern pipelined FPU along with an independent MMX unit. Its FPU performance probably isn't the greatest in the world, though, especially at 166MHz. However, since it can retire 3x integer operations and 3x MMX operations per cycle, it would probably make a world more sense to rewrite your application to use integers instead of float point math wherever possible, and attain a huge amount of performance. - robsta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I believe it is a really similar case to the new Intel Core 2 Duo's. I sell these Processors at work and have to constantly reiterate to customers that its not all about clock speed. The cheapest model (E6300) is clocked at 1.86 GHz. They do have a higher FSB than before and chew less wattage. They run better for a number of factors such as the instruction set, dual-core etc. People think GHz/MHz is the definitive measure and find it hard to justify otherwise. I haven't tested this processor myself but I'm sure it excels in areas a mobile phone CPU couldn't due to the architecture.
- rbanffy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It would be really interesting to try things with these re implementations. How many of these Pentium-like processors could fit on a Core Duo area if implemented with the same process? Massively-parallel-on-a-chip, anyone?
And yes, I know, Niagara does just that (if not with x86s anyway)
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20It's worth noting that this isn't a Pentium processor at all, and is in fact /pentium compatible/, which is to say it complies with the 80586 instruction set. In fact, this is a SoC design that utilizes a reimplementation of the Pentium that is more superscalar than the original Pentium. This chip is literally what a Pentium would be today if it were reimplemented, except for the fact this chip is integrated on-board with all of the rest of the necessary hardware to make it a computing platform.
- mikeoh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I want one! I remember the days of my old Pentium 166, running win 95 with 32MB of ram. I think it would run Puppy Linux just fine.
- mariuz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3xubuntu should work on it (installed on an k6-2@300), i have to try to put the drive (with xubuntu) at home on the p166 machine ;)
I remember i had something (fedora i think) installed on it and nautilus and mozilla were slow on it - RegisPhilbin, on 10/12/2007, -14/+0Given the fact that a modern PC is primarily used on the net these days, I just can't see a P166, regardless of how many innovations are plugged into it, being able to surf the web adequately.
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10A true sign of your knowledge about modern computing. First of all, this isn't a P166, it's a PENTIUM COMPATIBLE, 166MHz chip. Think, if you will, Athlon 64 vs. Pentium 4; the two chips use the same instruction set, but have vastly different performance characteristics.
This chip has a 166MHz Pentium Compatible core with a great deal more superscalar hardware than existed on the original Pentium chips. It's also a System-on-Chip, meaning that it's got everything it needs to be a computer on one core; video hardware, CPU, memory controller, PCI controller, audio hardware, everything.
In all actuality, this thing probably performs better than some 500MHz Celeron systems as long as you pair it up with a good amount of memory. And it's a hell of a lot cheaper at $35 bucks per unit per thousand.
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10A true sign of your knowledge about modern computing. First of all, this isn't a P166, it's a PENTIUM COMPATIBLE, 166MHz chip. Think, if you will, Athlon 64 vs. Pentium 4; the two chips use the same instruction set, but have vastly different performance characteristics.
- felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3"The MicroClient Jr. is available now, priced at $120, or $90 in quantities of a thousand or more."
So not *quite* a sub-$100 PC... - gherikill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I want one for my car.
- Aega, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What a fantastic idea. Fast enough to play mp3s, more than likely fast enough to render maps, and with low power consumption to boot. Just need an in-dash screen, a gps receiver, and software to control everything and you're good to go.
- chmod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That is exactly what I was thinking, but would a car get too hot on a hot & sunny day for it to survive intact? The article says it can operate in temperatures up to 126 F. I wonder if it could/would need to survive hotter. Anyone have insight on such matters?
Other problem is that they are talking about quantities in the thousands. I wonder about cost/availability otherwise. - Aega, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0From the article:
"The MicroClient Jr. is available now, priced at $120, or $90 in quantities of a thousand or more."
I have never installed a computer in my car so I cannot lend much insight into how temperatures affect a computer system installed in a car. Perhaps someone else has more experience? I know this can be a major fault-point for LCDs (I've been advised by the people at Garmin not to leave my GPS in my car in the winter since I live in the Northeast). - B111, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@chmod
it *might* get too hot, depending on where you mount it. However, it is common problem to consider when installing amps, and usually I've seen fans installed near amps, cross-overs, etc, to dissapate heat. So I guess you could do that. - gherikill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What are some good, cheap 7-9" LCD touch screens that one could mount in a car? Any brands model # suggestions? I also live in the North so the freezing temperatures could be a problem. Is there any good opensource mapping software with the maps stores locally ie not Google Maps, I don't want to pay for a EVDO subscription.
- shotgunefx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It would probably be just fine, your more likely to have issues with the LCD if you live in a cold climate. I happen to live where it can get below 0 and above 100F. So far so good. Originally I was using an Hitachi Endurastar JK20 automotive HD, but it's a bit slow, expensive and only 20gb. I switched back to a normal 2.5" drive. So far so good.
Many people on mp3car.com have car pcs installed in cold climates and so far, it's usually a non issue for them as well.
I'm more worried about my docked Dell laptop's battery bursting into flames in my truck some night :(
It's not on the recall list (though other batteries for it are), but that might just mean they didn't recall it yet. - shotgunefx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Truncated my post while I was editing it and the time ran out :(
Most people in cold climates on mp3car.com haven't had too many problems with HDDs.
I'm more worried about my laptop's battery bursting into flames in my trunk. Not on the recall list yet, but batteries for the same model are. :(
As far LCDs, nothing that cheap that's VGA, check out Lilliput, Xenarc and Super on ebay.
- deviceguru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I want one for my home audio/video server, feeding my nokia 770 !
- yensed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The processor is a "SiS 550". It was used in some of the 1st dvd players and in some notebook video cards. Its got kinda fun history if you read about it.
- nipuL, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7If this thing had an extra ethernet port, I'd probably consider buying one. It would replace my current P166 which runs as my internet gateway/firewall. Which is running OpenBSD on a 200Mb hard disk drive, and 32 mb ram, no swap (it only uses 10Mb to run).
I could think of a billion (well a lot) of useful things for such a device.- PoVRAZOR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Just plug a USB network card in to that rear USB port.
- diggitydank, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Great idea. With the addition of another network card, this would make a fantastic firewall and take up little space at the same time.
- ericnmu, on 10/12/2007, -15/+2haha my linksys router has a faster cpu
- chad78, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15I find it facinating that some people think the way to measure the value of a computer is in Mhz or Ghz.
Doesn't any appreciate the fact that it's pretty cool that they could do *more* with *less*?
For example - MacDonald's has had Billions and Billions served - but they've had decades in which to do that, and millions of employees and multiple trillions of dollars with which to do that. However, they call it a miracle when Jesus feed a few thousand people with a litle boy's lunch. (Now watch me get modded down for mention Jesus.)
The point is - to be able to do more with less is pretty cool. Anyone can do fancy stuff with a superpowered PC - but being able to surf the web and do the primary things people do with computers with something with less power than the average camera phone is pretty cool.
Remember kids, the lunar lander had less processing power than a Furby - I'll let you decide which is a more impressive technological accomplishment. - chmod, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2"Now watch me get modded down for mention Jesus."
No, now your getting modded down for whining about getting modded down. Otherwise good comment. - willcode4beer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7predicting you'll get modded down gets you modded up
whining about being modded down gets you modded down more
talking about mod points can also get the automatic down modding (as should this post) - hosiah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6No no no, saying you'll get modded down tricks people to use reverse psychology so they mod you up, likewise saying you'll get modded up gets you modded down, except I use reverse reverse reverse psychology and so I am fairly confident that the comment reffering to the comment appended to the comment regarding being modded down will not be unmodded up.
- Jacx42, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Wow, you really made my day with that comment! Thanks :-D
- chad78, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15I find it facinating that some people think the way to measure the value of a computer is in Mhz or Ghz.
- edzieba, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4http://www.gumstix.com/platforms.html
200-400MHz, and so much smaller. Completely different markets though.- PoVRAZOR, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yeah, and not to mention, completely different CPU Architecture. You *could* try to run Windows on an ARM, but it *might* have some issues :p. And those XScale chip/boards are incomplete systems. A complete box, x86 compatible, with a means of plugging a compact flash or hard drive in, in the neighbourhood of $100, that's what's really impressive here.
A shame it's an ugly box. ;) - wonboodoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You linked to the motherboard page. I think you meant this: http://www.gumstix.com/waysmalls.html . Be good if they had an ethernet port, but I guess you could network over USB?
- PoVRAZOR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Cool, but there's something to be said for the cost. A shame it's not more functional.
- evolution360, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@ wonboodoo
"be good if they had an ethernet port, but I guess you could network over USB?"
They make an ethernet adapter, I think its called etherstix.
- PoVRAZOR, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yeah, and not to mention, completely different CPU Architecture. You *could* try to run Windows on an ARM, but it *might* have some issues :p. And those XScale chip/boards are incomplete systems. A complete box, x86 compatible, with a means of plugging a compact flash or hard drive in, in the neighbourhood of $100, that's what's really impressive here.
- chad78, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It says it is available now, and shipping - but there is no MicroClient Jr. on NortTech's website ( http://www.norhtec.com/ ) There is a MicroClient - but no MicroClient Jr. (At least not that I could find.)
- PAJK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've emailed them. I really want this thing. I'm currently using my PC to run LAMP, but it's loud, and I don't want it on all the time.
But the MCJR could just sit next to my router. I don't need a GUI. All I need is Apache, MySQL, PHP, SSH and FTP, and a few other standard utilities such as vi, etc.
I think this will be perfect - it's really empowering I think.
- PAJK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've emailed them. I really want this thing. I'm currently using my PC to run LAMP, but it's loud, and I don't want it on all the time.
- EvilTesdall, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2..i was playing diablo on a 166 mhz back in 1996-97...and starcraft on it as well...166 mhz is more than enough to do text msg, internet surfing...and the likes...
granted the game load time sucked...it was alright.- EvilTesdall, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4then i upgraded to a 233..and holy ***** that was speed!
- brhad56, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Agreed. I used to surf the web, check e-mail, and send ICQ messags on a 100MHz machine (1996ish). It didn't seem so bad at the time.
- MrCobaltBlue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow these are great! PXE bootable too so they'll make awesome thin clients using LTSP.
- PantherX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm wondering if you got 100 of these and put a real computer as a master machine how they'd do in a cluster...
- EvilTesdall, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1well since you just spent 10000.00 dollars on lots of little pcs that suck...you could have just bought a nice server and not have to worry about clusting....
- blackb0x, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Just hope that one $10k server doesn't go down.
for heavily threaded applications, having 1000 slower machines is better. Look at google. They built their company on lots of small, cheap servers. - willcode4beer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2PantherX, the standard replay is
"imagine a beowolf cluster of these"
- lump1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The price and the performance (especially power consumption) are awesome. I'd buy it if it had an IDE channel for hard drives and two actual SDRAM slots. I'd pay $150 for that, and supply my own drives and SDRAM. It would replace my FTP/MAIL/P2P server which I currently connect to via VNC. With that kind of power consumption, it would save me $150 on power bills in less than two years, plus save lots of space.
- JQP123, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1See my post below.
- lwatcdr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I'd buy it if it had an IDE channel for hard drives and two actual SDRAM slots. I'd pay $150 for that, and supply my own drives and SDRAM. It would replace my FTP/MAIL/P2P server which I currently connect to via VNC."
You have USB so you could put a USB drive on it.
Another good option would be the NSLU. It has an ethernet port, two USB 2.0 ports and a nice linux port.
Should work just fine for FTP and P2P
- NikoKun, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2http://www.i4u.com/article951.html
Isn't that much smaller and also runs Linux? - JCGV, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Perfect for me, I only use my computer for homework, Internet and email. For gaming I have PlayStation 2 and for music my mp3 player. Maybe a external HD for storing my photo's and stuff.
- B111, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this is what i was thinking, something low power for web surfing, etc.
- Godzilla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I bought Norhtech's original Microclient, it's great, however I think it suffers from a lack of a second nic.
- YourTechSupport, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Can you clarify for us why this is a bad thing? Aside from first thoughts like use as a firewall, DHCP server, or rather large ethernet bug?
NOTE: Spellcheck doesn't know "DHCP" - Godzilla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I use it to monitor all incoming/outgoing connections to my DMZ, via a bridge (I have added two USB nics to it to make the bridge) using argus as the monitor. An extra onboard nic would be better than extra USB nics for my use.
Anyway I really love it, it's been running straight for close to two years, no issues at all, except for the stupid USB nics. - ScrappyLaptop, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0On the main page for that product, it lists a second NIC as a + $25 option:
MicroClient Jr. evaluation unit 120.00
MicroClient Jr. in large quantities (1000+) 90.00
Accessories (Add to price)
RS232 port x 1 (up to 2) 5.00
Wireless LAN (WiFi) 50.00
Second NIC 25.00
2 GB CF (Compact Flash) 60.00
Firewall/VPN Software 50.00
Puppy Linux installed in 512 CF 35.00
SAIS Thin Client Software 50.00
Full Screen Browser (kiosk mode, installed) 50.00
- YourTechSupport, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Can you clarify for us why this is a bad thing? Aside from first thoughts like use as a firewall, DHCP server, or rather large ethernet bug?
- sureal808, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1In the pictures the expansion slots at the bottom looked to be blacked out when there is a close up shot of them. You can see them in the picture where its being held in the persons hand. I was wondering if these are more ethernet slots or if you can add in ethernet slots because in my eye this makes for a perfect linux router. Just a thought.
- h1tm4n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this thing rocks for sure. maybe i try to sell some
- MrJester7521, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah I am liking this nice little device setup just for browsing and email. Sweet little device.
- ethernode, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0> lump 21 "It would replace my FTP/MAIL/P2P server"
With such a low power machine, you would'nt be able to run some modern P2P software (emule or azureus sure eat a lot of flops :p ). I guess this little machine would be the ideal music streaming engine; the commercial ones cost twice the price (minimum) ...
... or it would be the perfect machine for m0n0wall or pfsense
I'd like to buy one, but thin clients are so hard to find in france...- B111, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2how about the standard bit torrent client? IIRC, it's not too big.
- airstrike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2uTorrent maybe?
- PAJK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is extremely cool! Do you think it's powerful enough to run a web server? I'd like to slap this next to my router, running LAMP.
- PAJK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2And can someone please provide a link as to where I can buy this? I'm in the UK. Help would be appreciated.
- JQP123, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0See my post below for a comparable system with enough power to be a good web server.
- culbeda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Processing speed is not the only indicator of performance. There is a reason that AMD processors and newer Intel Core chips outperform their higher GHz cousins.
And a 166MHz processor, even the old ones, is capable of running more than Puppy Linux. I've used similar systems as BSD-based or Linux-based router / firewall / file and printer server appliances. 166MHz with the new chip architecture SHOULD be more along the lines of a 400-500MHz Pentium II/III, however.- willcode4beer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1agreed, I ran RedHat 5.2 on an old 66mhz machine back in the day.
- porkstacker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Agreed. A good comparison would be the 1GHz Pentium III versus a slow-as-***** 2GHz Pentium IV... talk about the difference between night and day in performance!
- TheKackler, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Why would you solder down the RAM and make it 'un-upgradeable'?
- JQP123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0A couple of reasons I can think of; reducing the required space inside the box probably being the primary one.
- beotch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Vibration issues
- levi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Looks sweet but what about the MicroClient Sr.
- JQP123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2In my opinion, http://www.ntavo.com/ offers the best available bang for the buck in terms of small ultra-compact computing.
Their NTA-6020 model thin-client terminals are just slightly larger than the one decribed in the article but significantly more powerful and flexible. These use a Via C3 800 mhz processor with standard DIMM slot, on-board video, 2 IDE, 2S, 1P, 4USB, 2PS/2, 1PCI.
The low end $149 model comes with 128mb RAM and is setup for network booting; however, this is easily changed in the BIOS and with just a little work youi can add a laptop hard drive for stand alone booting. The only real issue --- there is no power connector or mounting holes for the hard drive. I patched into the main supply and drilled my own holes.
Essentially, this is just a pre-configured and re-branded Gigabyte product, Model TA3LB, look it up on www.gigabyte-usa.com. It appears to me that Gigabyte takes this basic model and adds the missing power connector and mounting holes and it becomes the TA1 which is then sold for somewhat more.
I've booted Win98, Win2k3 server, Puppy and DSL Linux, PC-BSD and all work fine. - mrops, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3OMG, this is perfect, I have been looking for something like this forever. I even experimented with Single board computers. I basically just want to run a SSH and a http server on my DSL, but don't want to dedicate a PC for it. This is perfect for this task.
SWEET - Lobster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Do not underestimate Puppy.
If you want our biggest ever operating system with Open Office included and running faster than on any other distribution
Puppy 2.03 has just been released for Bittorrent Transmission
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/OfficeCE202
180MB - bnolsen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Some upgrades I'd love to see:
Home based network server:
- USB2.0 instead of 1.1 (for adding second NIC & 802.11g wireless)
- SVGA/Composite output
Home based storage server upgrades:
- eSATA port(s)
Video output:
- DVI (with VGA compat)
But since this really is built only to nominally handle a 100BT network the 12.5MB/s limitation might just be okay.- B111, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1USB 2.0 would really be nice, especially if people are envisioning portable or server applications.
Personally I'd really like to use this to build a bit torrent/p2p appliance (given the low power comsumption, I can run it all night), and then throw it in my bag and use it as a portable multimedia/web device.
if it had usb 2.0 (for wifi), it'd be perfect for wardriving ;)
- B111, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1USB 2.0 would really be nice, especially if people are envisioning portable or server applications.
- SPECTRUM, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1you add a 8 G CF type 2 of $150 ; it no longer cheap :)
- OrangeCrush, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why in the world would you need 8GB of flash? If there's an onboard IDE controller, might be able to attach a regular hard drive for greater storage capacity. Worst case scenario, you can use a USB hard drive, albeit at 1.1 speeds . . .
- ChrisGilliard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1OrangeCrush I agree...
From the article: "The MicroClient Jr. saves cost in part by booting from CompactFlash, rather than a hard drive."
This statement makes no sense to me. If you want cheap, you go with IDE hard drives. A laptop with a large flash drive instead of a hard drive would be pretty nice due to power efficiency, but it's certainly not necessary.
- Phocion55, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow this is pretty cool! How's the heat it generates though? I know heat can be an issue with compact computers (ie. OQO).
I would seriously concider buying one of these to play around with. It's cheap and Puppy Linux is a fine distro.- willcode4beer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Drawing only 8watts of power, I don't think heat will be an issue.
- willcode4beer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Drawing only 8watts of power, I don't think heat will be an issue.
- deelux247, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3For only about $89.95 there is an amazing computer that includes a monitor, keyboard and mouse, several GB of hard drive space, CD-ROM or CD-RW, USB and Firewire, and runs MS Office, music players, internet, e-mail and chat programs quite nicely. And they are wireless ready. They are called iMac G3s and are available right now on eBay!
- porkstacker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1...and there are several versions of Linux that can be installed onto them, thereby making them even more appealing to an ever broader audience... but don't even get me started about my $1 Blue & White G3 Powermac which is happily buzzing along under 10.4.7 OSX.
- samtajain79, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1waiting in india
http://www.articles-hub.com/photogallery/index.php - OrangeCrush, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@rockerfeller: I know what you mean. Basic tasks continue going at largely the same speed as they have for years . . . more bells whistles AND BLOAT are responsible for a lot of that. And . . . hehe. . . wait'll you see how much faster XP is gonna feel on that 4GHZ compared to Vista!
- Kale, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2To be fair, aren't they re-writing a lot of code to optimize actions that were tacked on in other OSes? Something like the Mac Dock Zoom effect, which runs fine on a G3 300 MHz, since it has been optimized so well.
- catmistake, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0can the proc be upgraded after-market?
- thomasdt12, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't see a way to order this, and the regular MicroClient barebones starts at $225. Not that great considering a Geode 1750 in a generic case w/40GB drive, CD, and 128MB RAM costs $129. Get a MicroATX for $80 and while not as small it's far more functional.
http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4714029;jsessionid=muq+56d+Icft99YFJGqYMA**.node3?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
https://www.norhtec.com/qgen/step1.php - jvicinanza, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My first computer was an Oric 1 with 48k of memory and a 6805 (i think) chip. That was an awesome machine!! So this new Bangkok baby must sing man!
- Psylo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1NSLU2 Linux is a nice project too.t. It's a modification of firmware and hardware of the Linksys NSLU2, the Synology DS101, the Iomega NAS100d, the D-Link DSMG600, and other ixp4xx-based devices.
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/ - leoruns, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Puppy in GUI from uses too much RAM and CPU for the specs of this machine. I think Damn Small Linux would be a better choice, it can run on a 486 with 16MB of ram.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org - MrViklund, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I want one I want one!!! :D
- devicenull, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm glad I'm not the only one that saw this and thought.. Wow, this would make a perfect firewall.
- porkstacker, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Wow, I guess I don't get out much. This is the first time I've read a reference to "Puppy Linux". I can only expect the silly naming convention trend to catch on further, such that "Kitty OSX" and "Gerbil Windows" aren't too far off in the future. I think it all started with "Bluetooth", which early on had been mistaken by the ADA as a problem among methamphetamine users.
- Reziarfg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://www.picotux.com/
:) - vandalet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1 Is that fast enough to decode mpeg-4 video. I would like to use something like this to stream media to an entertainment center, or to an in dash screen in a car.
- antymatter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Does anyone know how it does with asterisk, cause then I would really have a reason to bye it
-
Show 51 - 58 of 58 discussions
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2008 —
Content posted by