Posted on 01/31/2016 8:13:16 PM PST by nickcarraway
A San Francisco startup has created a $15 computer.
Pine 64 is now taking pre-orders for its Quad core 64-Bit expandable single board supercomputer, which will ship in May. The product can be combined with a keyboard and mouse to function as a full Android 5.1 computer.
The company recently raised $1,731,465 on a Kickstarter campaign that had a goal of $31,416.
Just built a NUC. Posting from it now. Tiny computers are the way to go...
I think the main appeal of very inexpensive build it yourself computers like this is for hobbyists with a fair degree of tech familiarity (how best to build) or for those seeking to gain computer building/programming skills.
Couple this inexpensive hardware with a free operating system like Linux and you have a nicely functioning computer for getting around the Web and doing other things.
Luddites benefit from having their kids build one of these computers for them at little cost.
I would probably order one of these for their I/O options but am too impatient to wait until May when other options are currently available.
Thank you.
Now THAT I understand.
Or Ocha Pesatas...
Clever
“Serial feed input is still way too slow.”
Not always :-) ... PCI Express is based on serial transceivers ... a single lane provides about 1Gbps bandwidth in both Tx and Rx directions. Same with USB 3.0.
The problem with wide parallel busses is mostly a routing problem. Moreover, as you load the busses down with more peripherals, you can slow the bus down as there is more of a load for the bus masters to drive. It’s basically why PCI was killed in favor of PCIe (PCIe is a lot more scalable).
Of course, these computers like the Raspberry Pi and Pine 64 are better off having a parallel bus for users to interface ... it’s a lot easier for a person to wire up a circuit using an older bus (though you could argue that it’s better to simply use USB or GigE). There are several GPIO pins on each board that a user can do whatever they want with. You could create a parallel port using them.
Ping for the Android Ping list.
Doesn’t that 1.2 GHz CPU require at least a heat sink for cooling?
well not quite 15 dollars but i have a raspberry pi 2 at home that was around $60 all in (case, cables, hard drive (aka sd card) etc)..i used it as a 1080p htpc upstairs running kodi and linux. absolutely amazing piece of kit..and runs on a usb phone charger...just this weekend started to repurpose it as a live tv server...
so i understand what they are trying to do, but its a fairly crowded market already out there...
“Doesn’t that 1.2 GHz CPU require at least a heat sink for cooling?”
No, it’s essentially a smart phone CPU which run on low power
I have on order. 2 gig unit. It is going to be a significant breakthrough.
Exactly!
Can you imagine the NAS you can build when 2 TB thumb drives appear?
Reminds me of the friend who sold reclaimed railroad ties for ten bucks each. A customer told him he should be charging only five bucks for them since a competitor was selling them for $5. He told the customer to go buy them from the competitor, then. The customer said: "I can't, they're all sold out." His reply: "We're all out of the five dollar ones, too."
A 32 or 64 bit bus parallel port can be flipped to double 128, because the external chips are twice as fast or better than the port. I designed fast parallel port software/hardware in the 90`s used for fast video memory dumps DMA used in graphic displays.
I got in on the kickstarter for this. They had a rather amazing campaign. It’s going to be a pretty cool toy.
I can imagine creating a tiny enclosure to mount this computer in your car or bicycle, baby stroller or backpack, integrated into it. Some tech knowledge would be handy to tie in a touchscreen and solar power units. It's a whole computer on a tiny board, minus keyboard and screen. All necessary input ports on it. Easy to pull in Wi-Fi at free places. I'm going to try installing on my bicycle.
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