The $35 Computer.

Hello,

Check out:

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Could this be an opportunity for someone like another Michael Dell who as far as I know put his first PC together at home?

Regards,

Peter Nolan. Dublin.

Reply to
Peter Nolan
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When I talked to Michael, around 1984 just after I noticed what was possibly his first full-page ad for his "PCs Limited" company, with an

8 MHz PC-AT equivalent (versus IBM's 6 MHz AT machine), in Byte magazine, I think he was still in his dorm room at school. But he might have had another location to use, for all I know. It wasn't long after that when, if my memory is accurate, he basically got kicked out of the dorm for getting something like two full mail sacks per day. I seem to remember him saying something about how his Mom was going to be pissed because he was leaving school and relocating his business to a pole barn in the middle of nowhere in Texas (maybe near home?). Not too long after that, he had other people to answer the phone and was always "in a meeting" whenever I asked for him by name. I think I read that he had made almost a million bucks in those first nine months, which was quite a bit of money back then. I ran a multi-user SCO Xenix (Unix/Linux-like) system on the 8 MHz machine I had bought from him and it worked-out extremely well for my start-up software-development company, at the time.

The Raspberry Pi looks pretty nice. But aren't there quite a few other single-board computers also available? Still, they look like they could provide limitless opportunities for someone to grab onto and use it to implement whatever products they can dream up.

If you were thinking about using it to make a new PC type of product, then I'd guess that might work great but the cost of the finished product would still be comparable to everything else that's already out there, i.e. giving no clear advantage, unless someone had the vision required to compete effectively with the established giants. I'm not saying that makes it a terrible idea, just that it would probably take a lot more than just the low price of the core module to make it worth doing. It might be fantastic for embedded applications, though, where there's presumably already some other type of special desirability aspect for the product type, besides just "computing".

Reply to
Tom Gootee

Very nice design based on a very closed hardware platform, which is why I will pass on or likely get one just for curiosity.

It has merits though as it redefined the base price of Linux-capable single board computers, which is a huge accomplisment itself. I'm eager to see what other manufacturers will do in the next months once it's clear to them there's some serious market for that stuff.

Reply to
asdf

Its' a router with out wireless, hub/switch or a plastic case!

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

On a sunny day (Sat, 3 Mar 2012 08:44:42 -0800 (PST)) it happened Tom Gootee wrote in :

I have been looking into that Broadcom graphics chip. It seems this will make a nice multimedia player, as, unlike normal graphics cards, it should sync to the video frame rate?

They say no data on this video chip unless you go to Broadcom and sign an NDA,,, I think they should release data else I won't order one ... :-)

To start using it in a product without getting full datasheets etc is likely few would like to do, unless you are an adventurer or space cowboy.

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

"Closed design" is THE definition to be used for all off-the shelf PCs and motherboards. ASICs limit what one can do with a PC design; one cannot read/write

256byte sectors (as a dumb example) nor a 4096byte sector, or variable density tracks for equal data packing on all tracks or a full-track length sector...
Reply to
Robert Baer

Yes. And with the burden(?) of a display/keyboard. (If you are going to *use* a display/keyboard, then the size and power issues are sort of irrelevant!)

You should be able to put together a router/whatever out of a "spare PC" (if you don't have a spare PC lying around your house, you're reading the wrong newsgroups! :> ). So, the fact that it can leverage an "existing keyboard/display" is sort of silly.

And you have far more capabilities in a "scrap PC" than in one of these.

Its appeal has to be entirely size and power requirements. E.g., I use 1GHz/1GB SBC's for many of my network appliances. About the size of a laptop, no fan noise, etc. And, I can add I/O to them (another NIC, 488 port, etc.) just by plugging in a PCI card.

This is easier (for me) than repurposing a wireless router, NAS box, etc. -- though each presents a viable implementation option. (How much work to add a digital TV tuner to ?)

Reply to
Don Y

There is already a $35 board that will run Linux. It is called a DuinoMite.

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DuinoMite the PIC32 $35 Basic Computer-MicroController

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Just add a VGA monitor or TV, and PS2 Keyboard. Arduino Shield, Programmed in Basic, or C.

For info on Linux:

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Cheers Don...

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Don McKenzie

Dontronics: http://www.dontronics-shop.com/
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Reply to
Don McKenzie

Perhaps it would help if you organized your website better. I can't make heads nor tails from it. I looked at your website a few times but I still don't know what the duinomite or maximite can do. What I/O is available and how to build a complete system with it.

You should organize the pages so you can shop a product together. Big pictures would also help.

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Reply to
Nico Coesel

Sorry Nico, perhaps I threw too much info at you.

Have a look at a single product, and yes there are big pictures at the bottom of the page:

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You plug in a PS2 keyboard, a TV or VGA monitor, and you have a complete computer-microcontroller system. In this state, it will boot into a BASIC language computer, however it can be programmed in C also.

Please ask me any specific questions, and I will answer them for you.

Cheers Don...

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Don McKenzie

Dontronics: http://www.dontronics-shop.com/
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Reply to
Don McKenzie

Nico, I noticed in a previous thread you wanted a stand alone tester with relay outputs.

One by:

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One By:

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And program it in the BASIC language that is built into the unit.

Depending on your number of relays, and analogue output requirements, you could have something running before breakfast. :-)

Cheers Don...

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Don McKenzie

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Reply to
Don McKenzie

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Nico has a point. With a quick look, there's a lot blah blah. All details, no upfront summary. You need a bigger picture for the intro, some tables of features (more than you list in the middle of that page!), pricing, then you can put the blah blah to fill in the details.

Nice website, poorly formatted. Why are all these open source projects so unorganized?

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

Thanks Martin, because of the dynamic changes needed along the way, the main thrust has possibly been lost. I am working on it now from a different point of view.

I can only make it better with feed back :-)

Cheers Don...

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Don McKenzie

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Reply to
Don McKenzie

Hello Tom,

Many thanks for the feedback. I'm happy you found the link interesting as did the responders below.

Regards,

Peter Nolan. Dublin.

Reply to
Peter Nolan

On Mar 3, 4:44=A0pm, Tom Gootee wrote:

Hello Tom,

I would just like to add that, in this case, I think of what other people say about this being a small world. I now have another, albeit tenuous connection, to Michael Dell according to what you wrote to me. Dell used to have an assembly plant here in Limerick, Ireland but they upped sticks and headed for Poland where labour costs are cheaper. This was a terrible blow to the 1900 workers here who lost their jobs. When I was much younger I would be horrified by the behaviour of employers who sacked their employees for the sake of say greater efficiency or cost saving measures and indeed I was convinced they would all go to hell. Dell still have a smaller center here in Dublin that believe it or not I pass by once a week. Michael Dell had a great vision of how things were evolving in the world of personal computing and the rest, as they say, is history. Mr Gates had that same vision and the raw entrepreneurial talent to push through his agenda along the lines written in stone in MS's headquarters that some day there would be a PC in every home. He got that right at least with respect to more developed world where we live. Of course I do not wish to offend you, of course not, but isn't it a remarkable thing that you were a peer of Michael Dell's and yet your life paths were so different. I realise that you are probably very happy nevertheless with the way things panned out for you on your own path in your own life. I wish, at 58, I could say the same for myself. I suppose the worldwide industry that is the PC industry is making ginormous profits but many techies are not very happy about this. So much scientific and engineering output is just released for free to the whole world but I would just factor in that academics are nevertheless paid for the job they do even if few end up being very rich. You may have heard of a British PM Margaret Thatcher whom let me add I'm now supporter of. She said that Faraday's discovery of electromagnetic induction was worth the entire value of listed companies on Britain's stock exchange and I add that the entire planet depends on the discovery of the transistor by Bardeen, Shockley and Bratain if my memory serves me well enough. What did they get? Well they got the Nobel Prize and a round of applause and not a whole more. If Michael Dell and Bill Gates are worth billions then how much more than that do many scientists and engineers deserve for the important contributions they make to the world as a whole? I hope you see my beef. I'm longing for a fairer world and a much more equitable distribution of the fabulous wealth that, say, about 5% of populations have that is around 90% of the total wealth. As far as I know things are even more skewed in the US where 90% of the wealth is in the hands of 1% of the population.

Regards,

Peter Nolan. Dublin.

Reply to
Peter Nolan

outputs.

have something running before breakfast. :-)

Perhaps but I would have never found these pages on my own. In many cases I'm looking for a solution to a problem. So it would be nice to have an overview of compatible components to build a solution. I also need an analog output interface for my tester. I gave up looking for that on your website.

This page is a very nice example of trying to provide a solution:

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I like paper catalogs because they often provide similar overviews.

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Reply to
Nico Coesel

Doesn't look like it runs Linux to me.

The word "Linux" doesn't even appear on their web site.

The key difference the RP offers is that it runs Linux (Fedora 14 at first) *on* the board. You don't need a PC to program it. Plug in a TV and keyboard, and the tools run *on* the RP.

Reply to
DJ Delorie

Thats not a key difference. There is a boatload of boards that do that.

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Reply to
Nico Coesel

for $35 ?

BTW by "difference" I meant vs the DuinoMite and other similarly-priced MCU development boards.

Yes, there are other development boards that cost the same.

Yes, there are other computers that run a full Linux (Gnome, Firefox, gcc, etc), plug into a keyboard/monitor, have all the tools onboard, etc.

How many run a full Linux *and* cost the same?

Reply to
DJ Delorie

Like others already pointed out the Raspberry Pi doesn't sell for $35.

The Raspberry Pi can be on your desk for a very low price. When you look beyond the price you'll find out it is actually very limited due to lack of documentation and support of mainstream Linux distributions like Ubuntu.

How are you going to make changes in order to use different pheripherals without documentation?

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Reply to
Nico Coesel

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