The Mini Linux PC the Size of a Wall Plug

[Marcus Yam]

Fabless chip design company Marvell unveiled a new concept for a computer that fits inside the palm of your hand, or on your wall socket.

The Mini Linux PC the Size of a Wall Plug : Read more

 

[jsloan]

nice, but wasnt there a smaller thumb drive sized linux box for $99

 

[SAL-e]

[citation][nom]jsloan[/nom]nice, but wasnt there a smaller thumb drive sized linux box for $99[/citation]
Yes, it is called Gumstix http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6027032354.html
But it requires special Linux distribution. The Sheeva Plug will be able to run standard distributions like new Debian 5.0 "Lenny".

 

[jeverson]

Hmm... but can you game on it?!

 

[falchard]

I am still waiting for the watch computer.

 

[norbs]

Hmm this could be turned into a kickass router if it just had another ethernet port. DD-WRT anyone?

 

[IronRyan21]

I hope someone doesn't say "Yeah, but can you run crysis on it!"

 

[A Stoner]

Where do I get the video output from this thing? is that the SDIO or SOIO? I really think they should have utilized the sata interface that is supposedly available. you only need one USB port and can have that replicate out to 127 devices, but having a crappy disk interface just blows. Also, is there any way to fit a wireless WIFI into that? I am sure most of this has to do with price, but hey, wishful thinking.

 

[nukemaster]

Well, it is not going to replace anything of mine. A lack of high speed(usb is the only interface I see for a hard drive)storage and a place for my TV card.

It would make a great file box or even a router with a USB network card.

 

[daft]

im thinking a good little internet surfer, that way you don't have a larger desktop, laptop, or netbook to use unwanted energy. 5 watts is plenty and all you will have to do is turn on a monitor when you want to get online. BTW, DSL will be the bestlinux distro for this

 

[SAL-e]

[citation][nom]daft[/nom]BTW, DSL will be the bestlinux distro for this[/citation]
Hi daft,
The Sheeva Plug is using ARM based CPU, do you know any ports or plans to port DSL to ARM architecture?

 

[kingssman]

wow me like this. always wanted some way of having a NAS for my 4 external USB drives

 

[Flameout]

this would b great to use as dumb terminals that only require to run 1 program

 

[Tindytim]

This would be great for thin clients.
[citation][nom]jeverson[/nom]Hmm... but can you game on it?![/citation]
Is that a joke. It runs Linux, and it's extremely underpowered, not to mention it's not x86. So, while I can run TF2 fine in Ubuntu, this thing isn't going to be able to run any games made for actual gaming machines.

 

[Tekkamanraiden]

What the heck would you do with it?

 

[nukemaster]

What the heck would you do with it?

High performance linux router?
Lower power file server(as long as usb is not too slow for you)?
small web server?
teamspeak,vent server?
Torrent box?
Paper weight?

 

[Flameout]

[citation][nom]Tekkamanraiden[/nom]What the heck would you do with it?[/citation]
did u read the whole article? it would be used for low powered tasks, but tasks that would probably need a computer to be on constantly.

"The new device is ideal for use as desktop terminals in large support offices, where only basic client and logging software is being used, such as a tech support facility. These modules can also be used at sales terminals at retail locations."

 

[bosjee]

Reminds me of my currently still running NSLU2.

 

[Guest]

they should have dropped the ethernet port and used Ethernet Over Power!

 

[ossie]

As for those interested in a small file/www/ftp server, a SDHC card can be fitted... If more storage space is needed, an external USB drive can be used but it's questionable if the power supplied is enough for more drives, eventually a powered USB hub is needed.
For Wi-Fi access, a SDIO or USB card could be the solution, if it supports hostAP mode.

[citation][nom]norbs[/nom]Hmm this could be turned into a kickass router if it just had another ethernet port. DD-WRT anyone?[/citation]
No problem with an external VLAN switch.
Most routers use internally VLAN switches anyway, due to a single ethernet port on the CPU.
DD-WRT looks nice but has it's inherent limitations. openWRT anyone?

 

[zak_mckraken]

It's Power Over Ethernet, not the opposite. But yeah, seeing that this thing will always be in a wall socket and is developped by a networking company, why not?

For the average consumer, this things has almost no interest but it could prove very useful in a small to medium organization that has a lot of repetitive low tasks and/or restricted space and access to networks.

The question is: where do I plug my monitor?

 

[sublifer]

Does it have some built in surge protection? Clearly its designed for wall plugging but for surge protection it would be plugged into a surge strip which defeats the purpose of the wall wart design. A surge protector would take up a ton of space relative to the size of this thing so I hope they have some surge protection. Just a replaceable fuse or something. Be fairly easy to steal so I hope there is a secure mounting adapter for it, like a bracket that goes over some of it and screws into the wall not that its fool proof but at least it would be easy to notice if someone ripped it off the wall.

 

[DeadlyPredator]

Wow, they really did what I was thinking about since 1 year, a very small, cheap but very efficient headless computing device that you could use everywhere. A thing like that has an unlimited number of possibilities... you could embedded it everywhere:
in car, it would use a 12V inverter do power itself and could be a gps with the use of a sd card and a usb antenna, a media player / equalizer / amplifier which read music from your sd card, or by USB from your mp3 player.
at home, it could be used in domotic, media station, ftp/http server for ITs, and you could use it to install monowall and turn it into a crazy router if they add a second network chipset.
militaries could use it to create cheap very intelligent weapons

that's crazy, at 49$ I would buy 1 for sure to set a file server.

 

[TwoDigital]

It would bee a nice addition for home automation (X10-type stuff...) I could see plugging this in NEAR a thermostat and integrating it with other parts of the home network.

 

[astroturtle]

I just got mine last night! Pretty sweet setup... The part that plugs into the wall socket is removable and accepts a power cord (included). Speed is pretty good. It comes preinstalled with Ubuntu and is pretty much plug-in and log-in.

So far I loaded mine up as a LAMP (linux, apache, mysql and php) server and got Samba and VSFTPd going. That takes about about 55% of the available 512MB. I also plugged in an external usb hard drive to beef up the cpacity.

I have my new file server/dev box! Yaay Sheeva!