Welcome to Cheap, Small Computers!
I've always been fascinated by Single Board Computers (SBCs), which have mostly been used to embed computing power into dedicated devices that don't work as traditional, general purpose computers. SBCs used to be "lightweight" - low power (both electrical consumption and Central Processing Unit [CPU] horsepower), using "embedded" processors (typically having a lot of Input/Output [I/O] capability. SBCs are physically small, and are typically programmed using special "embedded" operating systems.
But an interesting thing happened along the way - SBCs became "real computers" because CPU horsepower increased but cost didn't, memory increased, but again, cost didn't, and embedded systems became complex enough that it was desireable to use desktop operating systems such as Windows and Linux.
Starting last year, I started to see new generations of cheap, small computers that were fully functional computers.
But, there were a couple of twists:
- Often, they ran Linux, for several reasons. 1) Linux typically requires fewer resources than Windows, 2) Linux can be highly customized, including being stripped down to essentially support a single function, like a web browser, and 3) It's less expensive than Windows.
- Many Small, Cheap Computers are optimized for being Internet-connected full time. One example of this is that several computers I'll profile here were designed to use the Google applications suite - lightweight applications, instead of "full blown" applications like Microsoft Office or Open Office.
So, this blog is set up to share with you all of these interesting cheap, small computers that I discover along the way.
Thanks,
Steve
By Steve Stroh
This article is Copyright © 2008 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).
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