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News Marvell announces plug computer

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 26 Feb 2009.

  1. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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  2. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    Sounds like fun. Now we'll have to wait and see how it performs.
     
  3. TomH

    TomH BELTALOWDA!

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    8-port trail power extension strip, cheap gigabit switch, some hard graft ... Beowulf cluster on a budget? :D
     
  4. Perforated

    Perforated What's a Dremel?

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    Hiding a webcam under the desk? ~ahem~
     
  5. yakyb

    yakyb i hate the person above me

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    would make a great router
     
  6. knyghtryda

    knyghtryda What's a Dremel?

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    what about ethernet over power? I could see this as being great for home automaton nodes. Get a whole set of these and set them up around the house. Have all the sensors and actuators be USB based, and BAM! Total home automation on the cheap (well.. maybe not cheap, but ~$1000 isn't bad for a full house setup).
     
  7. Sir Digby

    Sir Digby The Supprising Adventures

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    Sounds very interesting, certainly for commercial applications - but what would really what sell me on the concept would be a VERY low powered processor in a plug that only connects to the internet and controls if the switch is on or off.

    This would allow me the connect to my home computer from my laptop without having to leave my home computer running ALL the time as I could just switch the computer on/off over the internet...
     
  8. airchie

    airchie What's a Dremel?

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    LMAO....I like it. ;)

    Not with only one ethernet port, as they mentioned in the article. ;)
    I guess there's nothing stopping you adding several USB-NIC adapters as long as you don't need it to be fast...
     
  9. Phil Rhodes

    Phil Rhodes Hypernobber

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    Cute.

    The problem with this, as with every non-x86 system, is application support. If it were as easy as making it run linux and thereby having instant access to all linux apps, we'd have thrown x86 out the window years ago because it's far less than ideal from any number of perspectives. Problem is, getting things to cross-compile between vastly different hardware platforms is notoriously difficult in a world where most code is just not written that portably.

    It depends how they package it, I suppose - what comes with.
     
  10. nicae

    nicae What's a Dremel?

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    Wait until they reach the size of pens. Tell your wife and daughter not to wear skirts. Whoops! Just dropped my pen!
     
  11. taliban_raider

    taliban_raider Just some guy; you know

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    Well they are claiming it is going to be cheap, so I can see myself getting one even if it is just to play with and never use for any real purpose.
     
  12. DougEdey

    DougEdey I pwn all your storage

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    What it needs is eSATA
     
  13. B3CK

    B3CK Minimodder

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    Home automation would be a great use, remote usb cams also (the ethernet, er um internet is for porn right?), or even a usb breakout for audio for multi room audio, although i don't see any adaptors out in the wild to distribute video yet that would attach to this. If it's the size of a power brick, add in a pci or pci-e slot with sata or esata, and then damn, posibilities would be very huge for so many different markets it would be crazy.
     
  14. DougEdey

    DougEdey I pwn all your storage

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    Maybe an open source X10 type tool?
     
  15. metarinka

    metarinka What's a Dremel?

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    very cool
    for home automation this seems like extreme overkill for most tasks, automated light fixtures and thermostats don't require 1.2 ghz of computing power to flick on and off a switch. I forsee this more catching on by becoming an open source platform for network attached devices such as storage, or audio and video routing.
     
  16. M2k3

    M2k3 Wired to the Core

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    I saw this earlier on Hackaday and damn I want one of these. Just throw in a 8GB USB stick and you have a low power, cheap and very small torrent box. Man I want one sooooo bad.
     
  17. steveo_mcg

    steveo_mcg What's a Dremel?

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    I would also like one but i can't work out what to do with it, its too powerful for a torrent box there are things like gumstix which are even smaller but only have a 400mhz cpu that would do almost everything listed above.

    I suppose it comes down to price, if this is cheaper than the alternatives then great another fairly quick cpu on the network could be handy but tbh the only device i could see it replacing is my jukebox which while being a lot bigger doesn't take up much (useful) space and still only draws about 10w and its a geode 400mhz (very slow)
     
  18. Ice Tea

    Ice Tea Minimodder

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    Nice for a NAS with NZBget :)
     
  19. Ice Tea

    Ice Tea Minimodder

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    Plug computer (sheevaplug) running as a full PC

     
  20. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    Getting more interesting...
     
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