

Linux on a SIMM 87
An anonymous reader wrote in to point out that the uclinux project has an interesting little device on its website. Its
the size of simm and
runs Linux. Costs about $175 and has chips for ether, an LCD panel,
2mb of flash RAM and 8 megs of DRAM. Very cute. Very little. Very
cool.
Re:Variants would make nice gateway/firewall/route (Score:1)
I'm looking forward to setting one up as a dialup router, though...
Matthew.
Re:Fanless Linux boxen (Score:1)
2. Get ahold of one (a cheap '486 with enough memory) that has a busted display (or keyboard) but that has external keyboard and/or display jacks.
3. Plug in an external monitor and/or keyboard temporarily in order to install an OS (a BSD or Linux). Plug in a PC-card ethernet card to connect to it.
4. Plug in an external modem (or use a PC Card modem).
5. When it's all set up, unplug the monitor and keyboard. Connect to it over ethernet to make use of and control it.
6. Duct tape it to the bottom of your desk, or put it in the closet.
There should be a lot of laptops with busted displays out there languishing in a repair depot somewhere. Anything that's a 486 or better can make a nice remotely-accessed server in this fashion.
Re:Variants would make nice gateway/firewall/route (Score:1)
Re:Fanless Linux boxen (Score:2)
After looking around for something small and low-power that I could afford, I gave up and did as someone else suggested. I used a laptop with a dead screen.
I actually have 4 laptops all (more or less) the same -- my main one and three others I bought used. One I bought had a busted screen, but I bought it for the memory/battery/power supply.
When I wanted to set up a linux box to serve as my internet gateway, I dug it out, popped the drive into one of my others, loaded linux, and stuck the drive back into the one with the broken LCD. I used one of my SlimSCSI's to connect to a CD-ROM drive to load Linux; it now has two PCMCIA ethernet cards in it.
It's a 486DX2-50 with 8mb of memory and a 340MB hard drive. I think you really need about 500mb, but I managed to fit everything. 8MB of RAM is enough, but I wouldn't complain about more.
By putting the hard drive into another laptop, I was able to use that screen and keyboard, but you could also use an external monitor. In production, it sits on 4 plastic soda bottle caps (for better ventilation) on a shelf in the corner. I have it hooked up to a six-port OmniView switch box, so I can use the exact same monitor/keyboard I'm using right now to work it. I can also telnet to it from any other computer on the network, or from the outside (I have a DSL connection.)
Anyway, it works great, and a working 486 laptop with a broken screen shouldn't be too expensive. Have fun!
Re:Nope(?) (Score:1)
Re:Palm Pilotz (Score:1)
Re:Nope (Score:1)
Re:Bit big isn't it? (Score:1)
Re:Just like this stupid comment... (Score:1)
To all: sorry for having to post this here, as I seem to be lacking an E-Mail address to send this message privately.
~GoRK
Re:why why and why??????!!!!! (plz pity us) (Score:1)
Re:How About StrongARM (Score:1)
Geeze . . . (Score:2)
And incedentally, it's not just the same size as a simm, it's designed to be clicked into the same single-inline-module socket as a 30 pin simm.
Re:How About StrongARM (Score:1)
Yours Slippery,
Okhra
Re:where's the USB? (Score:1)
Why not package EVERYTHING like this? (Score:1)
Re:Variants would make nice gateway/firewall/route (Score:2)
I realize that; that's one of the many things that would make this a variant
I'd like to see someone integrate an ARM core and a couple of ethernet controller cores on a die for use in a module like this.
Third times' the charm (Score:1)
Very cool stuff (Score:1)
Bit big isn't it? (Score:1)
Looks cool though - maybe they'll actually be small enough that you wouldn't have to pay ENORMOUS charges to get one shipped across the Atlantic. Perhaps this sort of thing really could precipitate international computer sellers so everyone outside the US won't have to pay enormous amounts for parts...
Variants would make nice gateway/firewall/routers. (Score:2)
If they make a version of this that can handle two or more network interfaces at 100 Mbit, I'm sold.
Old news. (Score:1)
New Info! (Score:1)
sounds familiar (Score:1)
Ignorant of the implications (Score:1)
Repeat post (Score:1)
Repeats.. *grumble* (Score:1)
The 6/31/99 reposting didn't bother me because it was a listing of a number of miniaturized computing devices, but this repost adds no new info whatsoever.
Fanless Linux boxen (Score:1)
Non SDMI MP3 players (Score:1)
Nope (Score:1)
Triple-Take (Score:1)
~GoRK
Re:Ignorant of the implications (Score:1)
I wouldn't say that it appeals to Joe Average, but it is good for building small, dedicated boxes.
For example, previous posters mentioned dedicated MP3 players and firewalls. I might use it to control small electronic devices (like an X10 server, perhaps, just as an example) or some such nonsense.
Basically, I think it would be cool to have a small, low power device that runs an OS I'm familiar with (and use on my desktop) -- that way, I can add new functionality and operate the silly thing with my existing knowledge.
--
QDMerge [rmci.net] 0.21!
Re:where's the USB? (Score:1)
- A.P.
--
"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad
Re:Ignorant of the implications (Score:1)
DragonBall and Palm Pilot (Score:2)
I also recall seeing a version of gcc that worked on this processor. I downloaded and played with it a little bit using a Palm emulator and the ROM image from my friend's Palm III. It seemed to work just fine.
Err... (Score:1)
- A.P.
--
"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad
Re:How About StrongARM (Score:1)
oh and hey 3com. i dont want to learn how to write again, i went through that agony once in the first grade. thanks though.
b
Netwinder (Score:2)
----
Bu-Bye Palm Pilot (Score:1)
Re:Fanless Linux boxen (Score:1)
USB? What about more RS232 & I2C? (Score:1)
But at $175 I can get cheaper PC/104 modules from Taiwan that do the same sort of thing.
Vik
http://olliver.penguinpowered.com [penguinpowered.com]
Re:Variants would make nice gateway/firewall/route (Score:1)
Re:Repeats.. *grumble* (Score:1)
Re:Repeats.. *grumble* (Score:1)
Re:Nope(?) (Score:1)
16MHz *sounds* like a lot but how many oscillator cycles does it take to produce ONE processor cycle? And how many processor cycles does it take to execute a given opcode? Remember that not all opcodes execute in the same amount of time on most processors.
So no, this can't do Mpeg decode, which is a very heavy floating point kind of thing to do. Give it a cheap ass DSP to help it and you'd fly though.
Andrew
Re:why why and why??????!!!!! (plz pity us) (Score:1)
-ElJefe
Re:Nope(?) (Score:1)
A dragonball (68349) is a CPU32+ core and does no floating poing [in hardware].
Re:Variants would make nice gateway/firewall/route (Score:2)
Does anyone know if the processor could handle a 100baseT connection?
Yep. (Score:2)
Re:Just like this stupid comment... (Score:1)
mp3zz (sorta off-topic) (Score:1)
anyway
I was just wondering: Why does decoding mp3s require floating point? What exactly does that mean?
I'm just curious here... thanks
And TINI is still cheaper ... (Score:1)
Final TINI hardware is supposed to be shipping this week.
I have no connection to TINI or Dallas Semiconductor, except as an interested third party (and I'm not even a customer, although I probably will be, soon).
P.S. -- Sorry about the AC, but
Re:Old news. (Score:1)
Re:Bit big isn't it? (Score:2)
Re:Variants would make nice gateway/firewall/route (Score:2)
Palm Pilotz (Score:1)
Re:Can they be "connected up?" (Score:1)
I've read this before! (Score:1)
--
I noticed
MP3 (Score:1)
Let the other box (we could call it "server") decode mp3's and transmit them to the SIMM-Linux.
(I hope the SIMM is fast enough to receive data at about 160kbyte/sec ?)
Put some knobs and a display to the SIMM and you can listen to MP3s without fan and harddisk noise.
and the _ultimate_ geek toy: (Score:1)
both this thing and the TI-89 and TI-9X calculators are based off of the motorola 68k chips, right? it would probably be relatively easy to get them working together.
if not, there's already a terminal emulation program for the TIs that works through a null modem.. just figure out some way to plug it into the SIMM thing.
One interesting thing about this would be that you could actually program games in TI ASM in the SIMM, then transfer them to the calculator. Or add iridium to the mix somehow, and you've got a web server you can carry anywhere, along with a terminal to talk to the web server with.. -_-
hey.. i can dream, can't i?
and would somehow working in the fact that the old macintoshes were 68ks be _too_ far-fetched?
Re:why why and why??????!!!!! (plz pity us) (Score:1)
Slashdot needs a sister server... (Score:1)
- A.P.
--
"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad
Re:Slashdot needs a sister server... (Score:1)
-Chris