Cool: smallest Linux desktop PC, smaller than an apple (fruit)

Posted March 16th, 2010 by cool

Measuring at just 2 x 2 x 2.2 inches this is the smallest Desktop PC. And it's running Linux, one more point for Linux coolness.

update: This blog is about COOL linux stuff, not new never seen by anyone hardware.
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Specs:
300 mhz atom
64MB of SDRAM
external video connector
supports 1280 x 1024 resolution.
Flash memory card slot
USB port
Ethernet
and a serial port.

Can't run any modern OS but Linux with these specs, can you?

See an apple:

Don't like yellow?

Too bad you still need wires:

Fits in the palm of your hand:

manufacturers website (japan)

gregf

Anonymous 12 weeks 6 days 16 hours 33 min ago

You sell these painted like a Rubik's cube and you got yourself a customer.

Only a nob thinks you need Flash

Anonymous 13 weeks 6 days 22 hours 5 min ago

Gotta love people who think not having Flash is the end of the world.

You can actually look at websites without Flash. They made this thing called HTML, and another thing called XML. Great stuff for actually providing web content and data.

And one other commentor was right. This thing and an external HD and you have office PCs that a user can just take to another cube with them. No need to have to have IT move PCs for users on an office move. Also, no reason to have assigned offices. Reduce clutter, reduce electric use, etc.

I think it's a great little tool for the dynamic user.

Very cool computer. I'm not

Anonymous 17 weeks 2 days 3 min 28 sec ago

Very cool computer. I'm not sure it's that useful and the specs aren't really impressive. But it's a pretty cool toy. I would love to see what it could really do and it could be a pretty handy in-car computer.

-Jason

THis is simply amazing

Anonymous 23 weeks 4 days 17 hours 56 min ago

For those of you who are knocking Linux, many "distro"butions support flash so.... idk whats up? and for a portable little computer, it's simply amazing, add the projector from that new phone with the built in one(http://www.artuji.com/lg-projector-phone-unveiled/3071), and add some sort of laser keyboard (http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/) and then ftw!
-Cam

You need these computers

Anonymous 23 weeks 5 days 11 hours 27 min ago

Gumstix is smaller. MacMini is better. This one can be used too.

I used these kind of small computers as embedded systems.

Surgical robotics - this is the robot controller.

Or as autonomous robot controller - think of a Roomba controller, but for robots that play soccer. Or walk around the campus. Or go down to the Mariana trench and make photos.

So no, it's not a desktop replacement. It's your Roku (Netflix player), wireless router, Network Attached Storage, home web server etc.

It's not useless!

Anonymous 24 weeks 1 day 1 hour 24 min ago

The fact that you can run linux on it means that you can run openoffice, firefox etc and have a perfectly acceptable desktop. You may need to have a flash card with the OS and the other software needed, such as X and gnome or kde desktop but it will still be fast enough as a desktop machine - you're right that it would be useless for rendering images or video, but don't knock it just because it's using a slow processor.

erm ..

Anonymous 12 weeks 3 days 12 hours 39 min ago

i agree that it's not useless. but those won't even kind of run on it.

i have a 2ghz p4 laptop, 514M of ram, and those both are so slow that i can't even run them at the same time!!!
that's what alternate programs are for though; abiword is awesome and lightning fast, as are even smaller equivalents and when you need a fast web browser, nothing can beat a text based browser. it can't, however, run netflix or such; and flash is most definitively not going to run on it. both take up massive processor, referencing my laptop again, youtube takes up 100% of the processor and skips. the problem there is the lack of accelerated graphics for flash (despite that i can still run 3d games!? oh well, amd just sucks.)

ps.
the laptop *does* have a multi-speed processor; but it turns itself up back to 2.4 GHz when it's needed.

Good paperweight

Anonymous 24 weeks 1 day 4 hours 42 min ago

it is a very nice paperweight!
it is simply a toy for nerds..
it isn't usable in normal life..

I could imagine using that as

Anonymous 23 weeks 1 hour 19 min 47 sec ago

I could imagine using that as a cheap office pc, so what?

Useless

Anonymous 24 weeks 2 days 21 hours 50 min ago

Nice proof of concept - but you will not be able to do anything useful with a 300MHz/64MB desktop. No Flash, no office apps, painful browsing.

Take out the VGA controller, kill the serial port, (why serial and jtag?) and make this a micro NAS/webserver/or something else headless.

You are to materialistic

AirborneDude501 23 weeks 4 days 14 hours 52 min ago

Dude... You sound like a Windows user, meaning; you think you need bells, whistles and bloat.

Give me a break. TinyCore, Puppy or Damn Small Linux would run wonderful on it.

Linux doesn't need a lot to be productive.

No Useless

Anonymous 24 weeks 18 hours 15 min 22 sec ago

Linux does not need a superb PC config... Linux has many many Small sized Distro... and yet it has office and other apps

Not useless at all!

Anonymous 24 weeks 1 day 5 hours 40 min ago

Perfect for a "dumb terminal", use ssh w/ X-forwarding, VNC or other remote desktop systems (including windows remote desktop client for linux) and this machine will more than nicely serve as a remote terminal (I actually have P75 w/ 16Mb RAM at home in use for same purpose) :) I'd love one of these.

Not useless

Anonymous 24 weeks 2 days 8 hours 19 min ago

That's right, it's no computer for desktop tasks. However it's perfect for doing some console-based electronics hacking/analysis. Therefore you really need the VGA controller and the serial port + JTAG. Fits in your pocket, too.

No atom, a MIPS; nec vr5k.

Anonymous 24 weeks 2 days 21 hours 51 min ago

I knew i had seen this one before, here is an article from 2004:

it's cool

admin 24 weeks 2 days 11 hours 8 min ago

it's cool, not new

O My GOOOOOD

Anonymous 24 weeks 3 days 2 hours 28 min ago

Where you find this Keyboard?

please, send me a link to buy it

(in 2002 I've the same, a Zippy and an other, an Advance, but they're broken...)

korg oasys

admin 24 weeks 2 days 10 hours 38 min ago

If you mean the korg oasys,
It's been discontinued I believe, you should look on ebay if you really want one. I'd like one myself but 1200 bucks is a bit to much for me.

It's original price was 8000 or so.

Link?

Anonymous 24 weeks 3 days 3 hours 15 min ago

What's it called? Where can it be bought?

http://www.shimafuji.co.jp/pr

Anonymous 24 weeks 23 hours 10 min 29 sec ago

http://www.shimafuji.co.jp/product/semc5701a01.html

According to http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/tiny-space-cube-pc, from 2006 though, it was $325.
Doubt you could get one now though. Can't read Japanese, but the company's website is copyrighted only through 2006.

Something tells me they lost a lot on this one.

space cube

admin 24 weeks 2 days 8 hours 55 min ago

it's a space cube, I don't believe it's for sale outside of Japan. It's also very expensive as it was designed for use in outer space. It's more of a gimmick nowadays.