OLPC, Sugar on a Stick, eat your hearts out. Game developer David Braben has come up with a $25 ARM-based full-fledged computer in a USB stick form factor. The device has a USB port in one end and an HDMI port in the other; if you plug a monitor into the HDMI and a keyboard or USB hub + keyboard and mouse into the USB, you have a full-fledged working computer that will run Linux, or it could be combined with a touchscreen to make a cheap tablet. It will probably ship with Ubuntu.
Braben plans to use this PC to promote computer science studies in schools, giving kids venues to learn basic skills like programming and understanding hardware architecture. It will be made available through the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a UK-registered charity to promote the study of computer science.
Aside from promoting computer science, such a computer could be very useful in providing general-purpose computational ability to schools on a budget crunch. And it could be attractive to low-income families and others who could use a decent cheap computer. I know I can’t wait to buy one to play with. At only $25, that’s less than a lot of ordinary USB thumb drives cost!
I’ll believe when I see it. So far it seems the guy is way too optimistic about the price.
Adding a monitor, keyboard and USB hub for peripherals like, I dunno–storage?–will bring your total price up a few hundred bucks. Might as well embed it into a basic netbook package.
Total fiction ….
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