Kuro, MediaMVP, TiVo, TeraStation -- and us?

Georg Wrede georg.wrede at nospam.org
Fri Nov 3 11:00:14 PST 2006


While on the IBM Developer Works site, I stumbled on an interesting 
article about the new breed of computing devices (IMHO, soon to flood 
the world, in numbers exceeding both PCs and cellphones).

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-lobmediamvp.html

Basically, these are VCR cassette size units containing a single-board 
computer with Linux. They seem to be (again, IMHO) becoming the new 
platform-of-choice for garage firms developing totally new applications 
for the digital world. (Gee, sounds like I'm selling them!)

Many new firms use these as-is in home heating automation, various 
set-top appliances, for automotive control, security systems, robotics, 
toys, point-of-sale terminals, self service trade show stands, 
firewalls, handheld bookkeeping or measuring devices, computers for 
pre-schoolers, etc.

As for myself, for the better part of this year I've been looking for 
something smaller than a real PC, because I need to deploy several 
computers throughout the factory floor, and for this PCs get clunky and 
waste a lot of room, money, and maintenance resources. Some of the 
choices I've eyed at are:

http://www.armkits.com/Product/sbc2410III.asp
http://www.armkits.com/Product/STDV710A.asp
http://www.harerod.de/centipad/html/centipad.html (in German)

Now, what has held me back so far is, I definitely want to continue all 
my development in D! <putting hand behind ear, waiting for intense 
applause and roar from the audience/>

With the GCC toolchain that comes default with most of these, one would 
assume that GDC is a viable alternative.

Opinions?



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