The Gumstix Portable PC Thread That Won't Die

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 11:30 pm

holy crap i cant believe it, usually when these threads are started no one listens this is gonna be crazy would this be the first PCp

daleighan · Post by **daleighan** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 9:41 am

[quote]Let's do it! Throw me some money and parts and I'm in!

-Ben[/quote]
Holy crud, he might actually make this!

xxxeagle · Post by **xxxeagle** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 12:34 pm

If we make an altoids pcp so many people will buy it, I really wish I had some money right now I would use a mini usb keyboard. It would be cool to put the screen in the lid and have the keyboard where the mints go. Heres a quick pic I made in paint. The keyboard can be popped out for the batteries and the usb can go out the side.

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 2:29 pm

well, if Ben doesn't get enough money then i will be the only one with an altoids pcp....i like the idea, if there is money left over from Christmas that i get, then i will start to work on my Spiderchip pcp. And i will put BENHECK.COM on the bottom of it

Maybe etch it in or just sharpie...this will be awsome. I will post some links to compatable lcds, keyboards, and batteries soon, as well as screenshots and the Windows CE port link. Thnks for the altoids idea...i have an altoids can with like all of my friends signatures on it, so mine will be soooo cool! We should send a altoids can to everybody who wants to help Ben, and let them put there real name or their Username. That would also be really cool...or as Peter Griffin would say: "Frickin sweet" I ;ove the way spiderchip designed their tin..it looks so cool. It is the same size as an altoid tin, for people who don't know what a spiderchip tin looks like.

loup · Post by **loup** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 2:56 pm

I was looking at the different models and addon modules, am I correct that you can only add wireless (802.11, not bluetooth) OR a cf card for storage, but not both

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 3:05 pm

no, you cant, but if you had some sort of cf/mmc card splitter( use two on one port) you could....but that is a flaw.....on the ethernet and cf adaptors you could hook up a wireless router to the ethernet port and put a cf card in the cf port....but...as far as i know, you cant use cf and wifi at same time.

loup · Post by **loup** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 3:21 pm

doesn't that defeat the purpose of this whole thing if you can't have storage and wifi at the same time

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 3:23 pm

would this be the first PCp

If by PCp you mean PC-portable, than no. A PC uses an x86 compatable cpu architecture, which the Intel Xscale does not have. You would need something like this for a PCp: http://www.compulab.co.il/ivc3/html/ivc ... asheet.htm

If you mean Portable Computer Project, than yes, it would be the first (in the benheck community)

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 3:26 pm

No, some people don't use wireless...so they in terms......win! They can browse the internet throught the ethernet port and have a cf/mmc card in at the same time...you might be able to access the web off a bluetooth enabled cell-phone, or a bluetooth computer/laptop. Personally, i would use the ethernet/mmc adapter, put Windows CE on it or put DSL on it, and then load some emulators and Word programs on it...........Can you say "GBAGum"

daleighan · Post by **daleighan** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 3:36 pm

anyone know how I could buy one of those: http://www.compulab.co.il/ivc3/html/ivc ... asheet.htm it seems to me that that would be much more useful than gumstix because you could run a much better os on it. Also price wouldn't matter to me because I have a huge amount of funding.

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 3:43 pm

i dont know, there out of stock everywhere! I'm still going with Gumstix tho, it seems to be a lot more open source( because it is

) I also dont have infanite money, so i can only spend about $250.00 max on my spiderpc. ( That is my final name for it ) Who here is going to make a Gumstix pcp thing...i want to know so i can share ideas with you, and so we can help each other out

daleighan · Post by **daleighan** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 3:44 pm

I don't see the Gumstix board being able to do much at all.

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 3:54 pm

it can run full versions of Linux and run Windows CE( the basis of XP ) And there are like a guadtrillion different emulators for Linux! I just want it for emulation, so for my purposes, its perfect

loup · Post by **loup** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 4:02 pm

Just to kind of give you all an idea as to how much buying the CM-iVC3 system would cost.

First time buyers MUST buy an evaluation kit, for the iVC3 the evaluation kit runs $1700

the base cost for the iVC3 is $145 (this is per unit at 1000 units)

it comes with 64MB of DRAM, if you want more it's $11 for 128MB or $46 for 256MB

it has a 300MHz processor, you can upgrade to 667Mhz for $23 or 1000Mhz for $32 (this is actually not a bad deal)

if you want NAND flash it runs $9, $24, and $44 for 32Mb, 128Mb, and 512Mb respectively

you can get Super I/O for $5

Ethernet port is $3

Audio & touchscreen is $7

TV encoder is $6

I'll skip other costs because they mostly have to do with preloading software and making it more temperature resistant

To top it all off, if you are buying fewer than 10 of these things multiply the cost by 2

so if you want just one of thse with 256Mb of ram at say, 667 Mhz with a touch screen and ethernet port and tv out to be able to use a small TV with the thing it would cost about $460, and that's if you could bypass getting the evaluation kit. And none of these costs include shipping.

So if you've got a couple of thousand dollars to throw at one of these, more luck to you, otherwise you might want to go back to looking at the gumstix

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 4:12 pm

- unless you are looking at this with a commercial perspective, from which the CM-iVC3 makes PERFECT sense.

You could choose a 667MHz module with 64MB Dram, SuperIO, Audio and Touchscreen, for 292 dollars at a reasonable qunatity of 10.