Space Cube – the World's Smallest Linux PC

Barence writes "Meet the Space Cube — the world's smallest fully functional PC. Primarily designed for use in space, it somehow manages to cram a working PC with USB ports, card readers, audio outputs and proprietary interfaces into a tiny cube chassis measuring just two inches square. It runs a basic Linux front-end, which the blogger takes a look at, and there are some great photos of the device being loomed over by everyday objects like coffee mugs and cellphones. It has connections for controlling various electronics used by ESA, NASA and JAXA, but it will also apparently be for sale to the public soon, for use by amateur engineers and robotics clubs."

too bad it's not available

[utnapistim]

Too bad it's not available to the general public at the moment :(

Radiation hardened?

[unts]

I appreciate that it's not meant for handling critical systems, but nevertheless, I wonder if its components are radiation hardened. In particular, what CPU has that thing got? Some sort of ARM?

And the RAM... is it SECDED?

Re:awesome

[TheRaven64]

At 200MHz, it might struggle a bit. And with only analogue VGA it would be hard to connect to a modern monitor. More interesting is the Beagle Board [beagleboard.org] with a 600MHz Cortex A8, a PowerVR GPU and a nice DSP. It takes SD cards, which are now cheap in 16GB sizes, and in terms of volume it's smaller than the Space Cube. Oh, and they're actually shipping to consumers now.

PC Pro is clueless.

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Behold Picotux! [picotux.com]

Or, less dramatically, gumstix [slashdot.org].

The spacecube is cute, I admit, I'd be amused to have one; but the notion of it being the smallest is silly.

Re:Another?

[martinve]

Exactly the same question. My puny phone has 64MB RAM, 369 MHz CPU, screen, battery, built-in speakers, mini-USB port and minimalistic keyboard and internal volume of 66cc (roughly 4 cubic inches). I really do not see the point of that gadget except being really cheap and expendable - and that product is not.

N810

[oever]

How is this special? The Nokia N810 [wikipedia.org] has a faster processor and comes with GPS, wifi, keyboard and 640 x 480 screen. Storage space can be added to exceed that of the Space Cube.

Imagine . . .

[dcw]

Buy a bunch of them, pack them into a suitcase with some laptop batteries, Portable Cluster.

Re:How does a cube...

[sm62704]

...measure two inches square?

Each face of the cube measures two inches square

I am Homer of Borg, prepare to be assim... mmmmm, donut!

I am a real cyborg [slashdot.org]. So is VP Dick Cheney. You will be assimilated. resistance is not only futile, when your time comes you will beg to join us.

Re:Smallest?

[Z00L00K]

And then you have the Jack PC [chippc.com] that fits into an ordinary wall outlet box. (Round type, not the rectangular type)

Re:Product details

[steevc]

Note the copyright of 2005-2006. I saw these ages ago. Not really news, but still a neat gadget. Having a PC this small means you can put it in places where you might not normally have one, providing it has the power for the application. I'm sure it could be good in a car for audio and assorted data logging.

You can get something more powerful for less money, but sometimes size and power consumption will be the main factors.