A plug computer is often described as a small, low-power computer that has a form factor that allows it to be plugged directly into a power outlet.
They've been around for awhile as specialty hardware. I think the first one I saw was called JackPC, and that was designed more as a computer that resembled a wall outlet than something that would get plugged into a wall outlet.
More recent plug computers look almost like power adapters, aka wall warts. The one that seems to have gathered the most attention is called the SheevaPlug. It runs on the ARM9 architecture and is marketed by Marvell and their system-on-chip called Kirkwood 6281.
I've read that the SheevaPlug only uses 5 watts of power. If so, that would really be amazing because its reportedly quite a little powerhouse, too, in terms of processing power.
I'd first guess that a very useful application for a plug computer would be wireless - using the plug as a node in a wireless mesh network, or simply acting as a repeater node to extend wireless range.
After that, the sky is the limit! Prior to plug computers, enthusiasts have been modifying wireless routers with linux to act as micro-servers, even using some that have support for USB as network attached storage devices.
This brings up two important points about some plug computers:
The eSata support is really, really awesome!
This is another important factor when it comes to plug computers: they are inexpensive! The SheevaPlug development kit can be purchased for only $99 USD!
]]>Presented at this year's CES and hopefully soon to enter the marketplace, hybrid displays will be able to switch between standard LCD and e-ink. The logic being that LCD displays are better for full color imagery, and e-ink is better for e-books.
E-ink uses a lot less energy than LCD displays. As such, its the prime choice for e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle.
The Lenovo U1 Hybrid - an example of how Proprietary OSs Suck
At first I thought that hybrid referred to some sort of power system, but it refers to the operating systems which the device runs.
At first glance it seems pretty strange. I agree with Russell in that it is my personal opinion that proprietary OSs suck compared to open source operating systems like Debian GNU/Linux and FreeBSD.
]]>Here's a press release from Intel which includes lots of other news and only mentioned the micro server about halfway down the page:
Maloney disclosed a new ultra-low-voltage Intel® Xeon® 3000 series processor featuring a TDP (Thermal Design Power) of only 30 watts. To complement the broad range of dense and power-optimized platform offerings, Intel also demonstrated publicly for the first time a single-socket "micro server" reference system which will help enable micro server innovation and future specification.I hope they put these into production and make them available for purchase very soon!
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Hello,
My Smart-UPS 1000VA no longer works, and I tried to diagnose the problem but the batteries inside have warped and cannot be removed. Please advise.
091024-000242
UPDATE: APCC did respond back with some suggestions (letting the unit cool down, flip it upside down), but I’d already tried everything. I wrote them back:
“Hi, I got your responses but I had already tried everything. The device has been unplugged for several weeks and the batteries aren’t getting any cooler. They are just so warped their middle section is rounder bigger than the rectangle slot they are meant to slide out of. The only way I could imaging that they could come out is if the entire unit is disassembled. Please tell me how I can exchange this one.”]]>
Another one of my "energy efficient" power adapters died. I got curious so I broke this one open. It wasn't worth it though, there was no obvious indication of why it stopped working and raw electronics can be very dangerous. HIPRO makes their plastic boxes extremely difficult to open, too, which is actually a great idea in my humble opinion.
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[ 0.147219] pci 0000:00:1f.0: quirk: region ee00-ee7f claimed by ICH4 ACPI/GPIO/TCO [ 0.147225] pci 0000:00:1f.0: quirk: region eec0-eeff claimed by ICH4 GPIO [ 2.536283] ICH3M: IDE controller (0x8086:0x248a rev 0x02) at PCI slot 0000:00:1f.1 [ 2.536312] ICH3M: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: root=UUID=af56e319-0b5f-4cd9-92dc-d8c9782e439b ro quiet hpet=force [ 0.147207] pci 0000:00:1f.0: Force enabled HPET at 0xfed00000 [ 0.156193] hpet clockevent registered [ 0.156202] hpet0: at MMIO 0xfed00000, IRQs 2, 8, 0 [ 0.156209] hpet0: 3 64-bit timers, 14318180 HzSweet! Although it works on Smurfbot, it doesn't work on my little valleys. Oh well.]]>
41.9% ( 65.7): uhci_hcd:usb6, wifi0 17.9% ( 28.1) java : futex_wait (hrtimer_wakeup) 13.3% ( 20.9) firefox-bin : futex_wait (hrtimer_wakeup) 11.8% ( 18.5) : extra timer interrupt