As the technology improves and gets more powerful, gadgets become smaller and smarter. Thanks to the new technological advancements, we now have a chip-sized computer among us, from a $1 million venture-backed startup, Next Thing Co, located in Oakland, California. And it will cost an unbelievable $9.
This single-board computer is named “CHIP.” It is the product of a Kickstarter campaign that has gained over $645,500 and has the backing of over 12,800 people currently, and the numbers are only expected to grow further over the coming weeks. The Kickstarter project started off with an initial goal of $50,000, but it has ended up raising more than 11 times that amount. A group of nine engineers and artists still have 26 days left to complete the campaign. Experts say the project can easily raise $1 million on Kickstarter.
The CHIP computer can perform many functions. It has a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth installed and has support for VGA and HDMI. It costs an incredible $9 only; $19 with the VGA adapter, and $24 with the HDMI adapter. One downside is that it only runs on Linux at the moment.
The CHIP is expected to start shipping as early as December this year.
The device has a 1GHz ARM R8 A13 processor backed with 512MB of RAM, 4GB of flash storage, a USB and a micro-USB port, headphone jacks, and a 3,000mAh battery granting up to five hours of battery life. To put it into perspective, the device is more powerful than the Raspberry Pi B+ and as good as the BeagleBone Black in terms of processing power and storage. It comes installed with a Debian Linux version and other standard software like LibreOffice and Scratch. Add PocketChip to the device and your small computer has a nifty little QWERTY keyboard and 4.3-inch touch panel (272 x 470 pixels). The CHIP device always allows you to add other features to it.
Dave Rauchwerk, one of the Next Thing Co. founders, explained the thinking behind this $9 wonder while talking to DIY publication Make. "The $9 becomes really interesting when lots of people can help make it awesome. We wanted to find a way to not only give everyone access to it but to give them the ability to participate in this process of developing it.”
He further explained: “QUANTITY. Our partners at Allwinner worked hard to help us find how to reduce costs, so that we could introduce C.H.I.P. to EVERYBODY. To sell C.H.I.P. for $9, we need to order tens of thousands of chips. By using common, available, and volume-produced processor, memory, and Wi-Fi chips, we are able to leverage the scales at which tablet manufacturers operate to get everyone the best price."
Allwinner is a Chinese chip-making firm whose chips are used in many of the low-end Android tablets currently available in the market.
- Manohar
