
CHIP – The World's First Nine Dollar Computer - andre33
http://ardevon.com/2015/07/chip-the-worlds-first-9-computer/
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Animats
The impressive thing is that some IC manufacturer can design, manufacture, and
sell all that capability in one IC for a few dollars. That's an incredible
achievement. Soldering it onto a breakout board, not so much. There have been
lots of little boards in that price range or lower. If you go to hardware
conferences, you probably have a few free breakout boards given out at company
booths.

As for the $40 version with keyboard and screen, you can beat that price on
Amazon.[1] There are several tablets under $40 now, and by $50 or so, they're
not that bad. That's what those low-cost SOIC chips are made for, after all.

The tablet/phone industry is desperately trying to prop computer prices up.
The industry would like a price point around $500 for tablets. But it's not
working.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Android-Allwinner-Cameras-
Capacitive-S...](http://www.amazon.com/Android-Allwinner-Cameras-Capacitive-
Storage/dp/B00KMKVULG)

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mcphage
That's what these are—SoCs from cheap Chinese tablets. They've been pretty up-
front about that fact.

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yuvadam
This SoC has notoriously bad kernel and firmware support. I'm expecting
similar devices with much better support to hit the market by the end of the
year.

~~~
simple10
Agreed, Allwinner doesn't put much effort into device drivers on Linux,
especially graphics.

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lifeisstillgood
For me projects like this is where OLPC has found its new home. The poorest of
the world are still at huge disadvantage- but that their children could be
gifted a working Linux box for a day to a weeks wages, with the access and
education that potentially opens, means an end run around needing governments
to get their acts together.

It does not fix clean water, immunisation or physical security I know - but
sub 20usd computers are a boon to the next two generations. Probably more so
than our kids generations unable to reach past the retina display.

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beambot
And then you have the $12 Gonkai phone with 32-bit 260MHz CPU, quad-band GSM,
Bluetooth, MP3 playback, and an OLED display plus keypad for the UI.

[http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=3040](http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=3040)

Western "open source" pales in comparison to the hacker communities in Asia.

EDIT: To be clear... CHIP is a very cool effort. But the headline is entirely
too sensationalist; it is not the "world's first $9 computer."

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JulianWasTaken
I'm not sure why you'd call that "pales", those specs are _widely_
different...

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noxin
Well, unless it actually costs 39 dollars.[0]

> After the Kickstarter their computer will sell for 39$.

[0] [https://olimex.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/how-to-get-in-the-
ne...](https://olimex.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/how-to-get-in-the-news-tell-
people-that-you-will-make-and-sell-something-which-cost-you-20-for-9/)

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Zekio
I think projects like these are great, so I spend 139 usd to just support the
project

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andre33
It's really cool. I wish the gameboy-ish case you can put it in was a bit
thinner, but give it a couple of years..

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sctb
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9513850](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9513850)

