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$100 Linux Wall-Wart Now Available
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Feb 24, 2009 02:25 PM
from the not-to-be-confused-with-wal-mart dept.
from the not-to-be-confused-with-wal-mart dept.
nerdyH sends us to LinuxDevices for a description of a tiny Linux device called the Marvell SheevaPlug. "A $100 Linux wall wart could do to servers what netbooks did to notebooks. With the Marvell SheevaPlug, you get a completely open (hardware and software) Linux server resembling a typical wall-wart power adapter, but running Linux on a 1.2GHz CPU, with 512MB of RAM, and 512MB of Flash. I/O includes USB 2.0, gigabit Ethernet, while expansion is provided via an SDIO slot. The power draw is a nightlight-like 5 Watts. Marvell says it plans to give Linux developers everything they need to deliver 'disruptive' services on the device." The article links four products built on the SheevaPlug, none of them shipping quite yet. The development kit is available from Marvell.
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What to Do With a $99 Wall Wart Linux Server 346 comments
Guanine writes in with a follow-up to our discussion a few months back on the SheevaPlug: 1.2-GHz ARM-compliant processor, 512 MB DDR2, 512 MB flash, USB 2.0, gigabit ethernet, in a package the size of a wall wart, for $99. Saul Hansell's Bits Blog in the NY Times talks about a few applications for such a device, whose price point Hansell claims will drop to $40 before too long. "The first plausible use for the plug computer is to attach one of these gizmos to a USB hard drive. Voila, you've got a network server. Cloud Engines, a startup, has in fact built a $99 plug computer called Pogoplug, that will let you share the files on your hard drive, not only in your home but also anywhere on the Internet. ... [Marvell's CEO said] 'Eventually you won't see the plug. We want this device to be in your TV, your stereo system, your DVD player.'"
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Did anyone else read this as (Score:5, Funny)
$100 Linux Wall-Mart now available? That would be cool.
Re:Did anyone else read this as (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Did anyone else read this as (Score:5, Funny)
I hope they sell them at Wal-mart. A Wal-mart Wall-Wart would be cool!
Imagine a beowolf cluster of OW!! OW!! STOP HITTING ME!!!
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Re:Did anyone else read this as (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Did anyone else read this as (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Did anyone else read this as (Score:5, Interesting)
Imagine a beowolf cluster of...
No joke. If they come out with a Gig of memory, I'll buy 20 or so and set up my own compute farm. I'd really like to get my hand on a sample and a cross-compiler to see what 1.2 GHz ARM means for my application...
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Mirror here (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.networkmirror.com/MuDp_g5XY_ZJoCQZ/linuxdevices.com/news/NS9634061300.html [networkmirror.com]
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Re:Did anyone else read this as (Score:5, Interesting)
Nope, it's that Wall-Wart is too close to our conditioned recognition of Wal-Mart. Your brain has too much crap to do to read every letter of every word, and try to puzzle things out...It uses a sort of constant shape/context interpolation. That's why misspelled words don't prevent you from understanding what the word is supposed to be.
If they'd spelled it correctly (e.g. "wall wart") without the caps and hyphen, it wouldn't have fallen into the same framework, and everyone wouldn't have read it and gone, "Linux Wal-Mart? WTF?"
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Re:Did anyone else read this as (Score:5, Insightful)
If they'd spelled it correctly (e.g. "wall wart") without the caps and hyphen, it wouldn't have fallen into the same framework, and everyone wouldn't have read it and gone, "Linux Wal-Mart? WTF?"
The insidious kdawson strikes again.
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Ethernet (Score:4, Interesting)
Is it possible to also have the ethernet for this device go over the power lines like so many home networking devices? Then you could literally plug it and and have it running.
Re:Ethernet (Score:5, Interesting)
Agreed. Either it needs BPL or it needs Wi-Fi. Most people don't put an ethernet jack wherever they have a power connection, making this somewhat less than ideal for home automation purposes. I'd also like to see it have a relay to switch on and off a power outlet, but maybe that's just me.
Either way, it's a cool little piece of hardware. I'm just not quite sure what I could use it for. It's too underpowered for video encoding/decoding, has no power switching capabilities needed for it to control lights, doesn't have the CPU power to replace my web server (a C2D takes several seconds to render an image with dcraw; this would take several minutes), etc. Maybe coupled with some outboard piece of USB gear, it might serve some obscure purpose like controlling a motor to open and close window shades/awnings for solar heating purposes, but it would still have to be enclosed in some sort of box to safely mount it outdoors....
I'll keep thinking. :-)
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Re:Ethernet (Score:4, Insightful)
Torrents!
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Actually not a bad idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Not torrents per se, but a dinky 100 computer sitting somewhere. Doing something...naughty.
If you get caught you're out 100 bucks. So what? Cheaper than an RIAA settlement letter, for instance.
Not that I'd ever advocate such behavior. Oh heavens no.
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Re:Actually not a bad idea (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh no, I wasn't saying torrenting is sneaky. It isn't.
I was suggesting other nefarious uses. Like an open proxy that doesn't keep logs. Or a server for eMule. Or an icecast server with a public uploads folder - the modern day equivalent of pirate radio, just with audience participation. Or some other such thing.
Not that I'd ever advocate such behavior. Oh heavens no.
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Re:Ethernet (Score:5, Informative)
Are you kidding? Not enough CPU power? 1.2 GHz is enough for me to do raytracing!
Anyway, if you are going to do video encoding and translate your camera's pics from raw, it is not as if you need to sit and watch it. Just let the device run and do the work. 5 Watts isn't that much.
Kids these days.
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Re:Ethernet (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Ethernet (Score:5, Informative)
I suspect that products derived from this model will tend to have more in the way of peripherals; but as a dev kit that requires no special handling or equipment, and is priced within the range of virtually any student, linux hacker, or general tinkerer, this looks like a fun bit of kit. I know I'm tempted.
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Re:Ethernet (Score:5, Informative)
"I'm just not quite sure what I could use it for. It's too underpowered for video encoding/decoding,"
It could probably do a bit of that, transcoding and serving anyway.
This sounds like an absolutely perfect replacement for my Linksys NSLU2. It's only 266MHz and has 32MB of RAM. At the moment I have one doing mail/web server duty and one running torrentflux-b4rt and mediatomb, streaming music and video to my PS3 and to my machine at work.
That second one is straining to keep up, this little box sounds like it fits the bill perfectly. Similarly powered NAS boxes cost multiple hundreds.
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Re:Ethernet (Score:5, Interesting)
The obvious real solution is Power over Ethernet.
1 PoE capable switch.
+ 8 Wallwart Linux Devices
= 1 (not quite enterprise level) Server Farm in a shoe-box
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Re:Ethernet (Score:4, Interesting)
In the era of 802.11N, that is a retarded idea.
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How much for a multi-ethernet-port version? (Score:5, Insightful)
This would be cool for a pocket-sized router, firewall, packet sniffer, etc.
Re:How much for a multi-ethernet-port version? (Score:5, Funny)
Agreed. There are countless uses for something like this. 2009 will be the year of Linux in the outlet! ;-)
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Power line networking (Score:5, Insightful)
From the linked page: "This device connects to the network using GbE"
Does it strike anybody else as strange that this device wouldn't have power line networking built in?
Re:Power line networking (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes and no. It would make sense for it to be capable of powerline networking, but you'll still need to ran a patch cable from the main network (be it router, cable modem/dsl box, whatever) to either this device (if it were powerline network capable) or another powerline network plugin device.
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Re:Power over Ethernet (Score:5, Funny)
I'm more interested in a version that supports PoE.
That would be cool! Then you could add an inverter and power the outlet strip. ;-)
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Re:Power over Ethernet (Score:5, Funny)
You, sir, are the reason they put warning labels on toothpicks. :)
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Sounds like a great industrial espionage device! (Score:3, Interesting)
All you need to do is wrangle yourself an "interview" with a company, plug one of these unobtrusive babies into a wall outlet, attach a short patch cord to the nearest RJ45 data jack and you're off to the highest (competitor) bidder!
Re:Sounds like a great industrial espionage device (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Sounds like a great industrial espionage device (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, he's got a point. If you can infiltrate the janitorial staff and can plug a two-ethernet-port version of this in between an important computer and a switch, you can sniff/analyze/record all unencrypted traffic until you run out of RAM.
Just be sure to remove it the next day before anyone notices.
Then again, an audio-recording device that recorded keystrokes or a keystroke-interceptor on the USB or PS2 ports is probably smaller.
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Re:Sounds like a great industrial espionage device (Score:5, Insightful)
... because wall warts with a tail plugged into the nearest network port wouldn't attract any kind of attention.
Was that intended to be sarcastic?
How much time do YOU spend analyzing at the rat's nest of cabling located under your desk, where the Linksys wireless router and the three daisy-chained power strips live? Less than an hour per year, if you're anything like me.
I would dare say that an espionage device that disguised itself as a wall wart would be more likely to be discovered based on network analysis ("hold up, what's this device with the unfamiliar MAC off of network port 73?") than based on a visual inspection of the site.
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Re:Sounds like a great industrial espionage device (Score:4, Funny)
the device would not likely be discovered visually, given it was placed well to begin with.
But if you're going to go to the trouble of carefully hiding an electronic device somewhere in an office, would you really choose this wall wart or something else? [thinkgeek.com]
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A NAS? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sounds like a nice box to use as a NAS, just hook up a fast USB 2.0 drive and you're set. With a 1.2ghz CPU and all that RAM it should fly. Meh, my 2TB professional Raid 5 NAS only has a 400mhz CPU and IIRC 32mb of RAM.
just hook up a fast USB 2.0 drive and you're set (Score:4, Insightful)
I love how easy everything sounds when you precede it with "just".
You and I both know there is no such thing as a fast USB 2.0 drive, DESPITE THE SPECS.
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Got plenty of ideas (Score:5, Interesting)
It looks pretty awesome.
Maybe I can use one with an USB cam to implement some cheap security cameras.
I can put a daemon on there to only start emailing images on movement. :)
Heresy (Score:4, Interesting)
It might be heresy, but I'm seriously considering using this instead of my Linux box at home... IF it can run rtorrent and hellanzb and handle the load of streaming to my Windows PC in the living room.
Software and CPU power are the only problems I foresee. (And CPU power is probably enough.)
And a site you can actually load... (Score:5, Informative)
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/02/100_linux_wallwart_launches.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890 [makezine.com]
http://dailydiy.com/2009/02/24/100-linux-wall-wart-launches/ [dailydiy.com]
HEY! (Score:4, Funny)
Does anyone know what happened to the server? It just quit responding, and when I went to check it, all I found was a cell-phone charger.
Re:HEY! (Score:5, Funny)
They were running the webserver on it so........it popped out of the wall.
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versus NSLU2 (Score:4, Informative)
It's interesting to compare this to the Linksys NSLU2 [wikipedia.org], which I'm using as a home music server.
So I guess with the Marvell box you get somewhat higher specs, but I'm not sure you really need the higher specs. For most applications, you're going to attach a keychain usb drive to these things, and then the internal flash becomes irrelevant. 32 MB of memory may not sound like much these days, but it's actually plenty for a file server, music server, home automation system, etc. The main advantage I could see to the Marvell is that it sounds a little more open. Linksys ships the NSLU2 in a configuration where it's not really a general-purpose linux box, and you have to go through some hassles to get a real linux on it where you can install packages, etc. Linksys does, however, officially bless the use of third-party linix distros on the NSLU2.
I'll tell you why... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:I'll tell you why... (Score:4, Funny)
I didn't understand a thing you said.
Copreehenshon is impotent too.
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Re:I'll tell you why... (Score:5, Funny)
It's always heartening when someone can't sling an insult correctly due to their own ignorance...
It's You're a stupid nigger... (the apostrophe indicates dropped letters [wikipedia.org].
For what it's worth I usually see this type of comment from someone who's trying to suppress homosexual urges involving dark-brown penises....
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Re:I'll tell you why... (Score:5, Funny)
Profanity is the last resort of desperately inarticulate motherfuckers.
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Re:Wall-Mart? (Score:5, Funny)
Why do I keep reading that as Wall-Mart?
Because they got to you.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's funny; I see Wall-fnordWart.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I've run into this with a number of shopping carts, including some big name sites. I usually have to switch to a different browser - a lot of carts don't work with Safari or Chrome, and some don't even work with FireFox.
Re:trouble with cart? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Beowulf Cluster (Score:5, Funny)
"Or at least a small chunk of Nantucket, RI"
That would be no small feat, seeing as Nantucket isn't in Rhode Island.
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Re:Beowulf Cluster (Score:5, Funny)
It will be. It. Will. Be.
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Re:Slashdot $100 law... (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, because I participate. A whole lot of slashdot's readers are in the income bracket that has $100 as a toy price cut off. Over $100 and something may actually have to be sacrificed. At or under $100, the budget can absorb. Eight years ago I wanted to get away from my dependency on a single computer in the house. I got tired of being totally cut off and having to drag an old system out of the closet when my desktop suffered some sort of failure. So I bought three used PIIs. For $100 each. Two of the three have suffered hard drive failures in the intervening years, but aside from that, they've kept right on working. One of them is the NAT/firewall machine for the whole house.
Looks like I finally have a candidate for a replacement. With gigabit ethernet. And its CPU is 200 MHz faster. Gotta love progress.
Yesterday I bought two used APC 1000XL UPSs. For $100 each. The one I had already could hold up my desktop with a 21" CRT for 27 minutes. One of those 5 watt warts should be able to run on battery for, what, a month? GOTTA love progress.
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