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Toys Hardware

Sony Combines Pocket Drive with 802.11 180

Posted by chrisd from the cute-as-a-button dept.
Ernest writes "They presented this at Net&Com 2003 in Tokyo. I've found this announcement in German at ComputerWoche Sony selected Linux as the file server's operating system. They'll start selling this little 390 gram thing on the japanese market at the end of March for 585$. Inside is a 20GB 2.5" disk of which (only) 17GB will be available for files."
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Sony Combines Pocket Drive with 802.11 More

Sony Combines Pocket Drive with 802.11

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  • a or b or g? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    We needs to know!

  • Translation (Score:5, Informative)

    by use_compress ( 627082 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @12:10AM (#5238171) Journal
    Here's the babelfish [altavista.com] translation

    Sony announces WiFi Fileserver in the milling one format 05.02.2003 at 11:00 o'clock MUNICH (COMPUTER WEEK) - Japanese electronics company Sony has a portable file server presented which, which kommunziert over Wireless LAN with PCS and PDAs. The "Fsv-pg1" works with a Linux based operating system and contains a 20-GB-Festplatte in the 2,5-Zoll-Format, 17 GB of it is available for user data. The equipment fits with masses of 83 x 155 x of 31 millimeters loosely into a hand and weighs 390 gram. For the enterprise all thing a power pack is necessary, the internal Akku serves only for baking UP purposes. The inserted ACCESS POINT (IEEE 802.11b) can serve according to manufacturer up to 250 users at the same time. Access to the stored files is possible over ftp, CIFS (Common InterNet file system) or NFS. By a Ethernet Cradle available as accessories the equipment can connect accessing Clients by WLAN in addition with the InterNet. As safety functions the Fsv-pg1 incoming inspection coding with alternatively 64 or 128 bits offers, stored files can by password be protected. On the Net & Com 2003 in Tokyo the equipment is presented today to the public for the first time. It is to come at the end of March for converted 585 dollar on the Japanese market, the Cradle costs again scarcely 60 dollar. Whether and when the equipment appears also in this country, is not well-known. (tc)

    • Re:Translation (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yes, but what about SSH? I wouldn't be eager to
      stick an FTP/CIFS(Which is just SMB by any other
      name)/NFS-only server on my *WIRED* LANs, much
      less on a wireless one where anyone can sniff the
      traffic.

      • Shut up. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by cioxx ( 456323 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @01:35AM (#5238586) Homepage
        Yes, but what about SSH?

        Yeah. What about it?

        Get a life, Nerd!

        I'm really sick of this idiocy when a company announces a product and some broke nitpickers come out of the woodwork and say "But does it do XYZ?".

        Jesus Christ, get a grip. Technology will finally catch up. If Sony or any other company for that matter, created a killer product that did everything in one small package, there wouldn't be much competition left, or companies wouldn't be able to make any money.

        It's called steady progression. Suppy and demand. Simple case of Macroeconomics. Your opinion is utterly useless and insignificant in this case. If you're too eager to possess such a small toy with 802.11b AP built in, with 17Gigs of storage and have SSH, make one yourself and quit wasting slashdot's bandwidth with useless crap like feature suggestions only 0.001% of people would use.

        Realisticly speaking, how many businesspeople do you personally know who have the slightest fucking clue about SSH? I would guess none. Simple authentication is enough. This is not geared towards companies like Lloyds of London or Dell R&D Division who have valuable company secrets. This is geared towards people in SOHO, and we all know what they use these types of gadgets for.

        No self-respecting cracker would bother sniffing packets coming from a company who's annual budget is 10,000,000 or less.

        You're a poser.
        • >This is geared towards people in SOHO, and we all know what they use these types of gadgets for.

          Sure, its Londons red-light area!
          http://www.londontonight.com/strip_clubs.ht m
        • or Dell R&D Division who have valuable company secrets

          So moderators, in lite of this golden nugget, is this post a wellcrafted flamebait by an expert karma-whore Troll or +1 Funny?

          I spit out my coffee when i read that... Dell R&D hahahahahahaha

      • Re:Translation (Score:2, Informative)

        by teaserX ( 252970 )
        d00d, it runs linux. I can't for the life of me see what could get in the way of installing SSH. Or anything else for that matter.

    • Re:Translation (Score:5, Funny)

      by Autonymous Toaster ( 646656 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @12:27AM (#5238285) Homepage

      For the enterprise all thing a power pack is necessary, the internal Akku serves only for baking UP purposes.

      Well I for one am glad to see these corporations are beginning to get some priorities.

    • Thanks, that makes things a lot clearer. Surely someone around here must speak German?

    • REAL TRANSLATION (Score:5, Informative)

      by dew-genen-ny ( 617738 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @06:29AM (#5239359) Homepage
      Sony delivers a walkman format WiFi-Fileserver

      Munich(ComputerWoche) - Sony, the Japanese electronics firm have demonstrated a portable fileserver, that can connect to PCs and PDAs using Wireless LAN (protocol). The FSV-PG1 works with a linux based operating system, and has a 2.5 inch 20 GB harddrive, 17 GB of which are available to the user. The device , which is 83x155x31 millimeters fits neatly in your hand, and weighs 390 Gramms. It requires an external powersupply - the internal battery is only for backup use.

      The built in access point (IEEE 802.11b) can, according to sony, server up to 250 users at a time. Access to the data is possible via FTP, CIFS or NFS. There is also an ethernet-cradle available as an accessory which enables standard ethernet connections. Security is dealt with via 64 or 128 bit WEP. Saved data is protected via passwords.

      The devices will be publicly presented for the first time at the Net&Com 2003, Tokyo show. It should be available in Japan at the end of March for approximately 585 dollars, the Ethernet-Cradle costing approximately 60 Dollars. If and when the device will be available here (Germany) remains to be seen.

    • Re:Translation (Score:5, Funny)

      by Glonoinha ( 587375 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @09:35AM (#5240221) Journal
      Here's duh jive translation

      Sony announces WiFi Fileservuh in duh millin' one format 05.02.2003 at 11:00 o'clock MUNICH (COMPUTuh WEEK) - Japanese electronics company Sony has a portable file servuh presented which, which kommunziert ovuh Wireless LAN wif PCS and PDAs. Duh "Fsv-pg1" works wif a Linux based operatin' system and contains a 20-GB-Festplatte in duh 2,5-Zoll-Format, 17 GB uh it be available fo' usuh data. Duh equipment fits wif masses uh 83 x 155 x uh 31 millimetuhs loosely into a hand and weighs 390 gram. Fo' duh enterprise all din' a powuh pack be necessary, duh internal Akku serves only fo' bakin' UP purposes. Duh inserted ACCESS POINT (IEEE 802.11b) can serve accordin' to manufacturuh up to 250 usuhs at duh same time. Access to duh stored files be possible ovuh ftp, CIFS (Common InterNet file system) o' NFS. By a Ethernet Cradle available as accessories duh equipment can connect accessin' Clients by WLAN in addition wif duh InterNet. As safety functions duh Fsv-pg1 incomin' inspection codin' wif alternatively 64 o' 128 bits offuhs, stored files can by password be protected. On duh Nep & Com 2003 in Tokyo duh equipment be presented today to duh public fo' duh first time. It be to come at duh end uh March fo' converted 585 dolluh on duh Japanese market, duh Cradle costs again scarcely 60 dolluh. Whethuh and when duh equipment appeuhs also in dis country, be not well-known. Well slap my fro! Sho'nuf!

  • sPod? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by D4Vr4nt ( 615027 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @12:12AM (#5238181) Homepage
    Hack = Sony iPod?

  • Well... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by pegasustonans ( 589396 )
    Sounds cool, but I'm not sure it'll get by on just "cool" if they decide to release it in North America...

  • ATTENTION (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 06, 2003 @12:12AM (#5238188)
    Is that 17 gig's of porn on a 2.5" form-factor harddrive in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

  • Customization, ZeroConf support? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by spankalee ( 598232 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @12:13AM (#5238196)
    Mac freaks have been speculating that the iPod will get 802.11 for a long time now... and sony beats them to it.

    I wonder how customizable the Linux install is. This type of device will be very usefull with ZeroConf. Any services it provides (mp3, divx streaming...) will automagically appear as soon as it joins the network. yippee.
    • How customizable the Linux install is...it's Linux. Doesn't that mean it's customizable as all hell?

      Set it up to accept SSH connections, upload the source of another Linux distro, compile, install...how hard can it be? Relative to a normal Linux installation, that is (not a piece of cake, but certainly not brain surgery).

      Or we could just wait for Apple to add AirPort support to the iPod. Presumably, if they were to do such a thing they would make it support Rendezvous (ZeroConf) as a matter of course.
      • I think the main reason we haven't seen a wireless iPod yet is speed: the iPod's built in Firewire gets 400m/s while you're lucky to sqeeze 10m/s out of 802.11b (Airport) believe me this makes a BIG difference: I keep my iTunes library on a fileserver which (as yet) has no Firewire, so I sync the iPod with my PowerBook (usually connected via Airport)

        Transfering the volumes of data that the iPod does over 802.11b sucks: it can take hours to sync up, whereas when the music was stored locally I'd be ready to go in minutes if not seconds (needless to say a Firewire card is on its way for the server!)

        Hopefully now that Apple have adopted 802.11g (Airport Extreme) we might see the option for a wireless iPod soon, though it'd still be pretty slow compared to the cabled version, especially if they also update the Pod's Firewire hardware to the new 800m/s version.
    • Perhaps they would appear to MacOSX machines. Windows and Linux machines, however, wouldn't see it because there are few or no Rendezvous clients for those platforms (no major distribution seems to include Apple's implementation, probably because of its license).

      In fact, while Apple makes a big deal out of service discovery through Rendezvous, several technologies fulfilling a similar purpose have been out there for a long time. WINS, in particular, probably, would be the most useful for this thing to support because then Windows machines (and Linux machines, for that matter) could discover it automatically.

    • sony beats them to it.

      The form factor may have something to do with that. The Sony looks much bigger than the iPod.

    • The iPod is a 1.8 inch hard disk.

      Sony took a laptop drive and slapped 802.11 on it.

      My iPod doesn't require an external power supply to operate, the Sony does.

  • 17 of 20 gigs useable? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by trmj ( 579410 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @12:13AM (#5238197) Journal
    What could possibly take up 3 gigs? C'mon, it's not the OS, they're using Linux. What else are they hiding on that drive that's using so much space?

    • redhat (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      the default redhat install, yes it needs two cds now.
    • DRM? Never know, this *is* Sony...
      • Yea, this IS Sony, the same that are protecting you (Ok, maybe their good name, but you still get the benefits) from crippled CDs.

        • Re:17 of 20 gigs useable? (Score:4, Informative)

          by sweetooth ( 21075 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @12:45AM (#5238365) Homepage
          What the heck are you talking about? There are plenty of Sony CDs on the crippled disc list.

          http://www.fatchucks.com/z3.cd.html

          Philips on the other hand is attempting to protect us (or thier name) from crippled cds by disallowing the use of the cd logos on cds that break from the standard.

          http://www.licensing.philips.com/information/cd/
    • I was damn curious about that myself. My guess is just sloppy workmanship. As one of the other replies alluded to, they're probably just using a standard distro install, rather than actually hacking things down to just the drivers and software that they actually need. Maybe some kind of an autoupdate feature/spyware too?

    • Re:17 of 20 gigs useable? (Score:5, Informative)

      by be-fan ( 61476 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @12:53AM (#5238397)
      Ever see a 20GB HD where 20GB was usable? Right off the bat, the difference between 10^3 and 2^30 addressing results in a 18.6GB capacity. Then there is formatting overhead. Then there is swap space. The OS paritition is probably less than 1GB.
      • You are correct, sir.

        I guess I was just hoping that for once a disk manufacturer didn't use "gigabyte" to mean "one billion bytes".
        • I think the ANSI standard term for 2^30 bytes is Gibibyte, or GiB.

          Gigabyte, or 1,000,000,000 bytes, is GB.

          I could be wrong, but that was my understanding. Of course, very few people actually write GiB in practice...

    • Re:17 of 20 gigs useable? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Its probably not the OS, but the file system. A file-system takes extra space on top of the files it stores -- and it can get quite large with larger drives. Its still the same percentage, but if the FS adds just 5% then a 20GB drive would loose 1GB right there. But again, they are taking up 3GB.

      Maybe they're using one of the journaled FSs Linux has to offer (such as XFS) and using a 2-3GB partition for the journal.
    • What three gigs could hold:

      ¥ sixteen million sex shots teeming with sordid adolescent sluts
      ¥ miltary master plans, plundering millions, manipulating masses, and propogating misinformation
      ¥ generous amounts of analyticaly sound gibberish, astonishing gutters awash with grandiose anachronisms
      ¥ secret unions of sectarian uninationalists, celebrating unique sentience unmatched by similar eunochs
      ¥ incredibly perverse and incendiary propoganda, penetrating inside persons' innermost ponderances
      ¥ tablature tracking ten thousand teen tantalizing titles
      ¥ and a partridge in a pear tree

      shut up. this is very cool. stop finding something to be angry about you nicknamed nincompoop.
    • Maybe it's a FAT file system.
      Let's see, cluster size... small files (pr0n)... there it is!
  • What's installed on the thing anyway? I doubt a simple file server takes up 3 GB of space...

  • Rendezvous (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Garin ( 26873 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @12:18AM (#5238225)
    Now, if we could get these things with rendezvous up and working, so they just automagically work with MacOS X (and eventually everything else).

    That'd be nice, to have a portable scratch-space drive or something like that, that you just plug in and suddenly it works for everyone :^)
    • This guy's on to something!!!

      Is Rendezvous code available for Linux? Didn't Apple release the source for it? Shouldn't be too hard to port if it hasn't been yet...?

      • Re:Rendezvous (Score:5, Informative)

        by Garin ( 26873 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @12:58AM (#5238427)
        Indeed it is available, with a version for Linux -- no porting required.

        http://developer.apple.com/macosx/rendezvous/

        I think this would make the pocket drive a truly must-have product for me.
        • The license [apple.com] for Apple's Rendezvous implementation is unacceptable to many people. I wouldn't be surprised if the license alone would keep Sony from using this. Furthemore, no major Linux distribution has packaged it up. So, in effect, there is no usable Linux implementation of Rendezvous. Also, since only a tiny fraction of all machines use Rendezvous yet, there isn't much incentive for Sony to expend any effort on this.
          • Not really... what? Not really available? Sure it is. It's right there. I didn't say is was "Free-as-in-libre".

            If you take a peek at the specification, it's not really that hard of a thing to do. The specification is available and readable. Yeah, the license for that code isn't perfectly floating-on-a-cloud wonderful, but at least a reference implementation exists and can be used for testing.

            Is Sony going to do add Rendezvous to their pocket drive? Nah. I don't really care either. If Apple did it, though, that would be awesome. It'd be Airport Extreme, it'd have Rendezvous built in, it may or may not have a firewire port, and it would look very cool.

  • Very Interesting (Score:5, Interesting)

    by peatbakke ( 52079 ) <`gro.taep' `ta' `taep'> on Thursday February 06, 2003 @12:18AM (#5238226) Homepage
    This is great -- basically a network storage appliance, without the wires. I wonder how the battery life is, although I suspect it's good for a few hours (similar to iPod).

    I'm definitely interested. I work with lots of people who are WiFi capable and need storage larger than CF cards. It seems like this could be a very handy device for independent consultants and developers on the move ... or in a location that hasn't been fully wired.

    Hmm. I'd like to see this in the US.
    • I would love an ipod-like device with 802.11 and rendezvous making a portable peer to peer sharing device that doubles as a drive as the ipods currently do. Tack on a tiny color screen and one could share photos or videos or whatever else.
    • In my experience and iPod's battery will last between 9-10 hours. Of course, it isn't broadcasting the music via 802.11b.

      -

    • Re:Very Interesting (Score:2, Informative)

      by BJH ( 11355 )
      According to the press release, the battery is only for UPS functionality - they don't support running off the battery as a normal mode of operation. I

  • Correct English Please (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The corrected post is as follows:

    PO5T3D 8y cHr1$d ON thur5d4Y pheBrU@ry 06, @12:08@M
    phrom Th3 CUtE-4$-@-Bu++0N D3Pt.
    3RN3$+ WRI+35 "+HEy pRE$3n+ED +H15 a+ NET&cOm 2003 iN t0kyo. I'v3 fOund +Hi5 @NN0unCEMen+ iN 9ERM4n 4+ comPUtERw0cH3 50ny 53L3C+3d LINUx @5 th3 phIle $3rVer'5 0pER4+in9 5Y$T3m. +HEY'll 5t4r+ $3lL1nG th15 Lit+Le 390 9r4m +H1Ng on T3H j4p4ne53 m@RKE+ @+ Teh 3Nd oF m@RcH f0R 585$. IN5idE I5 @ 20G8 2.5" d15k oPH wH1ch (oNlY) 17G8 wiLL 8E @V4IL4Bl3 f0r ph1lE$."
  • it'd be very cool to setup a whole network of these guys and run fully off of these. imagine the space and electricity companies could save. imagine the nfs shares you could setup for mp3s in your bathroom on your laptop. mmm.. the possibilities.

  • its too slow!!!! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 06, 2003 @12:23AM (#5238261)
    I think that sony has jumped the gun, they choose a technology limited to 11mbps. if anyone would try and do large transfers they are going to take a really long time. I hope that sony starts looking to add either 802.11a or 802.11g

    • Re:its too slow!!!! (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      They're probably just testing the market to see if such a device is worth investing in in the long run. Makes sense, since 802.11b is currently the most widespread WiFi technology (although I heard something about 802.11g being compatible with 802.11b, at least when talking about the WAPs).

    • Re:its too slow!!!! (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I kind of agree with you there. Pulling the traditional /. "lets not read the article and jump the gun", I hope it is also equiped with firewire. If it does, then thats just fine. I've had the need for a removable HD many times, but maybe once or twice would a wireless drive been a big blessing. Its kind of cool though, but nothing spectaular, especially with the price.

      With that price, you could put together a cheap PC to be used for your own SAN. Just equip it with multiple connection types (1000/100/10BT, firewire, usb2/1, 802.11a/b/g-when-available, fibre, and irda). Then slap on samba, nfs, and CIFS and youd have a not-so-portable but very well equiped "storage server" -- hell for their price of nearly $600 you could habe over 5x the storage capacity they have.

    • Re:its too slow!!!! (Score:4, Interesting)

      by BJH ( 11355 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @01:11AM (#5238498)
      There's a hell of a lot more 802.11b equipment out there right now that won't be upgraded for a while. I think it's a reasonable move - they just issue a new model when 802.11g becomes widespread (since the 802.11b version will work with it quite happily).
    • or IEEE 1394!! ... oh wait a sec
  • 20GB 2.5" disk of which (only) 17GB will be available for files.

    Umm, most of us like to format our hard disks, unless u got a better idea . .. .

    oh, and chances are it's a FAT 32 partition (seems that many, many portables still use it).

  • PDA Accessory (Score:3, Interesting)

    by RPI Geek ( 640282 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @12:42AM (#5238354) Journal
    This would be a great accessory to a PDA with an 802.11(a/b/g) card.

    Imagine plugging setting it up at a hotel or on a train and streaming your (legal ;) music without even using so much space as a hardcover book.

    This might entice me to actually get a PDA, if the proce drops.
    • This would be a great accessory to a PDA with an 802.11(a/b/g) card. Imagine plugging setting it up at a hotel or on a train and streaming your (legal ;) music without even using so much space as a hardcover book.

      Yeah! That would be fantastic! All you would need to do would be to shrink it down (use a 1.8" HD), drop the price, build it into a slim, compact package with a great interface... that would kick ass!

      If only someone would make such a thing... they could call it, I dunno, the "iPod" (but that's just off the top of my head, I'm sure we could come up with a better name)

      m-

  • But what is the battery life? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Jim McCoy ( 3961 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @01:01AM (#5238443) Homepage
    I ask this question because it is going to be very, very tricky for Sony to pack much of a battery into the case with the size specs given (especially when using a 2.5" drive) and 802.11b is not exactly the most power-efficient spec. I guess that Sony was between a rock and a hard place on this particular choice, 802.11g is too new and there are not going to be any low power chips any time soon while bluetooth is too slow. By eating up the battery with a wireless link you are going to increase the number of charge cycles on the battery and decrease the lifespan of this battery.

    • Re:But what is the battery life? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by BJH ( 11355 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @01:13AM (#5238508)
      It doesn't run continuously on battery - the battery is only there for UPS functionality (I'm guessing maybe 10-15min battery life, just enough for you to pull out the power cord, walk over to the new location, and plug it in again).
    • Good question.

      My Archos jukebox MP3 player gets roughly 7 hours of use on a set of 4 AA NiMH batteries... but it only intermittently runs the drive to fill up the buffer (this habit also adds to its shock resistance).

      So how is this little Sony WiFi jobby going to serve files to up to 250 users without going dead in about 10 minutes flat? (not to mention the juice the 802.11 transmit/receive sucks down). Even for non-enterprise "baking UP purposes," at WiFi speeds, will this thing have enough juice to handle backing up 17gigs of data? Did they even mention battery capacity? I didn't see it...

      This will have to be plugged in. I don't know why they are bothering with batteries at all.
  • See here [www.sony.jp].

  • DRM? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Herby Werby ( 645641 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @01:08AM (#5238481)
    While the thought of this little baby makes me drool, Sony's history on DRM is enough to make me sit back and wait for the new and inevitable Apple risponse with .11g. There's been so much talk of new iPods with 40G Tosh drives, Bluetooth, WiFi etc that something mighty fine must be imminent.

  • WARHIKING! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Ungrounded Lightning ( 62228 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @01:09AM (#5238492) Journal
    Pocket-sized, battery-powered Linux box w/20G hard drive, 802.11b port, small screen "console", and a way to attach (at least) an ethernet.

    Add a GPS and you've got a warhiking setup.

    Add intrusion tools plus automation and you've got an industrial espionage device, too. (Bad guy goes to an interview, hangs out in a waiting room, lobby, or parking lot, or hikes by on the sidewalk, while the pocket-sized box sucks down everything of interest on the internal net, or just sniffs packets for a while. 20G leaves plenty of room for netstumbler to crack the WEP.)
  • First, it's absurdly big. Either that's a really small hand in the picture, or it's huge.

    Second, $585?!? Get outta here.

  • I can think of a thousand uses for these things... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ubiquitin ( 28396 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @01:13AM (#5238506) Homepage Journal
    Carry it around as a mobile classroom: serve up notes, audio, video of your presentation when and where you give it. No more "I'll email you my presentation when I get back to the office" stuff.

    You could hide one of these things in an airport or some other public place and use it to broadcast advertisements in the form of SSID and/or a 192.168.*.* intranet web site to anyone stumbling for accesspoints. Imagine a bus or taxicab service giving out dispatcher phone numbers or transportation rates. Suddenly advertising in an airport terminal isn't quite so expensive.

    • Re:I can think of a thousand uses for these things (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You could hide one of these things in an airport or some other public place...

      You want to hide one in an airport???!!! Are you just begging to be on CNN for a week as the new terrorist threat?

  • Computational brick (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @02:05AM (#5238667) Homepage
    It's in a direction that's interesting to me, but not quite what I need. I have an application that needs a "computational brick".
    • IA-32 processor, about 2Ghz or so. 512MB of RAM. Hard drive. Ethernet and FireWire. No display.
    • Very rugged, suitable for mounting in an offroad racing truck.
    • Automotive temperature range.
    • Powered from the vehicle 12V supply.
    • Size and weight not too critical.
    Any suggestions?
    • Why do you need a 2ghz machine on your offroad racing truck? It's way more than you'd need for mp3 playing or any other non-human-interaction use I can think of offhand, and for gaming/graphics/most processor-intensive tasks... Well, keep your eyes on the lack of a road, although since you seem to be surviving for the moment I suspect you know that. I would recommend that you simply get a steel case, pack it with fans (4-5 minimum), put heavy filters on it, and find some way to deal with the power supply. Depending on the case design, further protection is probably necessary, so put it somewhere nothing is going to hit it or fall on it.
    • No Hard Drive is going to stand up to a offroad racing truck. Use a RAM-based rocketdrive, or a series of 1GB Solid State CF drives. Lex [lex.com.tw]sells an Via based Book [lex.com.tw] that fills your needs pretty well, except that it doesn't come anywhere near 2Ghz. But it does run off of 60w, 12v that it could pull directly from the vehicle. It also runs remarkably cool, has hard disk slots (Bad idea) and a CF slot, 1-3 ethernet ports and 2 firewire ports, and upto 512MB Ram. Clamp a 120mm fan (with filter) to the back, and it should have no trouble running through Death Valley.

      The better question is, of course, what are you going to do that you think you need a chip that draws 69W of power? Applying photoshop filters to live streaming video of your races, to be sent out over software firewire 802.11g adapters? Generate 3D maps on the fly from bumper-mounted webcams and compare that to existing topological maps to ascertain position?

      What's the secret, Animats?
    • That's what PC104 is for. Take a look into these purpose built embedded systems. Many manufacturers make them.
  • 17gbytes of space ~= 136000000000 bits.

    11000000 bits/sec (half duplex).

    is about 3.4 hours max. How good is this battery?

  • so I can ask for a copy of their code? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This is great. Now I can ask for a copy of their code and sell it to the Taiwanese.
  • don't need to read the text and you can guess what it's all about:
    http://www.sony.jp/products/Consumer/PGX/
  • ...in an easy-to-use package. Warsharing for the masses!

  • A related Sony gizmo (Score:4, Interesting)

    by phr2 ( 545169 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @03:02AM (#5238833)
    Here's a Sony press release [steves-digicams.com] about a "giga vault" handheld 40Gb hard drive gizmo, with USB2 and Firewire but no 802.11. They do seem to be getting into the portable storage biz.
  • But I'm waiting for some truly inspired 802.11
    applications. For example:

    A wristwatch that downloads your schedule, events,
    meetings, what's for lunch that day, etcetera when
    you walk into your school, uni, campus, job, etc.

    Receivers in your home stereo, shelf system at
    work, car stereo, etc. that automatically grab
    the playlist off a drive and play songs when
    you issue the verbal "play, repeat, random"
    command without it ever leaving your pocket.

    and of course,

    Vib*cough**cough* personal massagers! Imagine
    the possibilities!
  • Honestly, I don't see a lot of uses for this thing...although it would make a great autonomous packet sniffer. Place it near an interesting target location (i.e. WLAN enabled company, coffehouse, etc.) and let it sniff away. With that 20 Gb hard drive, I bet it could store quite a few interesting tid-bits. Drop by a couple of days later and pick it up...wah lah!

  • Dude, Where's My Fileserver? (Score:3, Funny)

    by trix_e ( 202696 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @07:51AM (#5239581)
    hmmmm..... small *and* wireless.

    "Honey have you seen the server?"

    "Did you check in the sofa?"

  • Now we only need a transparent (protocol-wise, not visually, before somebody makes the obvious joke) CompactFlash/Memorystick/Smartmedia/etc. 802.11 card for our digital cameras, and we never have to swap cards again! :)
    Carry one in your backpack, with batteries, even put it in waterproof container, and your photos are safe. I wander how little energy 802.11 card can get away with for 1 meter distance? Hmm....
    J.

  • what to do with this? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by new death barbie ( 240326 ) on Thursday February 06, 2003 @09:07AM (#5239996)
    First off, it does not appear to have any battery at all. That's got to be fixed; a laptop battery should provide some reasonable life, given that there's no LCD display to power, and the WiFi network I want would only need to have a range similar to Bluetooth. It would need to have some sort of low-power 'standby' mode when idle. It would have to be cryptographically secure, at least for transmissions, and optionally for the data on the disk.

    A battery would make it heavier, but since I wouldn't need to take it out of my backpack/briefcase during the day, that's less of an issue.

    Okay, now we have a reasonable Portable Storage Device ("PSD"). Make sure the interface is a well-documented standard, of course. Now any manufacturer can design and sell:

    PSDs with different size disks, as the technology becomes available

    PDAs with differing features/pricepoints, all of which store their data on the PSD -- in a format I can access/update directly from my PC

    MP3 players which can play music from the PSM; and maybe some that can record to it as well

    cellphones (preferably just the headset) that can dial from the PDA database, and save voicemail messages to the PSD

    cameras that can download/upload images to the PSD

    ...profit!

    11Mbps should make most of these feasible, but as with any bandwidth, more is better.

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