I know it’s juvenile, but I read the headline as “Tiny pubic PC”.

Posted at 1:43 pm on Aug 29th, 2008 by whitlock

seems crazy for something that is not much smaller than a pico itx and is not nearly as powerful. I know it has a serial port on it but seriously there are not that many things that can not be run via a usb/serial adapter any more, IMHO fail on this product.

Posted at 1:49 pm on Aug 29th, 2008 by h_2_o

Kewl!

Posted at 2:07 pm on Aug 29th, 2008 by DA man

You say £1,500. Do you actually mean GBP or is that meant to be USD? I hope you mean USD, as the weak dollar means that would actually only be £750-ish!

Posted at 2:28 pm on Aug 29th, 2008 by Archibald Twang

@ h_2_o: I haven’t actually checked, but I don’t think you’ll be able to find a picoITX mobo with Spacewire on it. Also, I’m reasonably certain that the concern here was having a complete computer, with specific interfaces available, and fitting into a very small space. Space is very limited on any spacecraft; every millimeter counts. This device measures in at 52mm X 52 mm X 55mm. While the dimensions of the picoITX-based end unit will vary, just the motherboard is 100mm X 72mm (depth varies by board). After adding a picoPSU, hard disk, memory, and a case, you’ll be hard pressed to come in as slim as Shimafuji’s machine. Even if you manage to bring the depth of the finished unit in at the same as this little gadget (55mm), it would be more than 2.5x the volume (a bit over 2.66x, actually).

I’d say Shimafuji did a pretty good job.

Posted at 3:13 pm on Aug 29th, 2008 by Damion Fury

the bear does seem to be attempting to mate with it. hmmm?

Posted at 3:40 pm on Aug 29th, 2008 by charlie

Yeah but its way too expensive. If it was 100 € i’d buy it.

Posted at 3:52 pm on Aug 29th, 2008 by Sharky

The high price is probably due to an expectation (by the manufacturer) that their only buyer will be these space agencies, and only in limited quantities. A small and specialized market like this leaves little room for competition and economies of scale effects on the price. Additionally, it’s meant for government agencies. That almost always increases the price.

Posted at 5:31 pm on Aug 29th, 2008 by Damion Fury

Err, it doesn’t look that different from the meshcube or t-cube
which both exist for at least 5 years … Is there something more than a hardware upgrade here ?

Posted at 7:05 pm on Aug 29th, 2008 by pipomolo42

haven’t more powerful and smaller computers been available commercially for 5 years at less than a tenth this cost?

http://www.gumstix.com/waysmalls.html

not cubes, but I’ll bet by volume they’re smaller than these.

Posted at 10:33 pm on Aug 29th, 2008 by bobdole

It’s cool, but, will it assimilate us?

Posted at 3:51 pm on Aug 30th, 2008 by Tom

I was noting that my Nokia N810 Internet Tablet actually comes pretty close to this thing except perhaps for the VGA out and CF slot.

Posted at 9:48 am on Aug 31st, 2008 by strider_mt2k