coolpickoftheday

“Everything is different, but the same... things are more moderner than before... bigger, and yet smaller... it's computers... San Dimas High School football rules!” – Ox ~ Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Everyone who has every seen Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure can probably remember Ox’s “presentation” which he says the above profound statements... and then whips the crowd into frenzy like only a football player can in a high school environment by yelling out a plug for the football team. I’m sure he got an “F” but as stupid as Ox may “seem” to be… he is correct.

“Everything is different, but the same...” People still watch TV broadcasts but they “Don’t watch TV they watch TiVO™”. People don’t listen to talk radio they listen to PodCasts or Streaming Audio. People don’t listen to recordings, they listen to MP3s. People don’t “cut a recording” they rip an mp3 or burn a CD. The same… but different.

“things are more moderner than before...” well said Ox! Mankind has advanced more in the last 50 years than all of humankind’s existence before 1955.

“bigger, and yet smaller... it's computers...” Again 100% true. All of modern architecture can be contributed to computers (and cement, steel, and the gas powered engine) Society is bigger, information exchange is greater, economies and communication is BASED on computer technology. Computers are getting faster and smaller all the time.

Which brings me to The Cool Pick of the Day- smaller computers. There are 3 that are amazingly small. In fact they are about the size of a 100Base T connector.

1) Lantronix offers XPort and XPort AR (Contact Lantronix for pricing)

2) Digi International offers DigiConnect ME and Wi-ME (Integration Kit $249; Dev Kit $1495)

3) Picotux offers Picotux 100 and Picotux 112 (Contact Picotux for pricing)

Each one is an amazing feat of engineering and each one has its unique offerings. All offer Ethernet 10Base-T or 100Base-TX (Auto-Sensing) in an RJ45 form factor. Each vendor has a development board that could be used expand the functionality of the core module as well. Both the DigiConnect and Picotux run uClinux and the Lantronix runs Evolution OS.

Building intelligent devices

This small form factor packaging offers a complete networked solution to embed networked intelligence into any electronic device. Just think of the limitless options (and problems?) if all electronic devices could interconnect with a common protocol. Each company has created a package that allows product vendors to integrate Ethernet connectivity into their existing products with reduced design risk and reduced time to market.

Products can be remotely controlled or queried for status or information. Lights, appliances, your car, your entertainment system, etc can all be controlled from a single location. You would not need a Home Entertainment Computer that does everything; you could have a Coordinating Computer take care of all the devices within your Smart Home. Entertainment, Heath Monitoring, Lights, HVAC, Security, Telephone routing, are just a few of the possible applications. Onboard computer diagnostics can easily be displayed on a laptop, in car LCD screen, or wirelessly sent to your Home’s Coordinating Computer. Your GPS route information, speed, fuel economy statistics, maintenance information and performance statistics all available for your perusal.

There are hundreds of applications for manufacturing and warehouses that involve: asset or inventory tracking and assessment; remote diagnostics; environmental monitoring; power management; and automation coordination and control.

The Technology

Lantronix http://www.lantronix.com

The Lantronix XPort and XPort AP version offers strong encryption (see below). This is amazing for such a tiny computer.

Lantronix XPort

http://www.lantronix.com/images/IMG_xport.jpg

Dimensions: 33.9 x 16.25 x 13.5mm (1.33 x 0.64 x 0.53 in) Weight 9.6 g (0.34 oz)

The XPort version has:

1) a serial port which supports speeds of 300 bps to 921,600 bps

2) DSTni-EX enhanced 16-bit, 48MHz or 88MHz, x86 architecture processor

3) built-in web server

4) 3 PIO pins

5) 256KB SRAM and 512KB flash

6) Upgradeable firmware via TFTP and serially

Lantronix XPort AP

http://www.lantronix.com/images/IMG_xport-ar.jpg

Dimensions: 45.7 x 16.51 x 17.8 mm (1.80 x .65 x .70 in) Weight 20 g (0.7 oz)

The XPort AP version has:

1) DSTni-EX enhanced 16-bit, 120MHz x86 architecture processor

2) Up to three serial ports 230 Kbps serial data rate

3) 13 configurable GPIO pins

4) Flash file system with 4 MB of available memory

5) 1.25 MB of SRAM

6) Upgradeable firmware via FTP,TFTP, Serial Ports, Internal Web Server

7) true IEEE 802.3af compliant pass-through Power over Ethernet (PoE)

8) Strong encryption

a. SSH Client & Server, SSL, 128/256/512/1024-bit AES (Rijndael), 3DES and RC4 Encryption, Public/Private-keys, and password protection

b. SHA-1, MD5 Hashing Algorithms

c. Base-64 & Digest Authentication

d. User Access Lists

e. Hardened OS and Protocol Stacks

Digi International http://www.digi.com

Digi Connect ME

http://www.digi.com/images/dimensions/dimen_digiconnectme.jpg

Dimensions: Length: 1.445 in (36.7 mm) Width: 0.75 in (19.05 mm) Height: 0.735 in (18.67 mm)

The Digi ME series offers a:

1) 55Mhz NS7520 NET+ARM 32 bit RISC processor

2) 2 MB Flash and 8 MB RAM on-board memory

3) Five shared General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) ports

4) High-speed TTL serial interface

5) Throughput up to 230 Kbps

6) Full signal support for TXD, RXD, RTS, CTS, DTR, DSR and DCD

7) Hardware/software flow control

8) 802.3af mid-span power pass-through

Digi Connect Wi-ME

http://www.digi.com/images/dimensions/dimen_digiconnectwime.jpg

Dimensions: Length: 1.945 in (49.4 mm) Width: 0.75 in (19.05 mm) Height: 0.735 in (18.67 mm)

The Digi Wi-ME series offers a:

1) 55Mhz NS7520 NET+ARM 32 bit RISC processor

2) 4 MB Flash and 8 MB RAM on-board memory

3) Five shared General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) ports

4) High-speed TTL serial interface

5) Throughput up to 230 Kbps

6) Full signal support for TXD, RXD, RTS, CTS, DTR, DSR and DCD

7) Hardware/software flow control

8) IEEE 802.11b wireless Ethernet

Picotux http://www.picotux.com/

The Picotux 100/112

http://www.picotux.com/pt100a.jpg

http://www.picotux.com/pt112a.jpg

Dimensions: Height: 19 mm Width: 19 mm Deep: 36 mm Weight: 18 g

The Picotux 100 series offers a:

1) 55Mhz 32-bit ARM 7 Netsilicon NS7520 processor

2) 2 MB Flash and 8 MB RAM on-board memory

3) Five shared General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) ports

4) High-speed TTL serial interface (Throughput up to 230 Kbps)

5) IEEE 802.11 (PoE with adapter cable)

The Picotux 112 is the same as the Picotux 100 but is mounted on a 53mm x 48 mm PCB that has connectors for easier access.

Conclusion

These embedded systems are truly amazing! But they are not the only small computers that are around... cell phones and PDA are unbelievable computer engineering marvels as well. Just use your imagination to come up with uses for small computers with connectivity... the ideas are limitless!

Ox, Mr. Ryan may have given you an "F" on your report but I give you an C- because your statements were truly profound but your conclusion SUCKED!