A PC Smaller Than a Credit Card?
Published by Budda June 29th, 2006 in Gadgets, Computing, PDA.
Compulab, based in Israel, have managed to squeeze a computer on to a device two-thirds the size of a credit card.
The CM-X270L measures just 4.4 x 6.6 cm. In comparison, a MiniPCI wireless card is 6.0 x 4.4 cm - just half a centimetre thinner.
The CM-X270L somehow manages fits in an Intel XScale chip running Windows CE or Linux, half a gig of flash, 128MB of RAM, AC’97 sound and a Philips 802.11b wireless interface, as well as some things you wouldn’t find on a PDA, such as a PCI bus, 4 USB host ports and wired networking.
Having all the functionality in a chip is very well - but once you start having to add interfaces to the PCB to hook things up, well your PCB has to grow to accommodate them all.
You can pick one up with prices starting from $47 (provided you want 10,000), although you may need something to plug it into.
Source: theinquirer.net
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The device pictured is a Compulab x270L “Computer on Module” In order for it to function as a computer, it needs a specialized ATX MB, or a PC104 based module, both available from Compulab. It’s a little misleading to suggest thet the device pictured functions as a complete computer without the MB element.
Let’s just hope the screen isn’t as small!