CHIP 9$ portable computer


If I didn't have children, I'd probably get this. But as I do, a 3DS is a better choice.
 
My daughter stands to inherit way too much vintage computer stuff, I have a lot of work ahead of me to ensure she cares about it even a little.

I really hope the chip arrives in june as promised, but I'm skeptical. It would be nice to have a toy to distract me while I wait for the Pyra.
 
I got a shipping notification and a tracking number which indicates it's just now leaving China. I should have my pocketchip in a week or so.
 
Yep. I hopped on the train early too, so I expect mine is among the first batch to go out.
 
Yes.

I have already received a total of 5 CHIPs - 1 alpha "kernel hacker" board back in September and 4 regular retail boards a few months ago. Everybody who kickstarted a CHIP board should already have received theirs. It's only the accessories (like the pocketchip) that are finally shipping now.
 
so as you have had the kernel hacker board, I'd assume you know first hand if there is any problems due to the allwinner cpu? Is there any problems with the kernel because of binary blobs? has this situation changed at all?

I was going to buy a pocketchip and some chips for my cousins, for us to hack together on them. but since i read what ED had to say about the gpl violations and asenine behaviour of allwinner, I am in doubt. not sure I am morally offended enough, but the prospect of unsupported kernels and not being able to get more recent ones sure as hell makes me doubt if I want one.
 
I was going to buy a pocketchip and some chips for my cousins, for us to hack together on them. but since i read what ED had to say about the gpl violations and asenine behaviour of allwinner, I am in doubt. not sure I am morally offended enough, but the prospect of unsupported kernels and not being able to get more recent ones sure as hell makes me doubt if I want one.
While the company itself may have done questionable things, there seems to be pretty decent community support. Look for info related to your concerns and what you plan to do with it first, but I think a Chip (pardon my laziness with caps) might be fine for you and your family. If you have interest in it don't let what others have said about a component manufacturer put you off the product if there is no sign of any problems with things other than what you don't care about. Maybe that made sense.
 
hey there. thanks for the info @rygD. I think you maybe right but I wanted to know for sure what problems arise in terms of practical use from someone who actually owns one. @Chip could you give me some feedback regarding kernel support and general openness of the chip? are they really stuck with a certain kernel version due to binary blobs?

I have had a look at their forums, and it seems the biggest problem for running different distros/os is the NAND driver. they are working on that apparently and are paying a couple of devs to develop a more compatible uboot, too. it does not however say what exactly these devs are doing. might just be some sort of reverse engineered solution.
 
Honestly, I haven't really played with them much. I got the "kernel hacker" package because that got me a bunch of chips and the pocketchip, not because I'm even remotely qualified to fiddle with the kernel myself. I wanted a bunch of chips in order to set up a cheap sonos-like system in my house running squeezebox on the chips and LMS as the backend. However, google's chromecast audio has come out in the meantime, and is a more elegant (and equally cheap) solution. So the chips have sat in a drawer while I wait for the pocketchip to show up.
 
Just got an interesting email from Next Thing Co. It seems they "accidentally" sent a bunch of the kernel hackers two pocketchips instead of one "by mistake". Apparently I'm one of them. Furthermore:

Instead of asking for the extra PocketC.H.I.P. back, we'd like you to keep it, or better yet, find someone in your life to share the PocketC.H.I.P. experience. After all, PocketC.H.I.P. is designed to be a community project. We only ask that if you share, you share your sharing story with us.

Which is a pretty clever promotion, though I wish they'd just come out and say that's what it is instead of pretending it's all just a big happy accident.

So since it looks like I'll have a spare pocketchip, and they seem to want me to give it away, any of the pandora/pyra/GP* devs want to hack around on this thing?
 
lol, don't be so negative :D maybe one day even ED will be able to do such mistake :p

EDIT: Why don't you try to link them to work as a single board ?
If that work, a single super server made by 100 of them could be possible, and if one of them stop working, you can just substitute it for a low cost...

I heard about this kind of things when some american military force used like 200 PS3 with Linux to make a super computer.
 
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