CHIP 9$ portable computer


A clustered computer isn't the same as a single board with multiple cores: you can't just take a bunch of computers and wire them together into a single super computer; they're still all individual computers, they're just running highly specialized software that allows computations to be distributed such that the entire thing acts like a single computer, but that's the key: highly specialized. You can't just run generic things better on a cluster, you need to write your code to take advantage of it.
 
And as your communication between computers is limited by your network interconnect (in the CHIP's case, wifi), it only works well for tasks that can be broken up into standalone chunks for processing. It's probably a very interesting project for somebody, but that somebody isn't me. All I want to do is play old DOS and amiga games on the pocketchip.
 
Chip said:
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?
Click to expand...
== Chip's CHIP sharing story ==
Day 1: My nickname is Chip over at the Pyra/Pandora/GP32/Dingoo/EE boards where I roam. I tried to explain the situation; That I had a FREE CHIP for any person that wanted to play with it, hack it, and share it....
Instead of messaging me, they tell me to write code to make these two CHIPs intercommunicate with each other... now on the one hand... that IS lots of work, however, it seems that Parallel Python already has the libraries for it. As does Parallel Perl, however, it is the obscure Mozart(OZ) that has all this build in. Maybe it just works on a CHIP who knows....

Day2: It's FUN they said. Looking at Erlang all these languages I never knew so many could do it. There are even C libraries *shudder*. Isn't there any hardware hacker on the forum that wants it? It's as powerful as the Pandora. Heh... surely they are all just waiting for the Pyra.
 
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Soon somewhere in the pacific:

a2da6777e46bdea27fd2c2a79ce6b5f1.jpg
 
i got mine, but i don't have an A/V TRRS cable that works for it. i got one off eBay that said it was Zune compatible, but it's clearly not, as the Ground is on Sleeve and not on Ring 2. (currently waiting for the eBay seller to make good on this, or requesting refund for 'product not as advertised'.)
 
It arrived!

So far; PRETTY COOL. nice enclosure design, I like how the GPIO are all out there waiting for me to do something. Hardware is very nice, but not particularly robust. Case creaks and bends slightly. Feels like a gameboy in my hands, and the keyboard though bad is not terribad. Its usable. Not as nice as the Pandoras.

The OS is just debian so I'm pretty happy about that, but the default WM is kinda crappy and limited. Doesn't show installed apps in the app tray. All you get is terminal, pico-8 and some other stuff.

I'm trying to install the 3rd party "Marshmallow" interface someone made (from here) but I get syntax errors when I try to run the installer.

I think this will be a fun thing to mess around with, but there are some serious deficiencies. Mostly the community does NOT seem as helpful or informed as this one, the means by which we are forced to communicate is one of those new crappy forum interfaces that eschews readability and organization and instead tries to look clean and flat.
 
directive0 said:
I think this will be a fun thing to mess around with, but there are some serious deficiencies. Mostly the community does NOT seem as helpful or informed as this one, the means by which we are forced to communicate is one of those new crappy forum interfaces that eschews readability and organization and instead tries to look clean and flat empty and dead.
Click to expand...
ftfy
 
I guess I just really hate these new forum layouts that are somewhere between a comment section and a blog. It makes conversing so difficult, and searching even more trying.

I got the custom interface installed and I'm installing some stuff. It's actually pretty cool. Pretty zippy on the internet too!


I put the PC up to the pandora and compared some elements. Chip has a touch screen just a smidge bigger than the pandora, but not as high a DPI so everything is much more pixelated. The colours are not as crisp on it either. Having debian is a nice change from wrestling with my Pandy; apt-get and away you go.

So far Arduino and Iceweasel are all I've had to test but yeah... this thing is pretty cool! Going to try my hand at some pythong GPIO stuff this weekend I think.
 
They just ghosted on everyone. All the employees bailed, changed their linkedins. They left all their customers out in the cold with un delivered product.

Its a huge huge disappointment, IMO. Just one more reason I love the dialogue and transparency here.
 
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directive0 said:
They just ghosted on everyone. All the employees bailed, changed their linkedins. They left all their customers out in the cold with un delivered product.

Its a huge huge disappointment, IMO. Just one more reason I love the dialogue and transparency here.
Click to expand...

Can't blame employees for leaving if they aren't getting paid. Making an assumption there of course - no ideas of the internals.
 
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