See also: Electronics Weekly's Focus on Linux
Marvell has introduced an ARM-based Linux PC in a plug for £63. Called SheevaPlug, the device is a reference design, evaluation kit, and usable home server rolled into one, and is a shrunk version of the US-only SheevaPlug released earlier this year.
Santa Clara-based Marvell design's its own ARM-compatible cores from the ground up, using standard and custom macros.
"The plug processor is a 65nm chip, laid out at the transistor level," company v-p Dr Simon Milner told Electronics Weekly. "Because of the 1W power envelope, it runs at 1.2GHz inside the plug, but in the right package it will run at 2GHz for 1.5W."
Powered from straight from the mains, SheevaPlug is essentially a networking end-point.
It does not communicate through the mains, but talks to the outside world through Ethernet and USB, and is intended to be used with a router-modem, and network-attached storage where necessary.
"There are four or five different Linux distributions we support right now, and the drivers are open-source: from kernal.org," said Milner.
Inside is 0.5Gbyte of system memory and 0.6Gbyte of NAND flash, and an encryption engine.
As an example, the firm has an iPhone application that allows remotely taken photos to be sent to, and retrieved from, the plug - somewhat like a personal or family version of flickr. Encryption prevents unauthorised access.
Other projected uses are as part of a 'smart grid' "We are already working on smart metering connections into utilities," said Milner, "and for home remote control."
You can buy the plug from www.globalscaletechnologies.com.