This is exciting news!

The VIA EPIA has composite and S-Video TV-Out. I'm curious if special
software is required to drive this port. Have you tried it with a
television?

Very intrigued by the possibilities,

Chris Becker

 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org [mailto:squeak-dev-
> bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On Behalf Of Dan Ingalls
> Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 6:23 PM
> To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list
> Subject: [ANN] Object Oriented Christmas (Squeak PC)
> 
> We three three elves (Michael, Ian and I) have been busy.  We finally made
> it through the challenges of booting Linux from Compact Flash, and I've
> negotiated with my supplier (for weather stations) for a "Squeak PC"
> configuration at a special price.  Since it's a cool thing, and seasonally
> appropriate, I thought I'd send out an announcement.
> 
> After unwrapping you get...
> 
> A black box that is just the right size for an LCD display stand
> (1.75"x9"x11.5").  Also a 12v power supply that plugs into the wall.
> Inside is a 533MHz VIA Mini-ITX motherboard with 64M of memory installed.
> There are no fans in the box, and it still stays cool.  On the front is a
> slot that accepts a compact flash card, which appears to the processor as
> an IDE disk drive.  The Squeak PC is shipped with a 96M flash installed
> which includes 1) A compact Linux 2.4 boot system, 2) A full Squeak 3.6
> (plus OSProcess and Games) with Linux VM, and 3) about 60MB of free space
> (!).  ON the back is a host of connectors that include stereo audio in and
> out, network, 2 USB, RS232, mouse, keyboard, display, video and printer
> port.  There's much more about the motherboards at
> 	http://www.solarpc.com/bepia.htm
> 
> The unit is complete and ready to boot.  All you add is keyboard, mouse
> and display.  With no fans and no disk, the only moving parts are the boot
> button and hte electrons.  It is silent.  The 12v setup is nice, since you
> can buy a UPS for the price of a battery, or power it straight from your
> car.
> 
> The price is $250.
> 
> The supplier is SolarPC.com.  They make a specialty of Mini-ITX products.
> Check out their web site at
> 	http://www.SolarPC.com
> or jump straight to the order page at
> 	http://205.147.44.194/store/commerce.cgi?product=SolarPC
> (The Squeak configuration is at the bottom of the page.  If you get the
> message "The identity certificate is invalid", just say OK and proceed).
> 
> The Flash is set up for Squeak but, of course it could be anything else
> that is happy with this Linux.  Other squeak images should run fine (you
> can import them via FTP, or a USB memory stick), and other compact Linux-
> compatible systems should run fine as well.  Of course you can put in more
> memory, and use bigger Flash or even a hard drive, but we wanted to make
> the SPC simple and cheap.  If people get into this, we can start a wiki
> page with useful info and fun hacks.
> 
> Ho, Ho, Ho...