[squeak-dev] Computer on a stick

K. K. Subramaniam subbukk at gmail.com
Sun Aug 2 05:16:52 UTC 2009


Hi,

It has been a long time since we had a thread on Dynabook vision and Squeak 
hardware, so I thought I will revive it again with a new twist.

We normally think of computer as a big machine into which we stick in Etoys2Go 
sticks to work. Why not reverse the design? How about a Etoys console into 
which we stick a computer strip like gumstix?  If an object was conceived as a 
composable computer why not push it all the way down and *out*?

Build a dumb machine with storage and console into which we stick a cartridge 
containing processor(s), memory and network. For a student, the most precious 
records are in storage and the look-n-feel is in the console 
(keyboard,video,mouse or trackpad). Digital data has a much longer life than a 
processor, RAM or network technology. The specific instruction set, memory or 
networking technology is increasingly irrelevant for personal computing needs. 
One does not have to change their whole console just to get to upgrade 
processor, RAM or wifi. We can get off the forced upgrade treadmill.

Are there any consoles that work like this?

Subbu



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