Rob Thompson

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Cheap Computing: The "DecTop"

Do you remember AMD's effort to populate the world with cheap PCs? Well, AMD ultimately stopped manufacturing their "PIC" (a.k.a the Personal Internet Communicator) machine themselves, but handed the right to sell that device to Data Evolution Corporation in late 2006 who is now selling it as the "DecTop".

Data Evolution's DecTop (Can be had is small quantity for $88 shipped)

The machine itself was designed to be an effort in the production of cheap computers. It is still very cheap at qty 1 ($99) and can be purchased directly from Data Evolution Corp online. In fact, they now are offering a "4 for 3" deal, which brings the individual cost down to around $88 shipped if you can split the cost between friends. The shipping costs are outlandish, but it still ends up a good deal.

It features a 366MHz AMD geode processor and a full size 3.5" hard drive. The ram is a single 128MB 200pin SO-DIMM which can be upgraded to 512MB. I had a need for 2 such minimalist machines. One for a simple SSH gateway and the other for an MP3 player. So I figured I'd give these things a try. The site doesn't give very much information about them, but there are some good resources out there regarding this thing. One of the unfortunate things about them is that they don't have USB 2.0 ports, which would have made them a great choice for a NAS device. Strangely, it comes with a USB ethernet adapter. You'd think that something originally called an "Internet Communicator" would at least have that built-in. It does however have a built-in modem =).

One of the ways they keep the cost down is to use commodity parts such as the upgradable 10GB 3.5" IDE (old style) hard drive. These drives are probably bought for almost nothing and likely avoid the higher cost of SSDs, 200GB+ SATA HDs, 2.5" laptop drives and other flash-based disk that tend to make their way into "cheap" computers nowadays. I think there is a fairly huge market for cheap, small embedded-style PCs (emphasizing cheap first). Unfortunately, the embedded PC/Linux market hasn't really tapped this yet, as when everything is said and done, you usually will end up paying much more for small embedded machines than you would a full-sized desktop. The DecTop is a clear exception to this rule.

Some companies have seen good success selling more expensive "tinker" devices like Bug Labs, who sells a modular embedded system called the "Bug" for hobbyist geeks/dorks like myself. Still, the Bug is not nearly as cheap as the DecTop and sells for ~$350, just for the base system. It's got the right spirit, just not the price to make it a cheap machine.

Bug Labs "Bug" (retails for $350+)

A better option than the Bug for a cheap machine is the Norhtec MicroClient JrSx. This machine is a slimmed down version of its brother the MicroClient Jr. It has a slightly more substantial list of features than the DecTop and comes with a CF slot and USB 2.0. However, it does not come with a hard drive . You are expected to either install a 2.5" IDE disk or a CF card for your OS. It does optionally come with a mini-PCI slot so that you can add on nice things like wi-fi or other controllers. The CPU is an all-in-one 486SX running at 300MHz, a bit slower than the DecTop and with slower bus speed. Nohrtec advertises 128MB of on-board ram which does not appear to be expandable. Like the DecTop, shipping is completely unreasonable @ ~$53, however the base price for the machine is only $85 ($93 with mini-PCI or HD connector), bringing the cost of this base machine to ~$138-$146 shipped, a bit more than the DecTop, but still easily in the league of cheap machines.

Nohrtec MicroClient JrSX (retails for $138 shipped)

With all these efforts at cheap machines, it seems like fast, pluggable I/O and expandable RAM seem to be lacking. All this makes me wonder if there is a perfect cheap PC? It seems as though this could be accomplished by:

•  1 PC-on-a-chip
•  1 1Gb Ethernet Port
•  1 SO-DIMM slot
•  2 USB 2.0 ports
•  1 CF Slot
•  1 VGA port

This is fairly close to the Nohrtec box except for the SO-DIMM slot. In fact, a base system with no ram should be cheaper. I'd bet this could be marketed and sold at a profit for around $100 or less given what I've seen so far. Sure, there would plenty of people who would whine about absence of HDMI, FireWire, 802.11, etc., but what do they want for $100? I think it would score big, at least with people like me =)

08/24/2008 10:55am

jason on 08/27/2008 03:16am

The board that Rob wants, but probably not at the price that Rob wants:

http://www.advantech.com.tw/products/AMD-Geode-LX800-CPU-ETX-Module-with-CPU-VGA-LVDS-Audio-LAN/mod_1-2JKIEV.aspx

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