Cool Things :: Radio Shack Presidian PIC



Radio Shack has this tiny computer for internet communications. It looks as small as the DS Machine, and it runs Linux. It's based on this board:
http://www.amd.com/us-en....00.html

I think this is the little mobo John, Robert, Kent and myself played with at Linuxworld. The AMD rep said they didn't know what to do with it. I guess they found something. DSL flew on it when we put it on. The website doesn't give the OS. I may have to see if our local store has one to test drive.

Chris

Here's the info on the radio shack site:

Presidian PIC

Pretty cool, but kinda pricey.  Of course, when you're running DSL on a PC that's probably only worth $70, I guess you get spoiled price-wise.

Too bad it only supports USB 1.1 instead of 2.0

Otherwise, it looks like a nice device.

If you don't want to look at the site, here are some of the features:
-10GB hard drive
-Runs an embedded version of Windows
-IE
-Some e-mail program
-Word processor and spreadsheet applications
-PowerPoint presentation viewer
-Flash
-Windows Media Player
-jpg, gif, png, bmp image viewer
-zip utility
-Windows Messenger (What happened to AIM and Yahoo clients?)
-Games (most likely the standard Windows games, like the infamous Solitaire.)

Here's the catch of this device from the AMD site:
Quote
To protect system integrity and help ensure trouble-free performance over time, the PIC is designed to limit the installation of additional software.

This site describes it in more detail.

If you can't stand that, there's always the DSMachine.  It's got a faster processor, more RAM, USB 2.0, USB booting, and, of course, DSL.  For those who don't understand how to use a PC, the PIC would work just fine.

Next Page...
original here.