C.H.I.P. - the world's first computer costing only 9 dollars

While Russian developers are selling their Elbrus-401 computers to legal entities at a price of 200,000 rubles, engineers from the California company Next Thing Co. Developed a tiny computer for only $ 9 (at the current rate - just over 450 rubles). This CHIP crib is called and contains on its board everything necessary to ensure that a person can work with the applications he needs, wherever he is.

Microcontrollers like Arduino and Raspberry Pi have become very popular among computer enthusiasts, who create new devices on their basis. But the price tag of these microcomputers often exceeds 35-40 dollars. Against this background, CHIP is practically given to us for nothing. But what does this little baby in general represent?

CHIP consists of a CPU running at a clock frequency of 1 GHz, 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of memory for the operating system, applications and user data. The microcontroller also includes a wireless module 802.11 b / g / n, Bluetooth 4.0, USB and microUSB ports, and a port for outputting images and sound. In this case, the size of the printed circuit board is only 4 by 6 centimeters.

Separately, you can buy an external adapter to output images via VGA ($ 10) or HDMI ($ 15). Also you can buy a PocketC.HIP gadget ($ 40), which allows you to turn CHIP into a full-fledged pocket computer with a small display and a physical keyboard. This body already contains a built-in battery, the capacity of which is enough for 5 hours of continuous operation.

CHIP will run under the open source operating system. By default, the microcontroller will already contain many useful applications in its memory (Chromium browser, LibreOffice office suite, GIMP graphic editor, etc.) and even video games. Also, the bundle will supply software for the development of new applications, if the user wants.

Developers of the computer at the time of writing this material have already collected at Kickstarter 130,000 dollars out of 50,000 they need to start mass production. It seems that the idea of ​​a cheap microcomputer appealed to almost 3,000 users of Kickstarter. The first computers will be sent to customers only in May 2016, and before that, developers have to finalize the existing working prototype, as well as complete the complete software.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/computers/c-h-i-p-pervyj-v-mire-kompyuter-stoimostyu-vsego-9-dollarov.html.