I was in my local Costco today and noticed the PCs they where using[at the counter], they where very tiny, had 4 USB ports, on board video/sound & serial port - i seen all this cause they had the PCs on the counter and the back was facing me....
anyways I got the model number and found that HP has 5 different models, 2 have XP SP2 embedded, 1 has Linux Kernal 2.4 , & 2 have Windows CE.net 4.2 - only problem i see is that they dont have a HD, they come with flash memory cards[256,512] - that could be a good thing though, some of them come with a ATI Readon 7000 On board Video
The only thing Im not sure about is the Processer they use - its a Transmeta Crusoe TM5800, anyone ever hear of this?
Here is the link I found HP Thin Client PCs
Just for a comparison on the size, it is alot smaller then my c134 case!!
Here is the Size Specs: 55 x 205 x 195 mm (2.2 x 8.2 x 7.8 in)
Anyone every use one of these?
Transmeta Crusoe is a low-voltage type chip afaik. It is sort of competition with Celeron or Mobile, I'm not exactly sure where they place themselves, I know that there is some sort of software optimization on these chips, I'm not sure hot it operates, I followed some discussion on this when the HP tablet pc came out with the TM chips. Apparently the chip runs some stuff quicker if you do it often, but stuff like launching applications and doing "new things" takes longer. (Some sort of "pre-processing" of the instructions is stored by the chip for future re-use)... I dont know if im being clear but I dont even understand the way it works 100% so I'm doing my best!Anyways, I'm not sure how well it would do for playing videos and such, but I think it is comparable to a 1ghz celeron or P3 900mhz/1ghz....
Those are called Slim Clients, we have them at walmart where i work...they are basically pcs that can only run a remote desktop program, they run programs off a server and display them on the screen. they have an embedded os, so u cant blank it out and install linux or anything...although im sure someone did a hack, so do some googleing! in other words, u shouldnt be able to use them in your car.
Current Progress:
[▓▓▓▓▓▓▓---]80%
Final Assembly
Ramline P3 PC
10.4 inch Touchscreen
Windows XP Embedded
Road Runner
http://www.projektnepa.com
Electrical Engineer / Mobile DJ
Snowman is correct to an extent, but many of these have certain local features such as a Wyse client. They usually have a few local tools loaded on it. You should ask HP if there is any way to upload apps or tools into the embedded xp or ce. Which if you look here http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/w...d/default.aspx It appears you should be able to load some apps on there.
yeah i should have mentioned it, you could possibly run some apps off of it, but if you look at some of the specs they are very limited on resources, making a navigation or mp3 player impossible to run, unless u find a way to add memory or possibly attach a NAS (Network Hard Disk Server) device to it.
Current Progress:
[▓▓▓▓▓▓▓---]80%
Final Assembly
Ramline P3 PC
10.4 inch Touchscreen
Windows XP Embedded
Road Runner
http://www.projektnepa.com
Electrical Engineer / Mobile DJ
They make wireless hard drives too
The T5x00 series thin clients all have 44pin IDE connectors on the motherboard. This means you can add a 2.5in HDD and install your choice of OS.
I'd recommend the higher spec XPe terminals, they have enough RAM for a recent OS.
A real bonus is that they run off 12V DC so you don't need a very sophisticated power supply, they're pretty small and passively cooled.
I'd go with the Linux box... cheapest and easiest to hack
I'm sure you can add more RAM to it, too...
Posting Permissions
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks