Cheap as Chip
A US outfit called Next Thing is offering a $9 development board for its Chip project which is currently seeking crowd funding..
According to Makesine the board is Open Hardware, runs Debain Linux, and has a 1Ghz R8 ARM processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of eMMC storage.
Chip is more powerful than a Raspberry Pi B+ and equal to the BeagleBone Black in clock speed, RAM, and storage. It is different from the Beagle because it has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth.
It also does not need plugging in because of circuitry that handles its battery operation.
The project is an alliance between Next Thing and a Shenzhen-based accelerator HAXLR8R which is how the gear arrives so cheaply.
Chip is nearly fully baked.
There is a working prototype which uses an older A13. The new R8 based boards are due in the States later this week and the team has a positive crowd funding history.
