The $50 server platform to come

There are so many things, for better or for worse, people will do with this ...

SheevaPlug: A $99 Linux PC Crammed Inside a Wall Plug

Think about it—an inexpensive Linux PC crammed inside a wall-wart plug. Something like this SheevaPlug ...

Inside the SheevaPlug you will find a 1.2GHz, ARM-based Sheeva embedded processor, 512Mbytes of FLASH, 512Mbytes of DRAM, gigabit ethernet and a USB 2.0 port.... operates on only 5-watts of power..

... Marvell expects the price for these devices to dip below $50. [Marvell and WSJ via Tech Report via Slashgear]

It's of a piece with the netbook tsunami; intensely disruptive in the Christiansen sense. What makes it so disruptive, beyond price, is that it's a standard component based platform - low power consumption (so no fans, cooling, etc), Linux (so software), USB 2 (peripheral) and GB ethernet (I/O).

There's no display of course, but there will be a slightly more expensive version with monitor connector -- or the video will route through a future USB 3.0 peripheral connector.

The next two years will be very ... interesting. I wonder when this kind of device will become contraband.

I remember when I first saw "the web" -- except it was Gopher then. Same idea though, the web was just a prettier version. I knew then the world was turning upside down.

Same feeling the first day I used Google and called my fellow geeks over to let 'em know Alta Vista was dead.

This is blood in the water for geeks. We can smell it ...