In recent years we’ve been seeing an extraordinary proliferation of very small computers that have low costs but really interesting potential. A project that is raising funds via the crowdfunding method on the IndieGoGo website is VoCore, which has the purpose of producing large quantities of a coin-sized computer, less than one square inch (25 mm x 25 mm).
Micro-computers such as VoCore obviously have limitations of memory and computing power so they’re not meant to replace your normal home or work computer. They may have educational purposes but can also find various uses in the workplace of to have fun tinkering with them. Just think of the Raspberry Pi project, created for educational purposes which in the course of time has been adapted to many practical uses.
VoCore takes the concept of miniaturized computer to the extreme and is completely open source. It’s open hardware, so full hardware designs are supplied and it uses OpenWrt as an operating system, which is a Linux distribution developed for embedded devices widely used by people who want to modify the functions of their router. For the operating system, boot loader and various applications all the source code is included because the point of such a product is to provide complete control to the user.
VoCore is equipped with a Ralink/MediaTek RT5350 360 MHz processor, 32 MB SDRAM, 8 MB Flash memory, interface ports for 10/100 Ethernet, USB, UART, I2C, I2S, PCM, JTAG and more than 20 GPIOs. A dock was also developed that has a 10/100 Ethernet port and a USB 2.0 port. Connected to VoCore, it turns it into a small cube.
A computer of this type can be used to make a device wireless, for remote control of a robot equipped with a camera, to create a pocket VPN router but these are just some of the possibilities suggested by the creators. When users start getting their hands on those computers, they immediately start inventing other uses.
As always in these fundraisers, there are various offering possibilities. A VoCore costs $20 plus shipping for the basic version. There are more possibilities with more memory, with the dock and various options for bulk buying. The goal was to raise $6,000, which was reached after just a few days. The availability is planned for October 2014.
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