- Ben NanoNote
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Ben NanoNote
A Ben NanoNote held on the palm of a handManufacturer Qi hardware, Sharism At Work Ltd Operating system Custom edition of OpenWrt CPU 336 MHz XBurst JZ4720 Storage capacity 1 SDHC slot, 2048 MB internal NAND flash Connectivity USB 2.0 , and IEEE 802.15.4 WPAN (as accessory) Website en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben NanoNote The Ben NanoNote is a small cheap pocket computer that runs Linux.[1][2][3][4] OpenWrt is the software platform and the Ben Nanonote is the physical development platform for the Qi Hardware project.[5]
From the Ben Nanonote website:[6]
- The Chinese character 本 (běn) signifies an origin or the beginning place; It signifies exactly what the first version of the NanoNote is: a beginning.
Contents
History
Originally the hardware was developed by a third party as a digital dictionary. After the effort of several Qi Hardware developers, the design was freed as open source hardware while using free and open source software.
This product is currently manufactured by Qi hardware and Sharism At Work Ltd. More than 1,000 units have been sold so far.[7]
Software
The device is shipped with the OpenWrt software stack; the custom compilation includes a graphical menu called gmenu2x, with other graphical and command line applications available from the menu.[8]
OpenEmbedded is also available through the Jlime distribution.[9] The Pyneo software stack, a Debian-like distribution aimed for mobiles has been ported.[10] The MIPS port of Debian GNU/Linux can be run on the NanoNote.[11] Additionally there is NanoNixOS, a cross-compiled distribution based on the Nix package manager.[12]
Technical specifications
- XBurst JZ4720 336 MHz MIPS processor from Ingenic Semiconductor
- 3.0" 320x240 pixels colour TFT LCD
- 32MB SDRAM
- 2GB NAND flash memory
- 1 SDHC slot (SDIO/DMA capable)
- 59-key keyboard
- Stereo headphones connector, mono speaker and microphone
- USB Client 2.0 High-Speed Device, Mini B connector
- 3.7V 850mAh Li-ion battery
- Overall dimension (lid closed): 99 * 75 * 17.5mm. (display: 7.5mm, keyboard: 10mm)
- Weight: 126 g (4.4 oz) (including battery)
Product development
Due the lack of wireless connectivity one of the first goals for the Qi Hardware movement was to implement wireless on the device. This add-on, the Ben WPAN was developed by Werner Almesberger,[13][14][15][16][17] and mainly consists of a IEEE 802.15.4 subsystem, made up of two boards: a USB dongle (ATUSB) connected to the computer and another card connected to the SDIO port of the device (ATBEN).
All source code, documentation and test procedures, software and hardware schematics are available under copyleft licenses.[18][19][20]
UBB, or Universal Breakout Board,[21] is a PCB shaped like a microSD card, focused on DIY projects and general purpose interfacing using the available MMC/SDIO port.
So far two hacks had been published: one of them, the integration with a 443 MHz RF transceiver[22] for power sockets control purposes and later a mix of bit-banging and SDIO/DMA features turning the SD card slot into a VGA port.[23][24]
As the Ben NanoNote uses an Ingenic JZ4720 processor it supports booting from USB without use of the NAND flash memory.[25][26]
Derivatives
The SIE board is an adaptation of the NanoNote. It has twice the memory and features a XC3S Xilinx FPGA on board. It is based on the XBurst JZ4725 SoC, which has more I/O pins available due to not having a keyboard.[27]
See also
- List of open source hardware projects
- Milkymist
References
- ^ Gareth Halfacree (2010-03-16). "Qi Hardware launches NanoNote". bit-tech.com. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2010/03/16/qi-hardware-launches-nanonote/1. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
- ^ Donald Melanson (2010-03-15). "Qi Hardware's tiny, hackable Ben NanoNote now shipping". bit-tech.com. http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/15/qi-hardwares-tiny-hackable-ben-nanonote-now-shipping/. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
- ^ David Murphy (2010-06-05). "Qi Hardware Launches Open-Source Computer". pcmag.com. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2364710,00.asp. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
- ^ rg (2010-03-17). "Qi Hardware Ben NanoNote". linux.com. http://www.linux-netbook.com/qi-hardware-ben-nanonote. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
- ^ Pam Derringer (2009-07-01). "Openomoko Layoffs Lead to New Open Hardware Venture". linux.com. http://www.linux.com/news/embedded-mobile/mids/29263-openmoko-layoffs-lead-to-new-open-hardware-venture. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
- ^ "Ben Nanonote". qi-hardware.com. 2011-07-18. http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_NanoNote. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
- ^ "Ben Nanonote". qi-hardware.com. 2011-07-18. http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_NanoNote. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
- ^ "Applications". Qi Hardware Wiki. http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Applications. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ "Jlime Muffinman". Jlime.com. 2010-11-01. http://jlime.com/wiki/documentation/user/nanonote/muffinman/. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ "how to debian". Pyneo.org. 2009-09-12. http://pyneo.org/howto/debian/nano.html. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ "Debian". Qi Hardware Wiki. 2010-12-29. http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Debian. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ "nanonixos: Documentation". Vicerveza.homeunix.net. 2011-03-01. http://vicerveza.homeunix.net/~viric/cgi-bin/nanonixos/. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ Terrence O'Brien (2011-06-17). "Qi-Hardware debuts free, open source wireless solution, not a threat to WiFi". engadget.com. http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/17/qi-hardware-debuts-free-open-source-wireless-solution-not-a-th/. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
- ^ "Qi Hardware Releases Free Wireless Hardware". rejon.org. 2011-06-15. http://rejon.org/2011/06/qi-hardware-releases-free-wireless-hardware/. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
- ^ Jake (2011-06-16). "Phillips: Qi Hardware Releases Free Wireless Hardware". lwn.net. http://lwn.net/Articles/448048/. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
- ^ Electronista Staff (2011-06-17). "Qi Hardware makes open-source wireless networking tech". electronista.com. http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/06/17/wireless.dongle.is.royalty.free/. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
- ^ Fabricatorz Staff (2011-06-17). "Qi Hardware Releases First Batch of 6LoWPAN Wireless Devices". fabricatorz.com. http://fabricatorz.com/2011/06/qi-hardware-releases-first-batch-of-6lowpan-wireless-devices/. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
- ^ "IEEE 802.15.4 subsystem — IEEE 802.15.4 Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN)". Projects.qi-hardware.com. http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/ben-wpan/. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ "Ben WPAN". Qi Hardware Wiki. http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_WPAN. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ "Qi Hardware Releases First Batch of 6LoWPAN Wireless Devices". Fabricatorz. http://fabricatorz.com/2011/06/qi-hardware-releases-first-batch-of-6lowpan-wireless-devices/. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ "Ubb". Qi Hardware Wiki. 2011-05-11. http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/UBB. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ "RF control from just about any device". Hack a Day. 2011-02-20. http://hackaday.com/2011/02/20/rf-control-from-just-about-any-device/. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ "Bit banging VGA from an SD card slot". Hack a Day. http://hackaday.com/2011/05/10/bit-banging-vga-from-an-sd-card-slot/. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ "Micro-SD Card Slot Abused As VGA-Port". Hardware.slashdot.org. http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/05/07/1215246/Micro-SD-Card-Slot-Abused-As-VGA-Port. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ "Updating Ben NanoNote software". Qi Hardware Wiki. 2011-04-21. http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Updating_Ben_NanoNote_software. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ "Xburst-tools". Qi Hardware Wiki. 2011-04-25. http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Xburst-tools. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
- ^ "SIE". Wiki-linuxencaja. 2011-06-08. http://wiki.linuxencaja.net/wiki/SIE. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
External links
Categories:- Consumer electronics brands
- Open computers
- Linux-based devices
- Personal digital assistants
- Embedded Linux
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