Personal Media Corp. is selling a tiny, rugged PC that supports Linux but is meant to demonstrate the T-Engine platform for embedded systems. The $1,909.11 (207,900 Yen) “Teacube” measures 2 by 2 by 1.8 inches (52 x 52 x 48mm) and weighs 5.8 ounces (165 grams).

(Click for larger view of Teacube)

The tiny Teacube next to a shiny teacup coaster
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T-Engine is an open, standardized development environment for embedded applications overseen by the T-Engine Forum, established in 2002. It defines the configuration of a target system processor board, including external dimensions and how the board combines with various types of expansion boards.

The T-Engine forum announced a collaboration with MontaVista in March of 2003 aimed at enabling the T-Engine platform to support Linux, while retaining a degree of compatibility with TRON (The Real-time Operating system Nucleus), an embedded operating system popular in Japan.

TRON is a simple embedded OS used in countless consumer electronic devices. Unlike embedded Linux, TRON suffers from dire fragmentation problems, because there's no onus for its users to contribute the extensions and customizations back to the community.

The Teacube appears to have an LVDS LCD connector
(Click to enlarge)

The Teacube, or “tangerine computer,” is based on an NEC Electronics VR5701 processor, with a MIPS core clocked at 266 or 333MHz. It includes 16MB of Flash memory, and 64MB of SDRAM. Interfaces include 2 x USB host, 2 x RS-232C serial, CompactFlash (IDE), 10/100 Ethernet, external video connector supporting up to 1280×1024 resolution with 65K colors, an eTRON port, and headphone and microphone ports. The device also includes a hardware real-time clock.

The Teacube is a PC/AT compatible device, and has been verified with Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.3, 8.0, and 9.0, according to Personal Media. However, it comes pre-installed with a BTRON3-specification operating system and an assortment of BTRON applications.

Out of the box, the Teacube runs Personal Media's T-Kernel version of BTRON, along with a collection of middleware that provides a command line interface, graphical display, Kana Chinese character conversion and display software, TCP/IP, a web browser, word processing software, a graphics editor, the Micro script visual language, and various configuration utilities. An optional software bundle adds spreadsheet, database, and character search tools. Additional Chinese-language software is also optionally available with the Teacube.

Personal Media also sells T-Engine development kits for platforms in a number of form-factors, and based on a number of SuperH and ARM processors. It built the Teacube as a demonstration platform, and will also market the device direct for kiosk applications in organizations such museums, libraries, train stations, and retail outlets.

 
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