World’s First $9 Microcomputer’

Next Thing, the company that launched OTTO (a hackable gif camera) last year, is now back on Kickstarter with its $9 (approximately Rs. 575) microcomputer, called Chip.

The Chip is an Open Hardware microcomputer of the type popularised by the Raspberry Pi, with a single circuit board the size of a credit card and no screen or keyboard; though it can be connected to a monitor and keyboard and put to use. The company touts that the Chip is the “world’s first $9 computer”.

Some of the key specifications of Chip microcomputer include 1GHz Allwinner ‘R8’ A13 processor; Mali-400 GPU; 512MB of RAM (DDR3); 4GB of built-in storage; a USB port; a Micro-USB port with OTG functionality support; a microphone jack that doubles as a composite video-out; Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, and Bluetooth 4.0. The Chip also comes preloaded with various open source software including the LibreOffice, for working on documents; Chromium browser, to surf the web, and Scratch, a coding tool to learn the basics of programming by making stories, games, and animations. It is based on an open-source operating system.

Next Thing’s Chip microcomputer is seen as a direct competitor to Raspberry Pi 2 Model B priced at $35, which was launched in February.

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