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The Cabin >> Raspberry and Other Pies >> From The Ashes of the $9 C.H.I.P...
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1623855099

Message started by Fernando on Jun 16^th, 2021, 10:51am

Title: From The Ashes of the $9 C.H.I.P...
Post by Fernando on Jun 16^th, 2021, 10:51am

The C.H.I.P was a $9 SBC (Small Board Computer) created and sold by The Next Best Thing company created by a group of American Geeks and Nerds in trying to beat the Raspberry Pi in the USA. After the time of the $5 Raspberry Pi was released, The C.H.I.P. started its Kick Starter program. It asked for $56K and managed to raise $2.1M, with hundreds of pre-orders for around $25 ($9 for The C.H.I.P computer and $10 Donation and $5 Shipping and Handling) This was in May 2015. I even donated to get a C.H.I.P Computer board and some basic cables. It was promised to arrive by around August but it never arrived and I forgot about it. It did arrive around January 2016. For $9, it was a descent computer. Its implementation of its Linux Distribution was in my opinion - awful.

http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/R-Pis/TheCHIP.png

So what did The C.H.I.P. had?
CPU: 1 GHz R8 (ARMv7)
GPU: Mali-400
Memory 512 MB DDR3 SDRAM
Storage 4 GB FlashRAM
Power 5 V DC >500 mA
Built-in Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
1 USB host with type-A receptacle
Composite video and stereo audio port
Up to 45 GPIO ports with 1-Wire and I2C protocols and PWM output
Serial console and Ethernet via USB for quick headless operation

http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/R-Pis/PocketCHIP.jpg
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/R-Pis/CHIP-Pro.png
The CHIP is 60 mm × 40 mm in size with two rows of GPIO female pins similar to the Beagle Bone Black. there were many options they had for The C.H.I.P. like various hats (add on boards) to give it VGA or HDMI video, Ethernet and additional USB Ports. They also had the PocketC.H.I.P. board which was a handheld device with a touch screen and built-in keyboard; often sold with The C.H.I.P installed. Another product they had was The C.H.I.P.Pro, a smaller version of The C.H.I.P. they wanted to sell for $5 but ended up selling it for $20+. It did not sell well.

But to mismanagement and delivery issues, and failure to deliver on other "future" products, The Next Best Thing company went out of business by March 2018. During this time I managed to obtain two The C.H.I.P. boards, an HDMI Hat, a VGA Hat and some cables for them and its built-in Composite Video. My friend Adam (R.I.P) gave me a PocketC.H.I.P and another The C.H.I.P board. I find the PocketC.H.I.P. board to be very interesting, as it could have went into its own direction of a PalmTop Computer at the time. Again mismanagement of the company destroyed that possibility.

A Few Months Later...

The C.H.I.P. is dead, with many customers burned with never getting the unit(s) they ordered. Companies in China that made The C.H.I.P. board and chips stopped making them. It is buried and hope to be forgotten. But several companies tried to bring The C.H.I.P back or at least make their own version and take off where The C.H.I.P. left off. The problem was trying to make a SBC as cheap as The C.H.I.P.'s $9 price. That is not possible.

http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/R-Pis/PopcornPC.jpg
Popcorn Computers had bought out the remaining The C.H.I.P. stock, and created their own SBCs from what The C.H.I.P. had left behind. Since The C.H.I.P. was Open Source, anyone could take their design, copy it and improve on it as they like. That is what Popcorn Computers did. they produced the Popcorn Computer, based on the design of The C.H.I.P. computer with a few minor changes to the ports but other otherwise hardware compatible to The C.H.I.P. Their improvements include under the name of "Popcorn":

Pin-to-Pin GPIO Compatible to C.H.I.P Computer
1 GHz Allwinner R8 CPU w/ 512MB RAM (same as The C.H.I.P.)
Reliable 32GB eMMC Onboard Flash Memory Storage (8X more than The C.H.I.P.)
Two USB-C Connectors (instead of the 1 USB Port The C.H.I.P. had)
Analog Audio Over USB-C for USB Headsets
Physical Button to Enable the Bootloader for Flashing (Paper Clip Not Required!)
Built-in USB Serial Converter for Quick Debugging
802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz WiFi with Bluetooth 4.0 (slightly improved over The C.H.I.P.)

It sells for $49 for an 8GB Flash memory and $54 for the 32GB Flash Memory.

http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/R-Pis/Kettlepop.jpg
Their second unit was compatible with The C.H.I.P.Pro with improvements was called "KettlePop". Improvements include:

Breadboard Friendly
Pin-to-Pin Compatible to C.H.I.P Pro
1 GHz GR8 CPU w/ 256MB RAM (Just like The C.H.I.P.Pro)
eMMC Onboard FlashRAM Memory Storage (Does not say how much but guessing at 4GB like The C.H.I.P.Pro or more)
802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz WiFi with Bluetooth 4.0

It sells for $39.

Additional products include:

http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/R-Pis/stovetop-addon.jpg
"The Popcorn Stovetop", an add-on board that gives the Popcorn Computer A dedicated USB-C Power Delivery Port, 10/100Mbit Ethernet, HDMI Video Output w/ Audio, and USB Serial Debug Port. It sells for $59.

http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/R-Pis/PocketPC.png
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/R-Pis/PocketPCwLoRa.png
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/R-Pis/Hand-PocketPC.png
"The Pocket PC" and "The Pocket PC w/LoRa", though not The C.H.I.P. compatible, it would have been a direction The C.H.I.P. would have gone. It is a Palmtop Linux PC system enclosed in plastic with chicklet style keyboard and a 5in LCD Screen. They come with the A58 Cortex/Allwinner Quad Core CPU at 1.25GHz, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of FlashRAM, Wifi and BlueTooth 4.0. The LoRa version can connect to LoRa (Wide Range City Wide) Wifi. Many European Cities support LoRa, but the USA has not yet at the time of this writing. They are $299 for the Pocket PC and $399 for the Pocket PC w/LoRa.

Word of Caution...

AdaFruit is a company that deals in selling various SBC and sensors for them for various projects one can add to their SBC systems, supporting many brands, types and styles of SBCs. Thing is, AdaFruit posted on their website that Popcorn Computers and their company Source Parts Inc. is The Next Best Thing selling their The C.H.I.P. systems under a rebranded label. This is not true. Thus Source Parts Inc. had to put on their website
"Source Parts Inc. © 2020

Popcorn Computer is a derivative of C.H.I.P. by Next Thing Co. released under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Popcorn Computer is not affiliated with Next Thing Co.

Popcorn SBC systems are Source Parts Inc. © 2020

Popcorn Computer is a derivative of C.H.I.P. by Next Thing Co. released under CC BY-SA 3.0."

Popcorn Computer is not affiliated with The C.H.I.P., they are hardware compatible, and any hardware made for The C.H.I.P. will run on the Popcorn Computer and any hardware made for the Popcorn will work on The C.H.I.P.

There are many other companies trying to make a The C.H.I.P. compatible boards, only Popcorn was successful in doing so. In researching this, I found about 6 or so companies saying that they would make such a The C.H.I.P. compatible board for its low price, none has been able to produce one other than Popcorn.

Links:
The Popcorn Website:
https://popcorncomputer.com

Title: Re: From The Ashes of the $9 C.H.I.P...
Post by Hondo I. Sackett on Jun 22^nd, 2021, 7:10pm

cool info. Thanks!