In what way is the metapad (conceptually) different from, say, a beagleboard ?
The beagleboard includes I/O ports (keybooard, mouse, USB, etc.) and the metapad core does not. If you are familiar with Intel desktop architecture, the metapad includes only everything north of the bus between the northbridge and soutbridge.
Mmm quite, but no. I'm talking about the devices companies like Nokia know how to do that fit in your pocket and contain all the essentials to keep you going. Then you arrive at home, at school, at a bar, public library, airport, whatever and then you have the peripherals acting as amplifiers of that experience, waiting to be connected wirelessly just by placing your device there and type some credentials. And pay for the service, sure, just like we are paying for the Internet somehow in public access points.
Meta Pad sounds cool but wouldn't make a good product. If you're going to use it handheld, you need to carry the core plus the handheld module. So why not just incorporate the core into the handheld, making it more compact and convenient.
Then, when you're at a desktop, just plug your monitor and keyboard into the USB ports and you're set to go. You can even use the handheld as a touchpad so you don't need a mouse. No need to extract the core from the handheld and dock it with an expensive custom workstation, when you can just connect it up to commodity hardware instead.
The beagleboard includes I/O ports (keybooard, mouse, USB, etc.) and the metapad core does not. If you are familiar with Intel desktop architecture, the metapad includes only everything north of the bus between the northbridge and soutbridge.
OK, in that case I got a bit mislead by the article - it puts permanent storage within the metapad core and says you just would need a cradle to interface a display and the keyboard - that read like southbridge on the core to me just needing physical interfaces. Also, leaving out the southbridge sounds like a recipe for driver disaster, especially as the original device claimed to want to do all this without rebooting. For me the only sensible interface point in that case would be the PCI bus (kinda like a PICMG backplane host board).
Perhaps I'm a bit jaded, but it doesn't look even that good. Why such a small screen? How you're supposed to use that? Would that be a touch screen, I guess not. The copy text on that page is quite funny. It's the worst kind of "a weird design = revolution = awesome" attitude.
The future is a bit brighter than that concept device, I would say.
Ah, but when you cool folks get to see devices on the design board before the rest of us, then you can feel a bit jaded and have a clearer view of what's to come.
Brighther than the concept device ye say... I do have ideas
OK, in that case I got a bit mislead by the article - it puts permanent storage within the metapad core and says you just would need a cradle to interface a display and the keyboard - that read like southbridge on the core to me just needing physical interfaces. Also, leaving out the southbridge sounds like a recipe for driver disaster, especially as the original device claimed to want to do all this without rebooting. For me the only sensible interface point in that case would be the PCI bus (kinda like a PICMG backplane host board).
I stand corrected - not a southbridge, but not a PCI bus either. Decoupling the I/O port drivers from the core OS I think was part of the concept from something I read before. Instead of an integral OS, think of the metapad and the cradle as separate devices sending messages over SAN, Infiniband, etc..
In any case, as to the original question of how it's different from a Beagleboard, it's the I/O connectors and the way that data is transferred back and forth. Remember, it was a concept and not intended to be commerically feasible.
In any case, as to the original question of how it's different from a Beagleboard, it's the I/O connectors and the way that data is transferred back and forth. Remember, it was a concept and not intended to be commerically feasible.
I see, so, technically that would be almost like the PoP itself in a standardized rugged package with maybe a tiny microSD thrown in for good measure ?
