[Coco] Announcing CoCoCloud (aka DriveWire 5)

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Apr 1, 2014 8:52 PM, "Chris Osborn" <fozztexx at fozztexx.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Apr 1, 2014, at 5:44 PM, RETRO Innovations <go4retro at go4retro.com>
wrote:
>
> > A Pi with a wifi dongle will get you most of the way there, and I wrote
SW (called tcpser) that emulates a Hayes modem, so you can use std telecomm
packages.
>
> But a Pi with a WiFi dongle is ginormous by comparison! Plus these HLK
modules are under $15.

A pi will fit in a rompak, so the size is OK with me :).  The difference in
cost is almost trivial.. Not quite but getting there.

It also runs the standard DW server and even the GUI if you want to connect
a monitor, so no need for extra software effort.  Plus it has a lot of gpio
pins that could allow a better connection than serial.  Interface directly
to the bus is theoretically possible with a bit of hardware in between.

I think we havent yet seen the "perfect" device for an embedded
disk/networking/whatever server.  The pi isn't quite there, but its not far
off either.
Given trends that always lead to cheaper and more powerful computing, I'm
not sure if the microcontroller route makes sense.  Tiny general purpose
computers are on an obvious path to compete with microcontrollers for
applications like this, and they provide some pretty compelling
advantages.

$0.02