I’ve been surrounded for the past few weeks by a veritable herd of tiny computers for a forthcoming Labs test - nine of them, to be precise - but I wasn’t prepared for what I was going to see when I searched for the World’s Smallest PC. I didn’t really expect anything - idle curiousity rather than genuine expectation drove me to Google - but I was delighted to stumble onto the Space Cube.
Remarkably, it’s an entire PC inside a chassis that’s 2 x 2 x 2in square. The Space Cube runs Linux and packs in a remarkable amount of hardware for such a small PC: a 300MHz processor, 64MB of SDRAM and a 16MB flash hard disk.
The ingenious design stretches to the numerous ports that are included around the case: a VGA output, USB socket - plug in a hub and you’ll be granted plenty of instant connectivity - and 100MB/s RJ45 Ethernet. There’s even a card reader and audio jacks.
The price of $325, though, is pretty elementary. A quick web surf reveals that it’s never been sold outside of Japan, and my email to the Shimafuji Corporation has, so far, fallen on deaf ears - so they’ll be no benchmark results any time soon, unfortunately.
There’s no denying that it’s a great little bit of kit, though - who needs a laptop and a bag when you can have a PC in your pocket?
Tags: micro pc, shimafuji, small form factor, space cube
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July 18th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Hello there. As unlikely as it is I’ll get a reply from you, but I wondered if you’d have any news on this awesome bit of miniature computing?
July 18th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Well, I’m trying to get one in. I’ve discovered that the University of Dundee Space Department is planning to sell them internationally, but the person who deals with them is out of the office until Monday. I’ll be phoning back next week to try and arrange one!