Think the MacBook Air and Samsung's X360 (announced today at IFA) are as portable as computing gets? Think again. The Space Cube computer from everyone's favourite space industry IT supplier, the Shimafuji Corporation, measures just 2-inches in each direction.
This wee Linux-powered computer has a 300MHz processor and a modest 64MB of RAM but sports a plethora of connections, including USB, serial, Ethernet, VGA, speaker and headphone sockets and even the splendidly named SpaceWire jack, favoured by NASA for linking together its interplanetary gadgets. The Space Cube runs Red Hat straight from a Compact Flash card.
Anyone else see a Borg here?
PC Pro can't say enough good things about its toughened, all-metal review unit of the Space Cube, but we suspect that might just be because they're hoping for a ride in someone's rocket to see it working.
If you want to snap up one for your own backyard moon shot, or just for the comforting feeling of always having a computer in your pocket, a Space Cube will set you back around £1500 when it's made more widely available later this year.
The only UK distributor is likely to be Star Dundee, purveyors of all manner of SpaceWire gizmos.
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