This is getting seriously ridiculous. Relative to the power and feature sets computers are getting cheaper and cheaper. But they don't come much cheaper than the Raspberry Pi, a $25 computer designed specifically to encourage children to program. My colleague, Ryan Cartwright wrote about it right here on FSM.
At $25 it has excited huge interest. But what if I told that it will be bested by an even cheaper computer. Do I hear $20? Do I hear $15? Yes, you heard that right (and it's being sold in China for $7, for God's sake). It is planned for educational purposes and as a retail product too. It's being developed by Rhombus Tech.
With a specification which makes it three times faster and at a giveaway price it's bound to be insanely popular. The Allwinner A10 is not as snappy a name as Raspberry Pi but at this criminally low price (is this actually legal?) who cares about names. For that price they could call it XYZ and it would sell.
What also pleases is the fact that the developers are impeccably FOSS. The hardware is GPL compliant. The GPL code will soon be placed in Rhombus git repository and schematics for the board is happening too. As the developers say, they'll do the (GPL) software and China will do the hardware. Checking the developer's profile (Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton) it's a good bet the programming will be Python.
Part of the spec includes a built-in resistive Touchscreen Controller. That has something to do with the plans for an Android-powered tablet which will be fully GPL compliant. Any guesses about the price? Bring it on guys.
