7 ms·

The $9 CHIP Computer Is Shipping

157 points by dcschelt 11y ago

tmaly 11y ago
I ordered one with the video attachment months back. I am not sure when it is supposed to come.
- sophacles 11y ago
  According to the kickstarter - spring 2016
- dcschelt 11y ago
  My understanding after talking with Rauchwerk today is that the boards are shipping out on the timeline they've outlined on the kickstater page. The only divergence from that schedule is that Kernel Hacker Backers will get their first board in 5-9 days and their second -- which is a bonus board -- in mid-October.
- alexeyza 11y ago
  Yeah, I added one of the add-ons for a video adapter, so I think my order will be shipped much later. But, I'm excited to play with it, and see what other people can do with it.
tracker1 11y ago
It will by interesting to see what comes from this, I think it's really interesting how far things have come... once we see python and node running on this, there will be some significant proliferation of projects that can target it. Hopefully direct sales orders are coming soon, I missed the boat on this... then again, I've given away a couple of Raspberry Pis over the years mainly because I never got around to doing anything with them.
- robalfonso 11y ago
  I'm glad to hear this, I have a pile of pi's and I haven't used them (plenty of ideas, no time). I was feeling really guilty..glad I'm not the only one.
  - ozzmotik 11y ago
    I'll gladly pay for shipping and handling and as much as I can to take one of those off your hands if you have no use for it. I desperately need one, but I honestly don't have the funds to actually purchase one.
  - ozzmotik 11y ago
    If you're at all interested, please email me. i.am AT ozzmotik.com
    - voltagex_ 11y ago
      I've never heard someone say they "need" a Pi. What's your pitch?
- nivla 11y ago
  I think chip might end up somewhere between Arduino and Raspberry Pi. If it builds a good community around it, I might consider getting one.
IshKebab 11y ago
Please correct the title. It is $39 after the kickstarter. Plus $15 for HDMI output if you want to compare it to the Raspberry Pi. https://olimex.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/how-to-get-in-the-news-tell-people-that-you-will-make-and-sell-something-which-cost-you-20-for-9/ https://olimex.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/how-to-get-in-the-ne...
- makomk 11y ago
  No, a company that makes competing single-board computers claimed that Chip will have to go up in price to $39 after the Kickstarter. The actual manufacturer never said it's going up in price, and I doubt it'll cost anywhere near that much because it wouldn't be competitive. The higher-end Orange Pi PC is currently selling for $15 with a quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4K video decode in hardware, and Ethernet and HDMI out: http://hackaday.com/2015/09/05/orange-is-the-new-15-pi/ http://hackaday.com/2015/09/05/orange-is-the-new-15-pi/ (No onboard WiFi or Bluetooth on that, but there's plenty of free USB ports to plug an adapter into.)
  - IshKebab 11y ago
    > a company that makes competing single-board computers Allwinner aren't CHIP's competitors - they're their suppliers! However CHIP have claimed that it will stay at $9: http://bbs.nextthing.co/t/final-price-of-c-h-i-p-ntc-confirms-still-9/190/3 http://bbs.nextthing.co/t/final-price-of-c-h-i-p-ntc-confirm...
- akhilcacharya 11y ago
  Not everybody is looking to replace an RPi. I like it because I want a networked headless computer.
justinlardinois 11y ago
I had a professor who liked to say things like "RAM is free" when talking about how the cost of computers has come down over the course of his life. I always rolled my eyes and thought yeah, it's basically free when you're an accomplished academic who brings in untold amounts of grant money and makes even more from consulting than you do from your university salary. But to a broke college student, anything that costs more than a few hours of minimum wage =/= free. I really like this concept of cheap, all-in-one computers. We've had Arduinos and Raspberry Pis, but stuff like this really opens a lot of doors. $40 is a great price for a computer, but I would never consider using it for a project where its destruction is a legitimate risk (anything exposed to the elements, or liquid, or drones, for example), but with a $9 computer I would.
- shanemhansen 11y ago
  I hope he wasn't a professor of computer science.
  - justinlardinois 11y ago
    He was; it was a course on operating systems. As darkmighty noted, what said made perfect sense from a math perspective.
    - tonyarkles 11y ago
      When you start comparing costs, RAM is extraordinarily cheap. Under $10CAD/GB. I do contract work primarily, and hardware that saves time (e.g. by reducing the time for compile cycles) pays for itself very very quickly. I have a client who likes to have me work on-site and has development machines with only 4GB of RAM. Last year, we were doing builds that took minutes on my personal beefy machine, and an hour or two on theirs. The extra RAM would have paid for itself the first day it showed up, and would have paid a dividend every following day...
      - eropple 11y ago
        Agreed in full. My development desktop, a repurposed Westmere PowerEdge tower, has 96GB of RAM in it. The value I realize from being able to load everything I care about, ever into RAM significantly outstrips a faster CPU (not that 16 logical cores at 2.8GHz is holding me up or anything). Turns out that ramdisks are super fast--who'd have thought?
mintplant 11y ago
Any word on the Pocket CHIP? That was the most interesting part of the Kickstarter to me.
- mitchty 11y ago
  Agreed, that is the thing I want. It would be like a proper sane calculator.
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lifeisstillgood 11y ago
Somewhere in a Terry Pratchett book he opines that the best thing governments can do is build libraries and schools and leave the doors open. I think that we are at or very near the point where you could similarly write "just fly over countries, parachuting down single board computers and solar cells"
- kijin 11y ago
  Don't forget Wi-Fi dongles! Otherwise you're just parachuting down a bunch of libraries without books. I'm not sure whether Elon Musk is trying to take over the world with his "free satellite internet for everyone" plan, but if that network ever comes online, it could be a game-changer for people in developing countries. Too bad it probably won't be compatible with regular Wi-Fi.
jack12 11y ago
This article is very confusing in the way it refers to "early backers", I think it's leaving people with the wrong impression of what is shipping. They are shipping "alpha" CHIP computers only to the 150 people who backed at the "KERNEL HACKERS" tier for $150+S/H [1]. They've also announced that they'll be shipping an unexpected second alpha unit to each of those 150 backers again next month, partly because the first batch won't have any boot images programmed. This initial shipment of 150 was scheduled for September from the beginning of the kickstarter, but it's not until December that the "$9" tiers begin to ship, and not until May 2016 that the majority of their rewards are due. It's nice to see them more or less on schedule with the roadmap in the original kickstarter, but this isn't anything unexpected. There are people who say the $9 price point is unrealistic, and that the company will have to start taking additional "preorders" at higher prices just to afford to manufacture the preorders they already have, or that it's relying on corporate partnerships and funding to sell at a loss until enough interest is built up that they can increase the price. This is a fairly small shipment, which probably won't change any minds on that subject. [1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-worlds-first-9-computer/posts/1355196 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-wor...
- jdietrich 11y ago
  There are people who say the $9 price point is unrealistic, and that the company will have to start taking additional "preorders" at higher prices just to afford to manufacture the preorders they already have, or that it's relying on corporate partnerships and funding to sell at a loss until enough interest is built up that they can increase the price. This is a fairly small shipment, which probably won't change any minds on that subject. $9 is substantially less than the BOM cost, even assuming huge quantity discounts. A small American startup does not have access to some secret source of ultra-cheap components. The price is marketing spin, nothing more.
  - kefka 11y ago
    I don't buy that. The OrangePi is crazy for what you get. And it's $15 with $3 shipping. I don't see a reason to buy the CHiP, given I can get a OrangePi ordered right now and have them in 3 weeks.
lambpoop 11y ago
I need a free chip and new pc hommies
lambpoop 11y ago
a hacker was cought yesterday at my community. Guess what he was trying to sniff. crazy stuff
LandoCalrissian 11y ago
Wow, I had not heard about this before. For the price and spec that can't be beat. I would've expected the maker scene to blow up over this but I haven't heard anything. I have a ton of projects that could leverage this. How did they make this so cheap?

157 points by dcschelt 11y ago

tmaly 11y ago

I ordered one with the video attachment months back. I am not sure when it is supposed to come.

sophacles 11y ago
According to the kickstarter - spring 2016
dcschelt 11y ago
My understanding after talking with Rauchwerk today is that the boards are shipping out on the timeline they've outlined on the kickstater page. The only divergence from that schedule is that Kernel Hacker Backers will get their first board in 5-9 days and their second -- which is a bonus board -- in mid-October.
alexeyza 11y ago
Yeah, I added one of the add-ons for a video adapter, so I think my order will be shipped much later. But, I'm excited to play with it, and see what other people can do with it.

tracker1 11y ago

It will by interesting to see what comes from this, I think it's really interesting how far things have come... once we see python and node running on this, there will be some significant proliferation of projects that can target it. Hopefully direct sales orders are coming soon, I missed the boat on this... then again, I've given away a couple of Raspberry Pis over the years mainly because I never got around to doing anything with them.

robalfonso 11y ago
I'm glad to hear this, I have a pile of pi's and I haven't used them (plenty of ideas, no time). I was feeling really guilty..glad I'm not the only one.
- ozzmotik 11y ago
  I'll gladly pay for shipping and handling and as much as I can to take one of those off your hands if you have no use for it. I desperately need one, but I honestly don't have the funds to actually purchase one.
- ozzmotik 11y ago
  If you're at all interested, please email me. i.am AT ozzmotik.com
  - voltagex_ 11y ago
    I've never heard someone say they "need" a Pi. What's your pitch?
nivla 11y ago
I think chip might end up somewhere between Arduino and Raspberry Pi. If it builds a good community around it, I might consider getting one.

IshKebab 11y ago

Please correct the title. It is $39 after the kickstarter. Plus $15 for HDMI output if you want to compare it to the Raspberry Pi. https://olimex.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/how-to-get-in-the-news-tell-people-that-you-will-make-and-sell-something-which-cost-you-20-for-9/ https://olimex.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/how-to-get-in-the-ne...

makomk 11y ago
No, a company that makes competing single-board computers claimed that Chip will have to go up in price to $39 after the Kickstarter. The actual manufacturer never said it's going up in price, and I doubt it'll cost anywhere near that much because it wouldn't be competitive. The higher-end Orange Pi PC is currently selling for $15 with a quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4K video decode in hardware, and Ethernet and HDMI out: http://hackaday.com/2015/09/05/orange-is-the-new-15-pi/ http://hackaday.com/2015/09/05/orange-is-the-new-15-pi/ (No onboard WiFi or Bluetooth on that, but there's plenty of free USB ports to plug an adapter into.)
- IshKebab 11y ago
  > a company that makes competing single-board computers Allwinner aren't CHIP's competitors - they're their suppliers! However CHIP have claimed that it will stay at $9: http://bbs.nextthing.co/t/final-price-of-c-h-i-p-ntc-confirms-still-9/190/3 http://bbs.nextthing.co/t/final-price-of-c-h-i-p-ntc-confirm...
akhilcacharya 11y ago
Not everybody is looking to replace an RPi. I like it because I want a networked headless computer.

justinlardinois 11y ago

I had a professor who liked to say things like "RAM is free" when talking about how the cost of computers has come down over the course of his life. I always rolled my eyes and thought yeah, it's basically free when you're an accomplished academic who brings in untold amounts of grant money and makes even more from consulting than you do from your university salary. But to a broke college student, anything that costs more than a few hours of minimum wage =/= free. I really like this concept of cheap, all-in-one computers. We've had Arduinos and Raspberry Pis, but stuff like this really opens a lot of doors. $40 is a great price for a computer, but I would never consider using it for a project where its destruction is a legitimate risk (anything exposed to the elements, or liquid, or drones, for example), but with a $9 computer I would.

shanemhansen 11y ago
I hope he wasn't a professor of computer science.
- justinlardinois 11y ago
  He was; it was a course on operating systems. As darkmighty noted, what said made perfect sense from a math perspective.
  - tonyarkles 11y ago
    When you start comparing costs, RAM is extraordinarily cheap. Under $10CAD/GB. I do contract work primarily, and hardware that saves time (e.g. by reducing the time for compile cycles) pays for itself very very quickly. I have a client who likes to have me work on-site and has development machines with only 4GB of RAM. Last year, we were doing builds that took minutes on my personal beefy machine, and an hour or two on theirs. The extra RAM would have paid for itself the first day it showed up, and would have paid a dividend every following day...
    - eropple 11y ago
      Agreed in full. My development desktop, a repurposed Westmere PowerEdge tower, has 96GB of RAM in it. The value I realize from being able to load everything I care about, ever into RAM significantly outstrips a faster CPU (not that 16 logical cores at 2.8GHz is holding me up or anything). Turns out that ramdisks are super fast--who'd have thought?

mintplant 11y ago

Any word on the Pocket CHIP? That was the most interesting part of the Kickstarter to me.

mitchty 11y ago
Agreed, that is the thing I want. It would be like a proper sane calculator.

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lifeisstillgood 11y ago

Somewhere in a Terry Pratchett book he opines that the best thing governments can do is build libraries and schools and leave the doors open. I think that we are at or very near the point where you could similarly write "just fly over countries, parachuting down single board computers and solar cells"

kijin 11y ago
Don't forget Wi-Fi dongles! Otherwise you're just parachuting down a bunch of libraries without books. I'm not sure whether Elon Musk is trying to take over the world with his "free satellite internet for everyone" plan, but if that network ever comes online, it could be a game-changer for people in developing countries. Too bad it probably won't be compatible with regular Wi-Fi.

jack12 11y ago

This article is very confusing in the way it refers to "early backers", I think it's leaving people with the wrong impression of what is shipping. They are shipping "alpha" CHIP computers only to the 150 people who backed at the "KERNEL HACKERS" tier for $150+S/H [1]. They've also announced that they'll be shipping an unexpected second alpha unit to each of those 150 backers again next month, partly because the first batch won't have any boot images programmed. This initial shipment of 150 was scheduled for September from the beginning of the kickstarter, but it's not until December that the "$9" tiers begin to ship, and not until May 2016 that the majority of their rewards are due. It's nice to see them more or less on schedule with the roadmap in the original kickstarter, but this isn't anything unexpected. There are people who say the $9 price point is unrealistic, and that the company will have to start taking additional "preorders" at higher prices just to afford to manufacture the preorders they already have, or that it's relying on corporate partnerships and funding to sell at a loss until enough interest is built up that they can increase the price. This is a fairly small shipment, which probably won't change any minds on that subject. [1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-worlds-first-9-computer/posts/1355196 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-wor...

jdietrich 11y ago
There are people who say the $9 price point is unrealistic, and that the company will have to start taking additional "preorders" at higher prices just to afford to manufacture the preorders they already have, or that it's relying on corporate partnerships and funding to sell at a loss until enough interest is built up that they can increase the price. This is a fairly small shipment, which probably won't change any minds on that subject. $9 is substantially less than the BOM cost, even assuming huge quantity discounts. A small American startup does not have access to some secret source of ultra-cheap components. The price is marketing spin, nothing more.
- kefka 11y ago
  I don't buy that. The OrangePi is crazy for what you get. And it's $15 with $3 shipping. I don't see a reason to buy the CHiP, given I can get a OrangePi ordered right now and have them in 3 weeks.

lambpoop 11y ago

I need a free chip and new pc hommies

lambpoop 11y ago

a hacker was cought yesterday at my community. Guess what he was trying to sniff. crazy stuff

LandoCalrissian 11y ago

Wow, I had not heard about this before. For the price and spec that can't be beat. I would've expected the maker scene to blow up over this but I haven't heard anything. I have a ton of projects that could leverage this. How did they make this so cheap?