4 ms·

a little bit off topic so i apologize in advance, but i think this is the right audience so i'd like to pose my question, but i'm thinking about what the smalle

a little bit off topic so i apologize in advance, but i think this is the right audience so i'd like to pose my question, but i'm thinking about what the smallest device is that can run say a golang app with net/http reasonably fast. i'm thinking about the use case where i can run a fairly low powered micro device, say smaller than a raspberry pi (say usd quarter sized), but enough to run say a rest api or serve some static pages. typically i'd have to buy some desktop, server, or laptop to host such a thing which seems like overkill, perhaps power hungry, i think it maybe good if you need to run a myriad of processes or containers (load balanced over nginx), but if i just need a simple rest api, single process. and i'm thinking of embedding these into everything (dishwashers, tv's, stereo receiver, led lightbulb) perhaps what i'm saying is sort of like an fpga, but higher level, something that can run an elf binary, i dont want to have to write vhdl, i mean the converters from 3gl to vhdl/verilog sounds cool, but what are the costs for fpgas? i also wouldnt need the device to have like bash access, something dumbed down to copy a binary and run/stop it (like docker). i guess what i'm seeking is something like an fpga for embedding in devices that can run higher level code with wifi.

detaro 10y ago
You might want to look at ESP8266 modules. No golang yet, but Arduino-C, Lua, Micropython, ...
LeifCarrotson 10y ago
Serving static pages can be done with a little Cortex M3 microcontroller, like one of the mbed boards, in just a couple hundred milliwatts.
- theatrus2 10y ago
  And the ethernet interface or the Wifi will dominate the power consumption vs the CPU by an order of magnitude, just to put things in perspective.
gm-conspiracy 10y ago
Maybe this (almost quarter size)? https://hackaday.com/2016/05/10/new-part-day-a-beaglebone-on-a-chip/ https://hackaday.com/2016/05/10/new-part-day-a-beaglebone-on... But, no wifi. Pair it with a ESP8266? Maybe you can get away with just the ESP8266 and NodeMCU? http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html
hasperdi 10y ago
Not long ago I wanted to create a personal server that I can carry all day with me. I spent some time comparing various embedded devices available on the market. Devices running openWRT should be able to do what you described. This page is a good starting point: https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start An example cheap device: https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/unbranded/a5-v11 https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/unbranded/a5-v11 Another option: http://www.acmesystems.it/arietta http://www.acmesystems.it/arietta (cute, tiny little device) I got my information from www.cnx-software.com and https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/ https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/ Good luck.
pjc50 10y ago
You're on completely the wrong track with FPGAs; many of them, and certainly the ones you'd want for a webserver, are a single package larger than that quarter. They usually have high static power consumption as well. FPGAs are never what you want if you want to 'just run a program'. They seem to be widely misunderstood as a silver bullet when really they're more of a duct tape solution to certain far corners of the problem space. The people suggesting the ESP8266 are on the right track.
- epynonymous 10y ago
  awesome, thanks for the suggestion, will look into this
kalleboo 10y ago
This is probably the smallest web server (with built-in WiFi) I've seen. The size of an SD card. http://haxit.blogspot.jp/2013/08/hacking-transcend-wifi-sd-cards.html http://haxit.blogspot.jp/2013/08/hacking-transcend-wifi-sd-c...
rch 10y ago
> simple web server for the WiPy, aimed at control applications https://github.com/RinusW/WiPy/tree/master/AiCWebserver https://github.com/RinusW/WiPy/tree/master/AiCWebserver MicroPython has also been ported to the ESP8266: https://github.com/micropython/micropython/releases/tag/v1.8 https://github.com/micropython/micropython/releases/tag/v1.8
wycx 10y ago
55.7 x 26 mm 580 MHz MIPS single board computer with micro sd and wifi. http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/LinkIt-Smart-7688-p-2573.html http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/LinkIt-Smart-7688-p-2573.ht...

detaro 10y ago

You might want to look at ESP8266 modules. No golang yet, but Arduino-C, Lua, Micropython, ...

LeifCarrotson 10y ago

Serving static pages can be done with a little Cortex M3 microcontroller, like one of the mbed boards, in just a couple hundred milliwatts.

theatrus2 10y ago
And the ethernet interface or the Wifi will dominate the power consumption vs the CPU by an order of magnitude, just to put things in perspective.

gm-conspiracy 10y ago

Maybe this (almost quarter size)? https://hackaday.com/2016/05/10/new-part-day-a-beaglebone-on-a-chip/ https://hackaday.com/2016/05/10/new-part-day-a-beaglebone-on... But, no wifi. Pair it with a ESP8266? Maybe you can get away with just the ESP8266 and NodeMCU? http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html

hasperdi 10y ago

Not long ago I wanted to create a personal server that I can carry all day with me. I spent some time comparing various embedded devices available on the market. Devices running openWRT should be able to do what you described. This page is a good starting point: https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start An example cheap device: https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/unbranded/a5-v11 https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/unbranded/a5-v11 Another option: http://www.acmesystems.it/arietta http://www.acmesystems.it/arietta (cute, tiny little device) I got my information from www.cnx-software.com and https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/ https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/ Good luck.

pjc50 10y ago

You're on completely the wrong track with FPGAs; many of them, and certainly the ones you'd want for a webserver, are a single package larger than that quarter. They usually have high static power consumption as well. FPGAs are never what you want if you want to 'just run a program'. They seem to be widely misunderstood as a silver bullet when really they're more of a duct tape solution to certain far corners of the problem space. The people suggesting the ESP8266 are on the right track.

epynonymous 10y ago
awesome, thanks for the suggestion, will look into this

kalleboo 10y ago

This is probably the smallest web server (with built-in WiFi) I've seen. The size of an SD card. http://haxit.blogspot.jp/2013/08/hacking-transcend-wifi-sd-cards.html http://haxit.blogspot.jp/2013/08/hacking-transcend-wifi-sd-c...

rch 10y ago

> simple web server for the WiPy, aimed at control applications https://github.com/RinusW/WiPy/tree/master/AiCWebserver https://github.com/RinusW/WiPy/tree/master/AiCWebserver MicroPython has also been ported to the ESP8266: https://github.com/micropython/micropython/releases/tag/v1.8 https://github.com/micropython/micropython/releases/tag/v1.8

wycx 10y ago

55.7 x 26 mm 580 MHz MIPS single board computer with micro sd and wifi. http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/LinkIt-Smart-7688-p-2573.html http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/LinkIt-Smart-7688-p-2573.ht...