CES 2010: Marvell upgrades Plug Computer to v3.0; NAS, smart grid applications
Marvell has announced the next generation of its plug computer, the Plug Computer 3.0, which now offers a 2.0GHz Armada chip, energy efficiency and improved media streaming.
The black device -- it's about the size of a deck of playing cards -- uses Marvell's new ARMADA 300 processor, which lends it considerable computing power over its predecessor, the popular SheevaPlug.
It also improves on the original with built-in storage and support for wireless networking and Bluetooth, in addition to a built-in USB port and a Gigabit Ethernet port.
The Plug Computer 3.0 supports multiple standard Linux 2.6 kernel distributions.
Why is a plug computer so important? It's the facilitator for putting computers in places like never before: the smart grid, home automation, medical monitoring, multimedia content sharing and security are all viable applications for the device.