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CES 2010: Marvell upgrades Plug Computer to v3.0; NAS, smart grid applications

By | January 6, 2010, 8:48am PST

Summary: CES 2010: 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.

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.

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Andrew J. Nusca is editor of ZDNet and SmartPlanet.

Disclosure

Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca does not hold any investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Andrew Nusca

Editor

Andrew J. Nusca is an editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.

He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. He lives in his native Philadelphia with his wife, cat and Boston Terrier.

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