A plug computer is an external device, often configured for use in the

home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it ...

or office as a compact computer. The name is derived from the small configuration of such devices; they are often enclosed in an AC power plug or AC adapter.

Description

Plug computers consist of a high-

performance A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...

, low-power

system-on-a-chip A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memor ...

processor, with several I/O hardware

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...

s ( USB ports,

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in ...

connectors, etc.). Most versions do not have provisions for connecting a

display Display may refer to: Technology * Display device, output device for presenting information, including: ** Cathode ray tube, video display that provides a quality picture, but can be very heavy and deep ** Electronic visual display, output dev ...

and are best suited as running

media server A media server is a computer appliance or an application software that stores digital media (video, audio or images) and makes it available over a network. Media servers range from servers that provide video on demand to smaller personal compu ...

s, back-up services, or

file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include r ...

and remote access functions; thus acting as a bridge between in-home protocols (such as

Digital Living Network Alliance Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA; originally named Digital Home Working Group, DHWG) was founded by a group of PC and consumer electronics companies in June 2003 (with Intel in the lead role) to develop and promote a set of interoperabilit ...

(DLNA) and

Server Message Block Server Message Block (SMB) is a communication protocol originally developed in 1983 by Barry A. Feigenbaum at IBM and intended to provide shared access to files and printers across nodes on a network of systems running IBM's OS/2. It also provide ...

(SMB)) and cloud-based services. There are, however, plug computer offerings that have analog VGA monitor and/or

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controll ...

connectors, which, along with multiple USB ports, permit the use of a display, keyboard, and mouse, thus making them full-fledged, low-power alternatives to desktop and laptop computers. They typically run any of a number of

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

distributions. Plug computers typically consume little power and are inexpensive.

History

A number of other devices of this type began to appear at the 2009

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event ty ...

. * On January 6, 2009

CTERA Networks CTERA Networks is a privately held enterprise software company headquartered in New York and Israel. The company has regional offices in the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and Australia.

launched a device called ''CloudPlug'' that provides online backup at local disk speeds and overlays a file sharing service. The device also transforms any external USB hard drive into a

network-attached storage Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level (as opposed to block-level storage) computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. The term "NAS" can refer to both the techn ...

device. * On January 7, 2009, Cloud Engines unveiled ''Pogoplug'' network access server. * On January 8, 2009, Axentra announced availability of their ''HipServ'' platform. * On February 23, 2009,

Marvell Technology Group Marvell Technology, Inc. is an American company, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, which develops and produces semiconductors and related technology. Founded in 1995, the company had more than 6,000 employees as of 2021, with over 10,00 ...

announced its plans to build a mini-industry around plug computers. * On August 19, 2009, CodeLathe announced availability of their '' TonidoPlug'' network access server. * On November 13, 2009 QuadAxis launched its plug computing device product line and development platform, featuring the ''QuadPlug'' and ''QuadPC'' and running QuadMix, a modified Linux. * On January 5, 2010, Iomega announced their ''iConnect'' network access server. * On January 7, 2010 Pbxnsip launched its plug computing device the ''sipJack'' running pbxnsip: an IP Communications platform.

References

External links

* {{Linux devices Cloud computing Classes of computers Cloud clients Home servers Server appliance

Description

History

See also

References

External links