The Ben NanoNote is a small cheap pocket computer

Pocket computer

A pocket computer is a small calculator-sized handheld programmable computer.This specific category of computers existed primarily in the 1980s. Manufacturers included Casio, Hewlett-Packard, Sharp, Tandy/Radio Shack and many more.The programming language was usually BASIC, but some devices...

 that runs Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

. OpenWrt

OpenWrt

OpenWrt is a Linux distribution primarily targeted at routing on embedded devices. It comprises a set of about 2000 software packages, installed and uninstalled via the opkg package management system. OpenWrt can be configured using the command-line interface of BusyBox ash, or the web interface...

 is the software platform and the Ben Nanonote is the physical development platform for the Qi Hardware

Qi hardware

Qi hardware, also called Copyleft hardware, is hardware that attempts to apply the Free Software Foundation's GNU GPL concept of copylefting software to the hardware layer. The project is both a popular open hardware community websites and a company, co-founded by Wolfgang Spraul and Yi Zhang, that...

 project.

From the Ben Nanonote website:

The Chinese character 本 (běn) signifies an origin or the beginning place; It signifies exactly what the first version of the NanoNote is: a beginning.

History

Originally the hardware was developed by a third party as a digital dictionary. After the effort of several Qi Hardware developers, the design was freed as open source hardware

Open source hardware

Open source hardware consists of physical artifacts of technology designed and offered in the same manner as free and open source software . Open source hardware is part of the open source culture movement and applies a like concept to a variety of components. The term usually means that...

 while using free and open source software

Free and open source software

Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...

.

This product is currently manufactured by Qi hardware

Qi hardware

Qi hardware, also called Copyleft hardware, is hardware that attempts to apply the Free Software Foundation's GNU GPL concept of copylefting software to the hardware layer. The project is both a popular open hardware community websites and a company, co-founded by Wolfgang Spraul and Yi Zhang, that...

 and Sharism At Work Ltd. More than 1,000 units have been sold so far.

Software

The device is shipped with the OpenWrt

OpenWrt

OpenWrt is a Linux distribution primarily targeted at routing on embedded devices. It comprises a set of about 2000 software packages, installed and uninstalled via the opkg package management system. OpenWrt can be configured using the command-line interface of BusyBox ash, or the web interface...

 software stack; the custom compilation includes a graphical menu called gmenu2x, with other graphical and command line applications available from the menu.

OpenEmbedded

OpenEmbedded

OpenEmbedded is a software framework to create Linux distributions aimed for, but not restricted to, embedded devices. The build system is based on BitBake recipes, which behave similar to Gentoo's ebuilds....

 is also available through the Jlime

Jlime

Jornada Linux Mobility Edition is a Linux distribution originally only aimed for the HP Jornada platform. It was created in Late 2003 by Kristoffer Ericson and Henk Brunstin.It's being developed using the OpenEmbedded build system....

 distribution. The Pyneo software stack, a Debian-like distribution aimed for mobiles has been ported. The MIPS

MIPS

MIPS may refer to:* Maharana Institute of Professional Studies, an institution in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India* Mansehra International Public School and College, in Mansehra, Pakistan* Material input per unit of service, an economic efficiency indicator...

 port of Debian GNU/Linux can be run on the NanoNote. Additionally there is NanoNixOS, a cross-compiled distribution based on the Nix package manager

Nix package manager

Nix is a package manager for computer systems. Like RPM, apt and many other package managers, it is able to control the installation of packages, or named and versioned groups of files, such as software applications or their associated configuration data....

.

Technical specifications

• XBurst JZ4720 336 MHz MIPS processor from Ingenic Semiconductor
  Ingenic Semiconductor
  Ingenic Semiconductor is a Chinese semiconductor company founded 2005 and based in Beijing.- XBurst Embeded CPUs :The XBurst CPU architecture is compatible with MIPSII and has a 8-staged pipeline.XBurst CPU technology consists of 2 parts:...
  
  
• 3.0" 320x240 pixels colour TFT LCD
  TFT LCD
  Thin film transistor liquid crystal display is a variant of liquid crystal display which uses thin-film transistor technology to improve image quality . TFT LCD is one type of Active matrix LCD, though all LCD-screens are based on TFT active matrix addressing...
  
  
• 32MB SDRAM
  SDRAM
  Synchronous dynamic random access memory is dynamic random access memory that is synchronized with the system bus. Classic DRAM has an asynchronous interface, which means that it responds as quickly as possible to changes in control inputs...
  
  
• 2GB NAND flash memory
• 1 SDHC slot (SDIO/DMA capable)
• 59-key keyboard
  Computer keyboard
  In computing, a keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches...
  
  
• Stereo headphones connector, mono speaker and microphone
• USB Client 2.0 High-Speed Device, Mini B connector
• 3.7V 850mAh Li-ion battery
• Overall dimension (lid closed): 99 * 75 * 17.5mm. (display: 7.5mm, keyboard: 10mm)
• Weight: 126 g (4.4 oz) (including battery)

Product development

Due the lack of wireless connectivity one of the first goals for the Qi Hardware movement was to implement wireless on the device. This add-on, the Ben WPAN was developed by Werner Almesberger, and mainly consists of a IEEE 802.15.4

IEEE 802.15.4

IEEE 802.15.4 is a standard which specifies the physical layer and media access control for low-rate wireless personal area networks . It is maintained by the IEEE 802.15 working group....

 subsystem, made up of two boards: a USB dongle (ATUSB) connected to the computer and another card connected to the SDIO port of the device (ATBEN).

All source code, documentation and test procedures, software and hardware schematics are available under copyleft licenses.

UBB, or Universal Breakout Board, is a PCB shaped like a microSD card, focused on DIY projects and general purpose interfacing using the available MMC/SDIO port.

So far two hacks had been published: one of them, the integration with a 443 MHz RF transceiver for power sockets control purposes and later a mix of bit-banging and SDIO/DMA features turning the SD card slot into a VGA port.

As the Ben NanoNote uses an Ingenic JZ4720 processor it supports booting

Booting

In computing, booting is a process that begins when a user turns on a computer system and prepares the computer to perform its normal operations. On modern computers, this typically involves loading and starting an operating system. The boot sequence is the initial set of operations that the...

 from USB without use of the NAND flash memory.

Derivatives

The SIE board is an adaptation of the NanoNote. It has twice the memory and features a XC3S Xilinx FPGA on board. It is based on the XBurst JZ4725 SoC, which has more I/O pins available due to not having a keyboard.