CHIP – The $9 Dollar Computer

CHIP is the world’s first $9 dollar computer, and maybe the tiniest computer I’ve ever seen. It has 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM, and a 1GHz processor and it all fits in the palm of your hand. This is one amazing device and many have agreed since their Kickstarter page was requesting only $50k and they were being funded over $1M. It may be one of the biggest successes in Kickstarter history as the campaign still has a few weeks to go!

With so many backers, I wonder what everyone is going to use this computer for. There have been suggestions on the Kickstarter page by the creators but there has got to be thousands more ideas since they’ve sold so many already. There are already over 23 thousand backers and some of them may have purchased multiple CHIP computers.

The most social friendly thing to do with CHIP is implement this in under privileged schools. Now they will get to learn to type, send emails, surf the web, and hopefully get a elevated education as compared to when they didn’t have CHIP. Before CHIP, or in today’s world, the best way to get a low cost computer is to build a refurbished system. In most of the third world countries is where our recycled e-waste is purchased. An old hard drive can be purchased for a few dollars as well as the rest of the PC. However, this may be an old and slow PC, but its better than nothing.

I don’t believe CHIP will eliminate the reuse of the older e-scrap. Actually, they mention that CHIP works well with the older e-scrap such as old TV’s and monitors since it allows multiple display connections. So, if you have a old tube television sitting around, make sure you save it to run your CHIP computer!