Open Hardware/Modding: ESP32, MIPS ThinkPad, IBM PC110
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ESP32 based board targets smart home applications
The RelayFi is a soon to be launched board featuring an ESP32-WROOM SoC and 4 channel relays to control up to 4 high-voltage devices. The RelayFi is also compatible with Alexa, Google assistant and other single board computers.
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The MIPS ThinkPad, kind of
Of the major RISC architectures, though, classic MIPS (as opposed to the modern undead zombie MIPS uncomfortably market-sandwiched between ARM and RISC-V) had relatively poor penetration in the portable and low-power market. Various later Chinese rejiggerings under the Loongson/Godson names are better known to modern audiences, and Richard Stallman famously used such a laptop, but comparatively few portable MIPS platforms existed back in the day; the famous SGI Indy laptops in Congo and Twister were actually Silicon Graphics-built mockups with an offscreen Indy controlling an Indy Presenter as the display. (The slightly later Alchemy MIPS architecture will be the subject of a future entry when we talk more about portable SunRays.) That doesn't mean there weren't attempts, of course, and probably the first was the R4200.
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Pi Pico W Does PCMCIA, Gets This IBM PC110 Online
Bringing modern connectivity to retro computers is an endearing field- with the simplicity of last-century hardware and software being a double-edged sword, often, you bring a powerful and tiny computer of modern age to help its great-grandparent interface with networks of today. [yyzkevin] shows us a PCMCIA WiFi card built using a Pi Pico W, talking PCI ISA. This card brings modern-day WiFi connectivity to his IBM PC110, without requiring a separate router set up for outdated standards that the typical PCMCIA WiFi cards are limited by.