CHIP (computer)

Founding and Crowdfunding

Next Thing Co. (NTC) was originally established as a hardware start-up in Oakland, California, in 2013 by founders Dave Rauchwek, Gustavo Huber, and Thomas Deckert.^[9] In May 2015, the company launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of the CHIP, marketing it as "the world's first $9 computer." The campaign was highly successful, quickly surpassing it's initial goal of $50,000, ultimately raising $2,071,972 from 39,560 backers.^[5]

Production and Release

Following the funding campaign, NTC began shipping alpha versions of the CHIP board to it's "Kernel Hacker" tier backers on September 25, 2015.^[10] General pre-orders for the public opened shortly after, in December 2015.^[1] By May 31, 2016, the company had begun its first wave of consumer shipping to fulfill the remaining Kickstarter backer rewards.^[11][12]

Discontinuation and Insolvency

Despite early momentum, and the subsequent development of models like the CHIP Pro, the company struggled to maintain production of the original board. Next Thing Co. halted pre-orders for the original chip by April 4, 2017, effectively discontinuing the line.^[13]

By March 2018, Next Thing Co. had entered insolvency. The company's assets and intellectual properties were subsequently sold off, and operations ceased. A the time of the company's closure, a significant number of customers who had placed post-Kickstarted pre-orders had no received their devices or refunds.^[13]

CHIP

CHIP was the original board, mostly targeting hobbyists. The system is built around the Allwinner R8 SoC processor, which integrates an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU (based on ARM architecture V7-A) and peripherals, such as Graphic Engine, UART, SPI, USB ports, CIR, CMOS Sensor Interface and LCD controller.^[14] The CPU is also accompanied by a NEON SIMD coprocessor and has RCT JAVA-Accelerations to optimize just-in-time (JIT) and dynamic adaptive compilation (DAC). There is also an ARM Mali-400 GPU, and a H263, H264 and vp8 hardware video decoder in the R8.^[15]

CHIP was upgraded in April 2017 in anticipation of the CHIP Pro to "share a large number of the same components".^[16]

Features implemented on this model:

• Built-in Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
• One USB host with a type-A receptacle, one USB On-The-Go port
• Composite video and stereo audio port via mini TRRS
• Optional composite TRRS to RCA audio-video cable
• Optional VGA adapter and HDMI adapter (see Hardware extensions below)
• Open source hardware^[17] and open source software^[18]
• Up to 45 GPIO ports^[19]
• Supports 1-Wire and I2C protocols, PWM output
• Serial console and Ethernet via USB for quick headless operation^[20]
• Power options include 5V via USB OTG, 5V via CHN pin, and by 3.7V battery
• Onboard NAND storage, 4-8GB,^[5][6] pre-installed Linux OS (Debian)^[3][18]
• Web-based firmware update^[21]

The CHIP is 60mm × 40mm in size.^[22]

CHIP Pro

CHIP Pro is similar to the original CHIP board, but uses the newer GR8 version of the chip. It is a system in package (SiP) made by Next Thing Co. It features a 1GHz Allwinner R8 ARMv7 Cortex-A8 processor with NEON SIMD extensions and a Mali-400 GPU. 256MB of Nanya Technology DDR3 SDRAM is combined with the R8 SoC into a 14mm × 14mm, 0.8mm-pitch 252-ball FBGA package, simplifying the routing of connections. Instead of having two dual-line 40-pin sockets as on CHIP, it implements castellated edges where the pin holes are designed and optimized to embed to another board with SMT.^[23] Most of the CHIP's hardware features are also included in this model.

CHIP "v2" (unreleased)

Few details were available in regard to CHIP's would-be successor or successors except it would have used Next Thing's own SiP GR8 instead of Allwinner's original R8. In addition to feature-sharing with CHIP Pro, the company wanted to "take advantage of CHIP Pro's much more stable supply chain"^[16] in order to address the uneasiness in its user base about the future of the product.^[24] In responding to user concerns, Next Thing also disclosed that more than one successor product line was in the works.^[25]

As Next Thing Co. entered insolvency with its assets and intellectual properties being sold,^[13] release of "v2" is improbable.

Pocket CHIP and Pockulus

Pocket CHIP included a CHIP, a case with a 4.3 inch 480×272 pixel resistive touchscreen, a clicky keyboard, GPIO headers on the top of the device, GPIO soldering pads inside of the injection molded case, and a 5-hour battery. Following DIP specifications, the CHIP snapped into the case with no "screws or glues" creating a portable computer. On the lower right corner of the Pocket CHIP was a hexagonal hole that takes a standard #2 HB pencil. Inserting the pencil created a stand that allowed the Pocket CHIP to stand upright on a desk. Likewise, on the lower left is a circular hole for a pen.

PocketCHIP came loaded with a special edition of CHIP OS that included the DIP's driver and a couple of additional applications, including a special version of video game console virtual machine PICO-8, a fully functional Linux terminal, a file browser, a terminal based web browser called surf, and modular synthesizer SunVox.

The Pockulus is a virtual reality setup incorporating a Pocket CHIP that requires some 3D printing.

Other DIPs from Next Thing

For users who did not want to use the small screen in Pocket CHIP and also did not want to use the built-in composite TV output, Next Thing sold a VGA DIP^[27] and an HDMI DIP.^[28] Unlike Pocket CHIP, physical dimensions of these DIPs are similar to CHIP, so the snapped assembly looks like a thicker CHIP.

Archives and continuing support

While NTC has published many of its hardware and software repositories on GitHub, surviving users also launched an effort in order to preserve useful documents, software, and other artifacts by leveraging the Internet Archive (a.k.a. archive.org). One effort is led by a user who has never received his preordered CHIP.^[37] Another user set up a standalone site focusing on binary packages and a Git repository.^[38]

In addition, the community also has a Wiki site that is independent of NTC.^[39] However, as of 2021, the website ceased to function. The original content is however available in the Internet Archive snapshot^[40] from November 2020.