Todays & Tomorrows Technology

Marvell’s SheevaPlug wall-wart Linux PC has finally come of age, with the company announcing mainstream retail partners including Buffalo, D-Link, LaCie and Seagate, together with beginning distribution of the Plug Computer development kit in Europe. The original SheevaPlug has a Marvell Kirkwood processor with a 1.2GHz Sheeva processor, 512MB of RAM and 512MB of flash storage; resembling a wall-wart, it plugs directly into a power socket and offers a single USB 2.0 port and a gigabit ethernet port. Suggested uses included a home server, NAS or other form of network-connected device.

Various companies have partnered with Marvell to offer Plug Computers in multiple form-factors. These range from Axentra, who have a new touch*mediacenter mini designed to store and share digital content, Eyecon Technologies, who are positioning their version as a multi-source UPnP/DLNA aggregator, and CodeLathe, whose TonidoPlug is a home server offering local and remote access to documents, apps and media. Ionics have taken a more general approach, positioning their Plug Computer as a tiny Linux PC, while ProSyst have integrated OSGI and Java to their version, to enable developers to more easily port existing apps and create new software. Finally, WebTView have loaded their own software to discover and play internet TV.

The various form-factors include a simple box that closely resembles the original SheevaPlug prototype, together with more streamlined and even circular designs. Of course, as well as the development device from Marvell themselves, the first retail device based on the reference design is already available, in the shape of the PogoPlug.

According to Marvell, a Plug Computer uses less than one tenth of the power of a regular home server PC. It supports multiple Linux 2.6 kernel distributions, and is available to developers now for $99.

Seagate announced three brand new BlackArmor line data storage devices today. They include the BlackArmor NAS 220 Storage Server, the BlackArmor WS110 External Drive Workstation and the BlackArmor PS 110 Portable Drive.

All three new devices sport automated backup and a bare metal recovery feature. First up is the BlackArmor NAS 220, which is remote accessible and network accessible with up 4TB for up to 20 computers. It will be available in a 2TB and a 4TB version in July for $500 and $700 each.

Next, there’s the WS 110 External Drive Workstation with an eSATA and USB 2.0 interface. It will be available in a 1TB and a 2TB version for $160 and $310 each. Last, there’s the PS 110 Portable Drive, which is 12.5mm thick and will be available in a 500GB version for $160.

Seagate revealed a bit more than they might have intended today by posting up information about their 640GB FreeAgent Go on their website. And actually, this is pretty big news, as it’s one of the first drives to exceed 500GB, at least for external storage, that is.

The larger capacity 640GB drive has fewer color options than the smaller drives, coming in just silver and black. However, much of the other features are the same, including its USB-only status.

There’s also support for the Seagate docking station. We don’t have any information on availability or pricing yet but that should all be available soon, or at least once Seagate makes this thing official.