The Skytone Alpha-400 is a

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

-based low-cost

netbook Netbook was a commonly used term that identified a product class of small and inexpensive laptops which were sold from 2007 to around 2013. These machines were designed primarily as cost-effective tools for consumers to access the Inte ...

with a 7 in 800×480 LCD screen, introduced in 2008. Its measurements (length×width×depth) are 210×140×32 mm and it weighs 0.65 kg. It is made in China by

Skytone Skytone are a Canadian duo from Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa bor ...

and Exon International Technology Co Ltd, with the former providing the Linux software and the latter producing the hardware. It uses a Chinese

Ingenic Ingenic Semiconductor is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company based in Beijing, China founded in 2005. They purchased licenses for the MIPS architecture instruction sets in 2009 and design CPU-microarchitectures based on them. They also design ...

Jz4730 336 MHz MIPSII-compatible one core 32-bit

system-on-a-chip A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memory ...

(SoC) with 128 MiB of

SDRAM Synchronous dynamic random-access memory (synchronous dynamic RAM or SDRAM) is any DRAM where the operation of its external pin interface is coordinated by an externally supplied clock signal. DRAM integrated circuits (ICs) produced from the ...

, and a 1–2 GB

solid state drive A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data Persistence (computer science), persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the Computer ...

. The Skytone Alpha-400 was designed with low cost and child-friendliness in mind, with some versions being sold for as little as $130 retail. There is an option to swap the standard theme with a children's theme. It also comes with applications geared toward children, and a Flash player to play animated children's songs. The Flash player is not built into the browser, so Flash-dependent sites such as YouTube will not work, but a standalone Flash player is available to run

.swf SWF ( ) is an Adobe Flash file format used for multimedia, vector graphics and ActionScript.Open Screen P ...

files and can be used to play Flash-based games.

Alternative names

The Skytone Alpha is often marketed, sometimes in slightly altered form, under many different brand names. A non-exhaustive list of variants: * 3k Razorbook 400 (also with

Windows CE Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products. Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is base ...

and more flash memory) * Bestlink/Belco Alpha 400 * Belco 450R * CherryPal Africa * CnMBook * CnM Lifestyle CnMbook * Datacask Jupiter 0708l * Elonex ONEt (ONEt+ with 2 GB NAND flash) * Exon PC701-LX * HiVision MiniNote/NB0700 * Impulse NPX-9000 * Impulse TNX-9500 * iPC400 — available in Greece * IDA 400 — available in India * JAY-tech Jee-PC 400S * Letux 400 (uses

Debian Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of D ...

) * Maplin miniBook * Novatech Minibook * PC701-LX * Sakar MiniBook / PC-01017 * Semprotech T70AM04 * Semprotech T70DJ10 * Silverstar E-PC * Skytone Alpha 400 * SurfOne INOS1 * Trendtac 700 EPC * Yinlips Micro PC

Features

The Skytone Alpha-400 uses a customized version of

, based on a 2.4.x kernel, with a user-friendly interface optimized for children. The Linux desktop is implemented as

Kiosk software Kiosk software is the system and user interface software designed for an interactive kiosk or Internet kiosk enclosing the system in a way that prevents user interaction and activities on the device outside the scope of execution of the software. ...

, meaning that nothing the user can do can modify the available applications, and no new applications can be (easily) added or removed. Browsing can be done through the use of the built in browser called ''Bon Echo'', an Alpha release of Mozilla

Firefox 2 Mozilla Firefox 2 is a version of Firefox, a web browser released on October 24, 2006 by the Mozilla Corporation. Firefox 2 uses version 1.8 of the Gecko layout engine for displaying web pages. The release contained many new features not found ...

, using the built-in 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet port, or the integrated 802.11 Wireless LAN, but the browser does not support Flash, meaning that Flash intensive tools, such as

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

, cannot be used. However, recently Exon, the

original design manufacturer An original design manufacturer is a company that designs and manufactures a product that is eventually rebranded by another firm for sale. Such companies allow the firm that owns or licenses the brand to produce products while having to engage in ...

of most of these devices, announced full support for

and most Flash enabled websites. The device sports three USB ports, a small but fully functioning keyboard, a touchpad, stereo speakers, and a 2 cell 2.1 Ah battery. The Skytone Alpha's processor uses as little as 0.2 W of power, and does not have a heat sink, and thus no ventilation openings. Some versions have extra features like a VGA video port, or a

USB On-The-Go USB On-The-Go (USB OTG or just OTG) is a specification first used in late 2001 that allows USB devices, such as Tablet computer, tablets or smartphones, to act as a host, allowing other USB devices, such as USB flash drives, digital cameras, co ...

port.

Available distributions

* The default OS, based on CELinux with the

matchbox Phillumeny (also known as phillumenism) is the hobby of collecting different match-related items: matchboxes, matchbox labels, matchbooks, matchcovers, matchsafes, etc. Matchbox A matchbox is a box made of cardboard or thin wood and designed ...

window manager and an

Asus Eee PC The ASUS Eee PC is a netbook computer line from Asus, and a part of the ASUS Eee product family. At the time of its introduction in late 2007, it was noted for its combination of a lightweight, Linux-based operating system, solid-state drive (S ...

inspired interface. * ''Xenium'' This project seems to have been abandoned. * ''3MX'' based on the default OS, Xenium and Debian. Comes with the

jwm JWM (Joe's Window Manager) is a lightweight stacking window manager for the X Window System written by Joe Wingbermuehle. JWM is written in C and uses only Xlib at a minimum. Configuration is done by editing an XML file; no graphical configu ...

window manager. Release 3.1 now available provides good functionality including wi-fi stumbler, aircrack-ng, a web server, and a good range of browser alternatives. * ''

etch'' So far, all distributions for this device use the 2.4.20-celf3 kernel. The kernel itself is not on the root file system itself, and gets loaded by

u-boot U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

Other similar devices by Exon/Skytone

The successor of the device, the ''Alpha 400P'', comes with a 416 MHz

XScale XScale is a microarchitecture for central processing units initially designed by Intel implementing the ARM architecture (version 5) instruction set. XScale comprises several distinct families: IXP, IXC, IOP, PXA and CE (see more below), with some ...

, fifth generation

ARM architecture ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...

, SoC (likely a Marvell PXA27x), USB 2.0 and up to 256 MiB of DDR2 memory. Another similar device comes with the 248 MHz ARM SoC AK7802Q216, 64/128 MiB of DDR RAM and Windows CE 5.0. Skytone announced another device called ''Alpha 680'' running Android that features a 533 MHz Jade Tech Z228

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between the ...

CPU. The Alpha-680 has a rotatable

touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is often ...

that can be turned and flipped over, so that the unit becomes a

tablet computer A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being comput ...

. Another similar machine produced by Exon, but not sold by Skytone, comes with an

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

legacy compatible 800 MHz DM&P PDX-600 SoC CPU and is thus able to run Windows XP. It uses a

XGI XGI Technology Inc. () is based upon the old graphics division of Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) spun off as a separate company, and the graphics assets of Trident Microsystems. It existed from 2003 to 2010. History Founded in June 2003 and h ...

Volari Z9s GPU without 3D acceleration. As it is usually sold with Windows XP pre-installed, its default configuration has 512 MiB

DDR2 SDRAM Double Data Rate 2 Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DDR2 SDRAM) is a double data rate (DDR) synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) interface. It superseded the original DDR SDRAM specification, and was itself superseded by DDR3 ...

and 4/8 GB flash. It is also available with a built-in 0.3 Mpixel camera. This version was first presented at CES 2009.

Known issues

*The 3G support is limited to few USB 3G modems as a result of the old kernel. The same is true for the Wi-Fi module. The Ath5k driver used in the device for the ZD1211B module had been replaced since 2.6.18 for providing an unstable connection. As it is running 2.4.20, the old driver is still in use. *While it is possible to install gnash in order to obtain

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid ...

support, it has been reported that the processor is too slow, so that it can take near enough to ten minutes or more for something to load.3MX and the Little Linux Laptop – FAQ, Information, Links and other useful stuff
/ref> *The default distribution does not provide root access per default, but it is possible to install a root terminal through the software manager.

References