Is that a computer in your pocket...?

On November 17, fledgling Norwegian company FXI Technologies showed prototypes of their first product, "Cotton Candy", a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 based computer in a USB stick. This device can be plugged into any display device, from a smartphone or tablet up to a PC or TV with USB or HDMI input. It is being marketed as a secure device that allows users to access the Cloud and other apps using their favorite operating system and settings from wherever they are.

Picture: Courtesy of FXI Technologies

Powered by a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU at 1.2 GHz and a quad-core ARM Mali-400MP GPU, the device offers wifi 802.11 and bluetooth 2.1 network connectivity, and has 1 GB DRAM onboard. It supports up to 64 GB of storage via a microSD card that plugs into it. Connection to other devices is via a USB 2.0 connector on one end or HDMI 2.1 on the other end. By default it runs the Android 2.3 OS, but it also supports Ubuntu Linux and has a virtualized client which allows you to run Windows, Linux or Mac OS. Future versions will have faster processors, USB 3.0 and even run the ARM version of Windows 8 directly.

The name Cotton Candy comes from the fact that it is lightweight, and you hold a stick in your hand with a cloud at the other end. Weighing in at 21 grams (that's approx one thousandth the weight of my current PC), it is only one inch wide and 3.2 inches long, a perfect size to fit in your pocket.

When the device is plugged into a computer or other device with it's own OS, it will open a secure window running Android, or whichever OS you have installed. Files can be copied between the host OS and the onboard OS. Also, as it is a full-fledged computer in it's own right,it should be possible to connect it to a USB hub with a keyboard, mouse and monitor and run it independently of any other device.

It should be possible also to network it with the device it is connected to, providing other interesting possibilities and, combined with Linux, it could be possible to run a few as a cluster, providing further performance gains on an existing system with otherwise limited upgrade potential.

FXI CEO Borgar Ljosland expects the device to be ready to market in the second half of 2012, and to cost significantly less than $200.