Computing is evolving with devices always becoming more powerful and efficient but also smaller. The idea of having a complete computer on a size of a memory stick emerged few years ago with small devices running on Linux. With the newest Mini PC, you can just plug a stick in the HDMI port of your TV and convert it to Google Android Internet connected device. We'll have a quick look at the history of these mini computers, their limitations and see specifications for three current models priced under $80: MK802II, UG802, MK808.

Short Mini PC history

The idea of making very small computers isn't new. Back in 2004, gumstix.com worked on small Linux computer-on-modules based on ARM processors. The name Gumstix actually refers to the first computer being approximately the size of a stick of gum. It was intially running OpenEmbedded Linux system on an Intel/Marvell XScale PXA255 ARMv5 processor. Gumstix later updated the platform using Texas Instruments OMAP and newer XScale CPUs.

More recently, with the success of the Android platform on phones and tablet devices, manufacturers have started to build MiniPC on this architecture. Cotton Candy from Norwegian company FXI Tech uses…