For a while intel was making mobile-class x86 processors. These popped up in some chrome books and the Pixel Slate. It's discontinued, but I have a pixel slate and it fits what you are looking for.
You might be able to find that class of processor floating around in obscure products. I would check all the shops that make consumer-oriented devices with Linux pre-installed since there are some interesting form factors. Maybe take a look at Starlabs.systems https://us.starlabs.systems/pages/starlite TBH that tablet looks like someone saw Google discontinue the Slate and said "OMG we have to do that!" If the firmware/bootloader on a chromeOS device is getting in your way.. there are solutions for that https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/ After a firmware swap my Slate runs a slackware installation with NO special modifications to the OS. x86 tablet with 8GB RAM :) -Ben On Saturday, September 14th, 2024 at 10:14 AM, Eric House <[email protected]> wrote: > I do a lot of traveling where a laptop is too much: won't fit in the > airline seats I'm willing to afford, or won't survive weeks in a bicycle > saddlebag. And so I've cobbled together a setup that lets me do > terminal-based development anywhere: Raspberry Pi 5, powered by a USB > battery pack, sits nearby. On table (or airline seat tray) sits an Android > tablet running a terminal app, and in my lap sits a keyboard. The keyboard > talks to the tablet using bluetooth, and the tablet connects to the Pi over > wifi. > > The weak link is the Pi5: I'd love to have more than 8g of RAM (to run > Android dev tools in an x86 emulator, for example) and faster/more reliable > storage than a memory card. And so my question: > > Is there a class of computers out there low-power enough to run for hours > on a USB battery pack but significantly more capable (and perhaps more > "standard", e.g. able to run GRUB2 and generic Debian) than the Raspberry > Pi 5? > > I figure a fanless and USB-C-powered NUC clone might be a starting point, > but they don't seem to exist, which has me thinking power requirements and > heat generation are still too high when using Intel chips. So maybe it has > to be ARM-based? Anyway, I figure this group will know. > > Thanks, > > --Eric House
