Conceptual UNI enables compartmentalized computing

Those who find difficulty in cracking open a typical tower to replace that aging DVD writer with one that burns in high-definition should adore Richard Choi's UNI concept, which exemplifies compartmentalized computing and takes the stress out of upgrading. Apparently, the "Think" module would act as the core computer and handle the essentials, while a variety of other plug-in modules would provide additional outputs (HDMI, DVI, optical audio, USB, etc.), hard drive space, and optical drives. Granted, this could get out of hand for those who get UNI-stackin' fever, but we'll certainly pass along kudos to the idea. Click on for one more shot.

[Via YankoDesign, thanks Martin]

[CarbonFree @ Aug 17th 2007 6:15PM]

Engenious. Someone needs to get this on the market. Fast.

[jason @ Aug 18th 2007 4:13PM]

I worry about it's general appearance and portability. It looks like a radiator when assembled, and IMO radiators look like shit in home decor. My desktop is a big heavy case, but it can all be carried without fear of falling apart. As well, my components are all safe and sound inside the case. No worries about dropping my dvd drive when moving it to a lan-party. The only NEED for this kind of technology is conceptual art as the mac mini pretty much does everything this does in much less space without risk of falling apart in transit. Micro AXT is pretty small too, so the only real thing this has going for it is the upgradeability aspect. Really, how hard is it to open the case, swap components, and close the case? No one even buys computers to upgrade later, by the time later hits the system's out of date and either has to be upgraded or is thrown out/gifted. The most the average user upgrades is the ram or possibly a dvd writer if the system didn't come with one.
I simply can not see a use for a system like this other than a form of art. If it was wireless, then it would have something as you could put components where you want them, but wireless networking, usb, and bluetooth all make that aspect moot as well.

I'd go for a mac mini or a Micro ATX based system as they do everything this does in much less space. Since I'm not going to upgrade, I'd rather have less of a foot print on my desk.

[Glenn @ Aug 17th 2007 6:19PM]

Ummm... doesn't there need to be a bus connection in there someplace?

[fraggle_rocker @ Aug 17th 2007 7:20PM]

Possibly transfer the data through the plugs, like those modems for internet over the power line.

But in reality, they would work much better in a usb daisy chain type of configuration, with maybe a custom connection that was fast.. You might be able to get away with usb2 speeds though, just like you can have external hard drives for storage (i assume think would have a hard drive for the os) and external dvd burners etc etc..

I love the concept though.

[paul petty @ Aug 17th 2007 6:19PM]

I dont like it, something about beulting my own machine and fine tuning it just makes me happy. I dont want this.

[Josh @ Aug 17th 2007 6:27PM]

Those are awesome.

Gotta catch 'em all!

[encore @ Aug 17th 2007 6:24PM]

lol, the usb one has the outlets facing towards the ground XD

[StinkyPete @ Aug 17th 2007 6:59PM]

Saw that too...
Great designers make visually beautiful things. However, the execution of drawing board to desktop isn’t their forte.

[mudlouse @ Aug 17th 2007 7:14PM]

uh, you do realise plug sockets are situated about a foot above the floor?

[Chris @ Aug 17th 2007 10:17PM]

oh, so now you have to crawl under the desk to plug in the USB?

[mattclarkie @ Aug 18th 2007 11:27AM]

In the UK mains sockets are often placed on Skirting boards, so mere inches from the floor.

And as the plugs are UK design I say the designer didn't think about that.

[mudlouse @ Aug 18th 2007 7:11PM]

You're still wrong.

The standard placement for wall sockets are often at shin level, if they were on the skirt then 99% of appliance wouldn't work because the ground would be obstructing the lead (look at the normal plug in the second picture).

[encore @ Aug 18th 2007 10:43PM]

dude, these dont plug directly into the wall, there is a standard cable from the wall that plugs into it.

[Robotochan @ Aug 17th 2007 6:33PM]

I've always wondered when computers would be made up of modules similar to this, although I expected more of what we have now. I could see cooling being an issue unless they use liquid cooling or the new type ionising chip cooling or something.

Oh and "UK Plugs Rule!" Yes, I am a plug fanboy

[tony @ Aug 17th 2007 8:06PM]

You're a plug fanboy... Hey! We don't need that kind of filth around here!!

[randy @ Aug 17th 2007 6:34PM]

Peripherals for people who can't use USB cables or wireless? This is profoundly stupid. Not to mention the fact they are a complete rip off of Apple airport and power peripherals

[Jonhimslf @ Aug 17th 2007 6:51PM]

What?

[Reader @ Aug 17th 2007 8:06PM]

I give it a 1/10 for bait

[dude @ Aug 18th 2007 12:09AM]

Does apple have a patent on good design and the color white? No. I love apple but you sir are ridiculous

[randy @ Aug 18th 2007 7:46PM]

well, that's one thing they have in common...

[Oban @ Aug 17th 2007 6:45PM]

There was another outfit that had this concept about 10 years ago that made different colors = different components and was a great concept for modular pc's. It never came about but it would have been interesting.

[hectorinwa @ Aug 17th 2007 6:57PM]

So, uh, no one remembers the IBM PC jr.? It had a side panel that came off to reveal a socket for expansion packs that attached to the side of it. pic here: http://oldcomputers.net/ibm-pcjr.html

[Mikey @ Aug 18th 2007 10:40AM]

The TI-99 had a similar setup too...

[Nick @ Aug 17th 2007 7:12PM]

I love it.

I'm seeing the central unit + Gigabit NIC unit + 4x HD enclosures containing 1TB drives set in RAID5 = one small central server for my home.

[Sean Cooper @ Aug 17th 2007 8:03PM]

the concept is good, but the form factor is horrible

[Owen V @ Aug 17th 2007 7:13PM]

can I rip open the hard drive module to upgrade with my own 500gb for $120 or do I have to buy one thats already wrapped up and only 320gb for $300?

[Fubar @ Aug 17th 2007 7:23PM]

I liked the whole idea of extensible, backplane-based architectures...
... back when it was called VMEbus.

[David @ Aug 17th 2007 7:58PM]

Wow.. I can imagine this getting out of hand quick... Imagine this but 1 meter long.. ahaha

[linuxamp @ Aug 17th 2007 7:54PM]

I think that bus is going to be a bottleneck. HDMI/DVI over some proprietary 3 prong bus over power line doesn't sound promising. I know there are some Ethernet over power line products but I think they only go up to 200Mbps compared to about 1000Mpbs for old PCI 1.1.

[Carter Harvey @ Aug 17th 2007 8:53PM]

Why are you thinking this thing is transmitting HDMI over the power lines? The "See" module is apparently the video card, and the article mentions upgrading to an HDMI modulue. The raw video file would be transmitted to the "See" module, where it would be converted to an HDMI signal. If you read the article at www.yankodesign.com, it uses 200Mbps via data-by-power or 480Mbps via WUSB.

[skadyster @ Aug 17th 2007 11:25PM]

Yeah, even if the See module is a video card, I just don't think theres enough bandwidth to pull this off. Even the old PCI bus was 133 MB/s (not Mb, MB) and those have since been superseded with PCI Express at 8 GB/s. And from the way it looks, the data will have to daisy chain through each module to get to the "think" module that has to do all the crunching, so that second to last module will have all the data from the entire computer trying to go through that final dinky 200 Mb/s power connector. And you can't count on the wireless USB either. Even if theres enough bandwidth to provide each unit with the full 480 Mb/s, and interference / reliability issues can be overcome, that's still very slow compared to most modern computer buses.

[ethana2 @ Aug 18th 2007 3:20AM]

USB 2 is not good enough. We need a protocol that does not cripple itself with a speed cap. It needs to scale infinitely. And it needs to be pseudo-serial, not simple serial.

We need a USB 3. I've emailed intel to request it. If anyone has any better advice for me, let me know: [e-mail]

[Chris Macdonald @ Aug 18th 2007 5:39PM]

Yeah PCI express has 16 different connections to the motherboard. I think there's a reason. But i guess this kind of PC isn't really for hardcore gamers, i think it's more for old people who can't tell the difference between a PCI slot and a computer mouse.

[Chris Macdonald @ Aug 18th 2007 5:40PM]

Yeah PCI express has 16 different connections to the motherboard. I think there's a reason. But i guess this kind of PC isn't really for hardcore gamers, i think it's more for old people who can't tell the difference between a PCI slot and a computer mouse.

[Chris Macdonald @ Aug 18th 2007 5:43PM]

oops it sent me a few emails and i clicked on 2 of them... this email commenting thing really pisses me off sometimes

[soniiic @ Aug 17th 2007 7:54PM]

I'd love to be able to plug in the 'store' module into any socket in my home and have an instant NAS :) that would be very useful (if not expensive to get all the network-over-power-sockets routers etc etc)

[jeff @ Aug 17th 2007 8:26PM]

The idea is not new, but prettier than the predecessor. Unisys designed a similar system in the early 80's. Each component had a buss along the bottom along with power connections and alignment pins. You simply placed the added component next to the previous one and pushed up a lever that cam locked the component in place. I ran the Coast Guards computer network in Alaska and these were still running (CTOS) until the late 90s. There are even some still hanging around running CTOS (Unix) apps that were never ported to the current (Windows) equipment.

[AJ @ Aug 17th 2007 8:47PM]

I remember SWII too, Jeff. Good times (NOT!).

[Dirkus @ Aug 17th 2007 11:17PM]

Yeah... I remember part of the ongoing maintainence of those systems was buying furniture. When you had a big CTOS rig with 6 or more slices, it would slowly bow the desk it was on. Since the bus was at the bottom edge, heavy bowing of the desk would slowly end up wedging the bottom edges of the slices apart and cause the system to crash. I also remember the sound one of those giant SCSI disks made when it died on my watch. Sounded like a bag of baby pigs in a wood chipper with all the crunching and squealing.

[dj-kenpo @ Aug 17th 2007 8:08PM]

it would be really cool to have your computer in one area of the room, and then near the ac plug by the tv, be able to plug in a second video unit, or dvd rom. I love the idea, and props to the designer. if he reads these comments, I hope he doens't get discouraged by the jackass's insulting his idea. I'm sure all the dudes insulting the concpet do better inbetween all their tv watching .

[Trent @ Aug 17th 2007 8:25PM]

Lol, it's a design people, not a working product. The guy designs cases and such, he doesn't work out the details of how you actually get a large HDMI transmission across a power plug. Personally I think the design is ugly, but even if you don't the design isn't practicable and I doubt you will ever see it in production.

[stephen612 @ Aug 17th 2007 8:37PM]

that is absolutely genius, it'll revolutionize the computing industry in my opinion, making computing simple

[craig @ Aug 17th 2007 8:50PM]

Laughable. Seeing high voltage plugs running through the stack proves that no consideration on actual design or function was given. This is worthless.

[Chris @ Aug 17th 2007 10:21PM]

Obviously this thing isn't practical today, but as UWB gets faster, and it can probably be multi-gigabit with a 12inch max range, cordless will be the way to go.

the problem I see with this design is that to unplug something in the middle you have to disconnect a whole bunch of stuff. with things before more and more hot-swap friendly this is not a good limitation. And, where's the love for inductive power? who needs plugs at all!

[Dirkus @ Aug 17th 2007 11:09PM]

Anyone remember the old Unisys CTOS or Buroughs (sp?) BTOS "slice" based systems from the 286/386 days? I remember the USCG was still using them as late as 2002. This is just an updated version of that same concept. Do a GIS for those names to see what I mean.

[Sean @ Aug 18th 2007 6:32AM]

Yup. That was my first thought. Back in 1993 I did work for a bank that ran on Unisys. I still remember when they bought a color graphics slice. Just slapped it onto the side of the server.

Oh the server needs access to a parallel port? Slap on the slice. It was very neat at the time.

[Enki @ Aug 18th 2007 8:15PM]

You mean, I can upgrade it by just plugging stuff into it..:/? nothing new here excpet how it looks.

[Ryan G @ Aug 18th 2007 1:12AM]

Didn't the IBM PC Jr. use a similar concept, where you just kept bolting on modules on the side (modem, additional RAM, etc). I seem to remember needing to make my desk wider to accommodate that thing as I kept tacking on modules.

[richarDesign @ Aug 18th 2007 12:41AM]

One main reason of designing this concept is:
Right Function at the Right Place

Please see more details here:
http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?individual_id=134554&portfolio_id=593114&sort_by=1&

[Temujin Kuechle @ Aug 18th 2007 1:08AM]

Frog Design did a modular concept for apple way back too.