Carputers. Upcoming In Car Entertainment Systems?

So just giving a little more thought to my “carputer” idea thing, I came up with a wish list.

  • Should have an Intel Atom processor
  • Micro ITX case and motherboard with horizontal PCI slots
  • 4GB DDR3 RAM
  • 1GB Radeon series GPU for 2 independent zones (front and back)
  • 500GB 2.5” HDD
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-fi low profile, second sound card for zone 2 maybe?
  • 7.1 SPDIF output to go straight into the AMP
  • Windows 7 Home premium OS
  • HDMI + DVI + D-Sub out
  • Wifi 802b/g/n (Should be good with the built in wifi access points in my smartphone)
  • 7 inch double din capacitive touch screen 800×640 res minimum (HDMI + D-sub + DVI)
  • Touch capable software based car home screen with big buttons
  • Bluetooth for phone calls, BT Audio and keyboard + mouse
  • Garmin or Tomtom SatNav application for Windows
  • FLAC Audio playback (possibly best with Winamp list management)
  • Slot loading Blu-Ray ROM
  • Intelligent power on and hibernate/shut down via ignition switch
  • Rear view camera automatic switch on reverse gear (ideally not controlled in Windows but a video source instead)
  • Front view camera via manual switch (separate video source)
  • Some sort of DVB receiver via USB or built in for TV and Radio channels
  • Internet radio HUB accessible with fat fingers on the touch screen

This can all go under a seat somewhere, I don’t think we can build an all in one double din that sits behind the screen in the dash.

I can already see flavors of Ubuntu being customised specifically for in car operation. I am all for innovation.

Food for thought.

Carputer

Car PC

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