CNN Tech

The dirt-cheap computer is CHIP, a 2.5-inch motherboard that costs about the same as one month of Netflix (NFLX, Tech30), or two venti caffé mochas at Starbucks (SBUX). How can a computer be so inexpensive? Next Thing Co., the Oakland company behind the project, kept the design dead simple. There's no case or unnecessary parts.

Like the popular $35 Raspberry Pi, CHIP is a computer without all the fixings. You still need to hook it up to a monitor, keyboard, mouse, power source and the Internet to do actual computing.  If you're buying all these parts, and the adapters needed to hook them up, that $9 becomes much more. Another option is to slip it inside PocketChip, a mobile device that resembles a stripped down Blackberry. It has a screen, keyboard and built-in battery. The $40 PocketChip is available as part of the Kickstarter for people who contribute $49 or more. To read further, please visit http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/12/technology/9-dollar-computer/index.html?iid=ob_homepage_tech_pool&iid=obnetwork.