Back in mid-December we had the chance to talk about Puzzlephone, a Spanish development that aims to reproduce in its own way the benefits of a modular smartphone and easy to upgrade. Replacing the pieces of a smartphone also raises the need to make use of the retired hardware, and that's where Puzzlecluster comes in, a computer that expands its performance with every old SoC module from a Puzzlephone.
I must have half a dozen mobile phones stored in various physical states. A couple of Nokias, an LG, two Motorolas and a Samsung remain in a drawer accumulating dust, with no direct way to reuse them. In these cases, the logical thing would be to send them to a recycling center, but there's also that issue called “personal information”, so the decision is that they keep sleeping a little longer.
Now, if those phones were flexible in their configuration, they probably wouldn't have ended up there. This happens with millions of smartphones and other mobiles across the globe, raising electronic waste to disturbing levels. Initiatives like Google Ara and Puzzlephone seek to change the trend and launch into the market a modular smartphone concept that can be easily upgraded. But in turn, this raises another question: once we upgrade them, what do we do with the previous hardware?
A Second Life for Old Modules
The people at Puzzlephone have decided to respond with the Puzzlecluster system. The initial design of the Puzzlecluster resembles a cube, into which it is possible to install each of the old Puzzlephone brains. In total, the computer would accept a maximum of five modules, but if the user has more at their disposal, all they have to do is add another Puzzlecluster cube and connect it to the one they already own. In this way, the system has the potential to become a whole supercomputer, using hardware that under other circumstances would have ended up in a landfill. The functionality of the Puzzlecluster also extends to the batteries, which accumulated inside assume the role of a UPS.
Of course, we must first see the Puzzlephone in the market before stopping to think about the Puzzlecluster, but it's very interesting to know that its developers are already thinking about a solution for the modules that are discarded. I imagine that in the future Google Ara will have to follow a similar path, or the medicine could be worse than the disease.
