[Jon Stratis]

The way I see it, there are really three options for on-board computing:
1. Use something (like the Raspberry Pi) which is designed for a quick boot, running a single program on start, and collecting/processing sensor data.
2. Use a laptop, with its own integral battery (permitted per R34 in the 2013 rules). This allows you to pre-boot the device, launch any programs you need to, and get things ready to go before taking it on the field.
3. Use desktop components to build your own processing device. You would need to have a quick boot cycle (there are variants of Linux available designed for this), and set it up to automatically run your processing program on start up (Most OS's are capable of running one or more programs at startup/login automatically). As this does not have an integral battery, it would boot when your robot was turned on, very close to the match start time.

I would suggest that #3 is overkill for what we need to do - I can't imagine an FRC robot that really needs more processing power than you can get in a $400 laptop. And while I understand the argument for it, I personally think even a laptop is overkill - a small board (like the Raspberry Pi) should be sufficient for most of what we need.