Slashdot Mirror
AMD's Personal Internet Communicator
mstefanus writes "SFGate.com has a story about AMD's 50x15 Personal Internet Communicator (PIC). It is basically a PC with an AMD Geode GX500 366MHz processor, 10GB hard drive and 128MB Memory; running some form of Windows CE. The device is intended as a cheap internet PC for the rest of the world population. AMDBoard has some pictures and specifications. The question is, will it run emm... FreeBSD?"
I wonder if for $349, a hundred dollars more, they could produce a similar package for here in the US with a nic instead of a modem along with some sort of optical drive. I think they would sell like crazy. It would come with some newbie-friendly flavor of Linux and the user could always change that if they want, but why add a lot of cost upfront for an operating system. There are a lot of people in the US that will not be able to buy a computer unless they can get the price down to something like $350 or so. If this $249 machine can be profitable, then I think this $349 machine could be profitable as well and we'd be helping people here, as well as abroad. Or, am I just completely missing something?
http://www.busyweather.com/
This is a perfect killer-application for Gmail. Now Google should concentrate on persistent documents (a la Office) productivity suit, and no one will ever need a desktop PC with a hard drive. Is this how the future will look like?
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
Not in my opinion.
I think that is still too expensive of a computer to get into the hands of those that don't have one. A second hand 1GHz computer would probably be a lot cheaper and more suitable for running modern browsers. At least this is pretty power efficient, but even Via probably has more powerful CPUs that are sufficiently low power.
just what i was looking for. i need something for http/ftp/print/etc server. and also something for a freebsd firewall, a full computer would be too much.
good job AMD (if it runs FreeBSD)!
Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
If it's got a 10GB HD, why's it using WinCE? performance on a slow CPU? How have the WinCE apps done security-wise vs. Win32 apps for "regular" Windows?
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
I wonder if they could strip it down and get rid of the hard drive and use a bootable Ethernet card. If you are on a lan with a NFS server running dhcpd, rarpd and tftpd, you can have the computer boot as a diskless workstation. Convince your ISP to run these services and privide users with a home directory. That would be a sweet way to provide a zero maintenance PC to anyone. Diskless FreeBSD is discussed at http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2004/09/09/diskles s_server.html
Think global, act loco
For $249 it's not partiularly inexpensive, fast or useful. Although it might be had to find parts like a hard drive of only 10 gig any more (at least for any manufacturing project where you want to make a number of the product over a year or more of time and have a viable supply of identical parts for the run), I certainly can put together a more capable PC for $249 with off the shelf parts. I expect third world users who look to spend a month or more of income on a PC are more likely to want to buy as much computer as they can for their money rather than care much that it comes in a small plastic box (and runs slow, has limited storage, and includes an OS that the user paid something for but will have to ditch).
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Having the system loaded with a version of Windows CE may actually be a good thing. Not better than having a version of embedded linux, but better then XP. So far the only worm/virus/trojan I know of is a proof of concept trojan that was emailed to an AntiVirus vendor for Pocket PC, and it didn't actually do anything.
With the amount of spyware and other nasties out there preying on naive internet users it would be in everyone's best interest to keep these machines on an embedded platform. First a trojan/virus/worm would need to be created to take advantage of this platform which is new territory to the evil doers. Second, the user base is small and the machines are not very powerful so the advantage to writing a nasty for this platform are small. And third, even if the PC were to be infected it could be cleaned by a simple hard reset. If I ever were to totally hose my Pocket PC (and I'm not sure how I could do that) I could always hard reset the device and copy my data back from CF backup. Sure, you could do the same with linux setup with partition that contains an image that would overwrite the OS upon each boot but this is still a step in the right direction.
I'm not saying I would want one of these things, unless they scaled them down and sold them cheaper in which case they could make nice low cost cam/file/web/router/vpn/etc/servers, but I think I'll stick with VIA on that for now.
This would be great for my grandparents, especially if you could remotely administer them.
Shameless Plug: Williamsburg VA FireFox 1.0 Release Party
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
Yes exactly. Back in 98/99, the big hype in embedded computing circles was things called "set-top boxes" (read things like WebTV boxes). Everybody absolutely *had* to get into doing set-top boxes, despite the astoundingly dismal sales volumes. That trend has come and gone thank goodness.
So, while this thing is technically better (it uses a computer screen, not a TV), it is definitely more expensive (the usually accepted price point for set-top boxes is $100), and it is proven the public doesn't give a flying fuck about them. So the question is, what is it those guys are hoping to achieve here?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I suspect this may be a case of not knowing your mrkets. In less industrialized markets, copper phone lines are rare. Cellular phones, WiFi, and other new technologies will be the source of connectivity.
You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
I've always thought that the super-cub of computers is what would sell in the 3rd world.
However, a couple of limitations I think may hurt this overall:
A: No ethernet. Ethernet has become this general purpose network glue, and there are a lot of places (eg, the Indian networks being installed) where the village will end up having ethernet locally and then some wireless bridge to the outside world. Ethernet may very well become more preferable to POTS in these installations.
B: Windows based. Even CE means Microsoft is getting its Windows Tax. Linux or BSD don't have such problems. And CE, unlike the main windows, doesn't have a good app selection for more heavyweight tasks.
Test your net with Netalyzr
I've been looking for a cheap web terminal type device for my parents. I've set them up with a good PC, but I think they would like (and actually use) a laptop. But, laptops are overkill both in terms of price and functionality.
I got a Compaq Aero 8000 a few years ago. It seemed to be the perfect fit.. laptop form factor, flash based - instant on, good sized LCD display and keyboard, built-in PCMCIA and CompactFlash slots.. But, the Windows CE software sucked badly enough to make the device painful to use.
The same form factor - maybe upping the resolution to 1024x768, with a decently responsive OS, and a good WWW browser, would be all the laptop most people would need. If it ran an open OS, like Linux, there would be plenty of software available for it (even if the manufacturer abandoned it, like Compaq did with the Aero 8000, leaving users with an extremely outdated version of IE for a browser).
Be made BeBoxes. I never thought of them as el cheapo small boxxen like this AMD box. They used dual PPC chips in the later versions and dual CPUs from AT&T in the first models. Here's a /. article about Be.
acronym finder:
Picture
Predesignated Interexchange Carrier (telephony)
Primary Interexchange Carrier (telephone long distance carrier)
Pacific Islanders in Communications
Pacific Islands Church (New Zealand)
Pacific Islands Club
Pakistan Insurance Corporation
Palminfocenter (website)
Pangarungan Islam College
Parallel Interference Cancellation
Parent Indicator Code
Particle-In-Cell (micropulsion systems on-a-chip)
Particulate Inorganic Carbon
Partners in Crime
Patient Identification Code
Patrol In Council (Scouts Canada)
Peripheral Interface Controller
Peripheral Intravenous Catheter (medical)
Person In ChargePIC
Personal Identification Code
Personal Information Carrier
Personal Information Communicator
Personal Injury Coverage (insurance)
Personal Interactive Communicator (Motorola)
Personnel Investigations Center
Pharmaceutical Inspection Convention
Photo Imaging Council (UK)
Photographic Interpretation Center
Photonic Integrated Circuit
Physical Interface Card (Juniper Networks, Inc.)
Picatinny Innovation Center
Piccolo
Pilot In Command (aviation)
Pitch-In Canada (anti-litter group)
Plastic Ignitor Cord
Plastic Insulated Cable
Plume Impingement Contamination
Pocket Ion Chamber (device that measures radiation dose accumulated at a nuclear power plant)
Point(s) in CallsPIC
Poison Information Centre
Polyethylene Insulated Cable
Polyisocyanurate (rigid foam contruction material)
Polymer-Impregnated Concrete
Port Interface Card
Portable Intensive Care (system; medical equipment)
Position Independent Code
Post-beamformer Interference Canceller
Potential Impact Circle (natural gas pipeline)
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Powdered Iron Core (inductor; electronics)
Preliminary Interface Certification
Presidential Inaugural Committee
Pressure Indicator Controller
Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier
Primary Interchange Carrier
Primary Interlata Carrier
Prior Informed Consent
Prior Informed Consent (Rotterdam Convention on Trade in Hazardous Chemicals)
Priority Interrupt ControllerPIC
Private in Charge
Private Industry Council
Processor Input Channel
Processor Interface Control
Product Identification Code
Product Integrity Center (Cutler-Hammer, Inc.)
Product Introduction Center
Production & Inventory Control
Products of Incomplete Combustion
Program Information Center (Navy)
Program Integration Challenge
Programmable Integrated Circuit
Programmable Interrupt Controller
Programmers Investment Corporation
Progressive Image Coding
Progressive Insurance Company
Prolonged Illness Condition (health care)
Public Interest Center
Purpose Identification Code
Intel and Microsoft is loyal to each other, but my understanding is that AMD isn't in Microsoft's favorite list.
So why would AMD ship it with Windows, and pay a high license fee when they can get it from free with Linux?
Since when does an app on the scale of Microsoft Office produce "very small documents"? The file format, for one thing, will need a serious rethinking.
I agree with this, but I doubt it is to keep linux "off" the boxes. Linux can already run on just about anything. The reason I am guessing is to keep "Modern" Windows OS's off the suckers. There is no-way the bloated WinXP could run with a 350Mhz and 128MB RAM. (I imagine Linux +KDE/GNOME would struggle too, but wmaker or xfce would likely be fine).
By supporting this low end HW MS can effectively be free to sell cheap hardware their without worrying about users stealing their "good stuff" since it obviously won't be able to run. On top of that if they are able to sell limited CE versions of software to the that market, they do not have to worry as much about large scale pirating of selling cheap versions back to the western market.
Since MS already faces big problems with piracy, they simply would not want another inexpensive box that could run all their latest apps in the hands of millions of people who are not likely to ever buy anything.
Here's how I see it breaking down. The low-end hardware and CE makes it affordable for the HW company (AMD) in this case to buy the software from MS. So MS makes $$ of the initial sale. Since the cost of the software is factored into the selling price, AMD can still make a profit.
The people who lose out in this scenerio are the poor folks who buy this with 2nd rate Windows software. This would have been a perfect opportunity for Linux to shine, because if it were pre-loaded, it could have everything the people would need.
The target market also does not have to worry about the cost of switching, nor do they have to worry about compatibility with others. They are essentially starting with a blank slate.
I am guessing that MS probably is more involved than just supplying a half-ass OS. If this succeeds it gets them in at the ground floor in large emerging markets with less threat of piracy of their high margin apps.
-MS2k