AMD's Personal Internet Communicator brings the Internet to the people
posted Oct 25th 2004 5:00AM
Not a week after Ballmer was saying that software piracy would peter out if PCs were $100 commodities, AMD busts it out on us with their reference design for the Personal Internet Communicator, or PIC. Aimed at Latin and Indian nations where the dollas ain't so heavy on the intake, the PC features a 366MHz AMD Geode x86, 128MB RAM, 10GB drive, USB, 56k modem, a host of Internet-centric software, and Windows CE with XP-extensions (for XP app compatibility), which apparently enables the little sucker to boot in 25 seconds (which is way faster than our 3.0GHz workstations we got up in this joint). Not that you'd be interested in getting one (if they're even ever made available in the US, that is), but they're going to go for $250 with monitor and $185 without. Computers for one and all, comrades!
I'm puzzled why a Microsoft OS was selected for a device where pennies count. Something based on Linux or BSD would be able to do the same thing more securely for less money.
Looking at the parts supplied one can say that there is a fairly large amount of profit here (depending on the software licensing costs)
i bet if they sold it OS-less they could do it for around $100-ish. i'd buy one for that. well maybe. i wonder if you could install normal XP on it? and/or... can Firefox run on CE? i've never heard of this CE+XP thing before. can it run most XP apps?
PCs with similar spec seem to go for about £40 on Ebay - presumably much less if you're buying in bulk from IT departments.
I can sell my used Celeron 1,8MHz/512Mb of RAM/80Mb HDD for $50 less! (it's not that old)
Microsoft and AMD were getting all buddy buddy over the 64 bit OS, and I think it was a "good relations" move to put the OS on the box, so Microsoft will continue to cooperate with the AMD processor. I read another article about this thing in the WSJ:
"Fortune magazine, in an article about the effort, reported that AMD originally expected to use the Linux operating system until Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates got excited about the project."
If this uses an external power supply, this would make the perfect car pc. Or, a silent pc that you can leave on all the time, I bet/hope these things are dead silent. I can not wait to see the first reviews on these things.
Seems like this would make a wonderful little dedicated webserver for the n00b. Low power, but you wouldn't have to run headless like with the dedicated server appliances - you could just dump stuff from your flash stick into the pube directory and go from there. While I'm reasonably competent with command-line interfaces, and for some tasks even good with them, I'd much prefer a GUI for that sort of thing.
Also, seems like a good platform for building a WinTivo on top of, if you added a TV tuner and some decoding/encoding stuff -- much less fluff than a Media Center PC, and it could subsidize cheap computing for Africa if sold in Europe and America.
This box (reminds me of a tiny luggage!) has numerous potential but that will depend on how upgradeable AMD has design it.
1. Home Web/File/Mail Server. Wonderful potential. Finally I can replace my retired notebook with this which takes only 1 watt!! What happened to the network port?
2. Memory. Can it be upgraded to 256 megs?
3. OS. Can it be replaced with Linux? 25 secs boot time. This has the signature of booting up from flash memory. Compact Flash?
4. Tivo replacement. Specs may be a little undersize for such a task.
5. Can we buy it? or we need to travel a third world country to get it?
... Now that is one luggage I would love to check in when I travel.... :)
Our company has approx 100.000 Intel dot all in one stations in stock with a similar config for just under 100 Euro. The stock is brand new. Any interest? contact RFenstra@brac-holding.com
Hi. I live in Indonesia. Where can I get AMD's Personal Internet Communicator (PIC) in Indonesia or any other open market? Thanks
I'm thinking linux clusters with this thing :D
To stray dog:
You posted about upgrading. One of the web pages about the PIC (http://www.amdboard.com/pic.html) listed at the bottom that it wont be designed for upgrading.
http://www.amdboard.com/pic.html also says:
"See AMD PIC running Linux at Desktop Summit 2005! at San Diego"
...So I guess that answers some questions.
The PIC running Linux is essential for affordable computer pricing for the third world. The device must contain a flashable OS and hard drive. Imagine someone having their PIC "serviced" or adding the newest version of OpenOffice.org installed just by flashing the device.
In my opinion the 10GB hard drive is overkill. Let's start with a fast machine in the 4 or 5 GB range with 128mb ram that could later be upgraded (easily swappable parts are essential).
Let's look towards TouchSmart's TUI (Touch User Interface). Let's investigate a high resolution (snap-on?) greyscale LCD screen - think $20 backlit, cheap monitor. Building this with integrated wireless so that a neighborhood or community can create simple wireless networks.
China spends $8 per student, per year on textbooks. We need to be able to produce these devices for no more than $40 in order to supply them to the world. I'd be willing to buy a classroom set for a kids in a developing place. $40 x 30 kids = $1200 well spent.
Sound like this is up your alley? Check out openideas.org and download your free CD featuring the very best open source software!
how do i do to download the new msn version on th pesonal internet comunicator PIC ??
I don't see why this device and the MIT $100.00 Laptop public items. The hacker community would be able to get more out of these devices and make them more usefull.
But that would be bad, because who wants more usefull items.
One other thing. Now that the world knows a laptop can be built for $100.00 will that drive laptop prices down? I doubt it.
this doesn't boot from flash, from what i've read. there is a flash rom for firmware updates.
the CE OS is responsible for the quick boot.
xp won't run on this config, why would you want to? XP's incredibly ram hungry, and slow, dependent on CPU north of PII-400 to work well. This Geode 366 is probably significantly slower than P-II 366.
unix could do a better job. embed flavors, or perhaps palmtop flavors like Familiar.
some have suggested more harware fertures which is absurd. these guys stayed up late stripping features away, and counting beans, the design stays. this is not expandable and never will be without board-level mods at least. the lack of hardware is the entire point of the product.
USB networking is the key.
and due to platter manufacturing methods, a smaller capacity HD would be the same price. 10GB is the minimum size they make, unless you are suggesting
more expensive miniature drives like hitachi ipod drives. won't save any dough.
no suggestion that will add to the hardware cost will even be considered by AMD.
the mit $100 laptop is using 1GB flash and no drive. i like t.
this doesn't boot from flash, from what i've read. there is a flash rom for firmware updates.
the CE OS is responsible for the quick boot.
xp won't run on this config, why would you want to? XP's incredibly ram hungry, and slow, dependent on CPU north of PII-400 to work well. This Geode 366 is probably significantly slower than P-II 366.
unix could do a better job. embed flavors, or perhaps palmtop flavors like Familiar.
some have suggested more harware fertures which is absurd. these guys stayed up late stripping features away, and counting beans, the design stays. this is not expandable and never will be without board-level mods at least. the lack of hardware is the entire point of the product.
USB networking is the key.
and due to platter manufacturing methods, a smaller capacity HD would be the same price. 10GB is the minimum size they make, unless you are suggesting
more expensive miniature drives like hitachi ipod drives. won't save any dough.
no suggestion that will add to the hardware cost will even be considered by AMD.
the mit $100 laptop is using 1GB flash and no drive. i like t.
I have one for sale. I've upgraded the 128MB DDR SODIMM to 256MB.
BTW, the unit has TV out pads, but no conection, it has a ton of stuff that they didn't implement. It does have USB network adapter, and I am using it right this moment to write this post.
email okidude1@hotmail.com
Thanks.