Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 08:06:26 -0700 From: John Oram <norami@unlimited.net> To: "list=freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG" <freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: low-cost computer from India Message-ID: <396DDAF2.55BA4F20@unlimited.net>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Forwarded from a friend in Belgium: --------------------quote:-------------- 07.1999-07.2000 bYtES For aLL _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/ _/ B y t e s F o r A l l --- http://www.bytesforall.org _/ Making Computing Relevant to the People of South Asia _/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Special first anniversary issue. July 1999-July 2000. We thank all our many friends and supporters who have offered encouragement along every step of the journey ---------------------------------------------------------------- * SIMPUTER -- SUB-$200 INTERNET DEVICE to help non-literate * users: In an effort to bring the Internet to the masses in * India and other developing countries, several academics and * engineers have used their spare time to design a sub-$200 * handheld Net appliance, writes Bangalore-based John Ribeiro of * IDG News Service (June 23). * The Simputer, or SIMple ComPUTER, will enable India's * illiterate population (some 48% of the country of one billion) * to surf the Web. The device was designed by professors and * students at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) at * Bangalore, and engineers from Bangalore-based design company * Encore Software. A prototype of the appliance will be available * in August. * The Simputer is built around Intel's StrongARM CPU, with Linux * as the operating system. It will have 16 MB of flash memory, a * monochrome liquid crystal display (LCD) with a touch panel * overlay for pen-based computing, and a local-language * interface. The appliance will have Infrared Data Association * and Universal Serial Bus interfaces, and will feature Internet * access and mail software. * Its designers expect the Simputer to be used not only as a * personal Internet access device, but also by communities of * users at kiosks. A smart-card interface to the device will * enable the use of the device for applications such as micro- * banking. * "We expect to change the model for the proliferation of * information technology in India," says Professor Swami Manohar, * professor in the computer science and automation department of * the IISc. "The current PC-centric model is not sustainable * because of the high cost of the PC, and also because we expect * that most of the users will not be literate." * A subsequent version of the Simputer will also offer speech * recognition for basic navigation through the software menus. * The speech dictionary will be customizable to support different * languages. A text-to-speech system will also be developed to * take the technology to India's illiterate population. Later * versions will also offer wireless technology. * The intellectual property for the device has been transferred * free to a non-profit trust, called the Simputer Trust, and both * the software and the hardware for the appliance have been * offered as open source technology. In the open source model of * development, users and developers, often unpaid, work together * to update technology. Manohar says that the trust decided to * put the technology in Open Source to enable third party * software developers and designers to add value to the platform. * The technology for the product will be licensed to * manufacturers at a nominal fee of $1150, which is to be used to * finance upgrades to the Simputer. A number of large * manufacturers have shown interest in licensing the technology, * though the interest is currently confined to Indian companies, * according to Vinay Deshpande, chairman of Encore and a member * of the Simputer Trust. He says that the designers have been * able to achieve the sub-$200 price point since the electronic * components used in the device are all off-the-shelf volume * components, and the software is primarily open source software * such as Linux. * http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,17401,00.html -------------------unquote.------------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?396DDAF2.55BA4F20>