AMD outsources cheapo PC design tasks

AMD HAS TODAY let loose designs for low-cost web access systems in the hope of providing internet to less fortunate areas the world over.

The chip maker canned its own cheapo PC design earlier this year, which we wrote about at the time but are burgered if we can find now.

The new devices, designed by university students from South America, were created as part of the Connecting the World contest - a competition presented to kids across Latin America all about designing projects that could bring web access to local communities.

AMD chief exec Hector Ruiz awarded top marks to the Gota system, designed by Chilean students, allowing bog-standard utility companies to provide web access to more rural areas. The system would use water providers as the backbone for propping up internet connections in community centres and in homes.

Also awarded as part of the competition was the "Judge's Award" - picked by a panel - was the E-Cipó design, a web access terminal that uses a standard television set as a display. The gizmo, designed by Brazillians, would use a GPRS signal to connect to the web and to transmit the screen images wirelessly to a TV set based on a UHF frequency. It'd be good for the isolated rural areas with land-line infrastructure few-and-far between, reckon the designers.

The awards al carry a $30,000 prize with $10,000 of that money being plonked into the winner's university.

AMD bloke Billy Edwards told VNUnet.com that the top brains at AMD would have never have thought of such devices. "It is answering issues of everything from fishing to finding your way around," he said. "A variety of things are issues that we have not seen, and a lot of them are really a big deal."

The contest came as part of a PR campaign in which AMD says it wants to help provide a whopping half the world's population with internet access come 2015. µ