AMD Geode Personal Internet Communicator launched

CHIP FIRM AMD said it has introduced its Geode based Personal Internet Communicator (PIC) in a cooperative deal with Indian giant Tata Indicom Broadband.

It also said it will offer the PIC to other countries including Mexico and some unnamed Caribbean states. AMD bought the Geode microprocessor technology which powers the PIC from National Semiconductors.

The machine will be offered as a bundled device with Tata's broadband services and AMD said that it will offer a variety of ways to buy it for people with not very much money. CRC will bundle the machine in Mexico with a suite of software.

There are a lot of people with not very much money in India, which has a population of over one billion souls. AMD's CEO, Hector Ruiz, sees the PIC as a way of opening the Internet and technology up to the masses. But, as we reported last week, the PIC probably costs around $185 without a minitor (a small monitor).

AMD, in a release, underplayed the technical features of the PIC - but did say it will include a customised version of Windows CE and will include browser, word processor, spreadsheet and a presentation viewer.

The firm didn't say whether these applications would be in Hindi, English or other of the 18 official languages of India.

The PIC was endorsed by Samsung in a separate release which said it had provided AMD with memory for the device. We'd be most interested to see a bill of materials for the PIC, formerly codenamed Emma.

AMD points to a picture of the PIC here, but everything looked broken when we looked. So there's no pic of the PIC, fnarr. [Ah, AMD got the site up after we did a spot of badgering. But there's still no pic of the PIC, just of Hector. Ah, here she is. AMD says "The PIC is not a computer". ] µ

See Also
AMD Geode box to cost $185
AMD buys up NatSemi's Geode Information Appliance business
AMD's Emma tips up on web
AMD intros low power Athlon Geode chip