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What is the Simputer About?
(These views are my personal views and do not necessarily reflect the
views of my employer Picopeta Simputers or the Simputer Trust. Do visit www.picopeta.com
and www.simputer.org
to know more about the Simputer)
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Lot of my friends called up and asked if they could buy a
Simputer; and I wanted to know what they intended to do with it. Well almost everyone had a PDA kind Application in mind: Mail,
Address Book, Notes, Presentation Creation, Calendar, eBook. Well Simputer is not a PDA, in fact, it’s a lot more powerful than
a typical PDA; it has a 206 MHz RISC processor. It is a complete Linux
machine, it runs x-windows; you can run many x-applications by simply
recompiling for the ARM processor. We have xterm and xclock running on the
prototypes of the Simputer. Moreover, right now Simputers are expensive as we are yet to
reach mass production volumes. Presently Simputers cost around Rs.17000/- to
produce, it will be some time before the price comes down to the promised
Rs.9000/- level. |
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Simputer
offers considerable advantages in those applications it’s been designed for
(both in terms of Price and Features).
Well then …
PDA kind applications, will run on the Simputer, but that is not the focus area
for any of the Simputer Manufacturing Licensees, at least not presently. One
big advantage the Simputer has for anyone is the built in soft modem.
But then
what is the domain focus for the Simputer?
Simputer’s
About:
·
Bridging the Great Digital
Divide
·
Affordable Computing: A device
which can bring benefits of IT to the people
Simputer is
design to cater to Applications, which require mobility, SmartCard Interface,
Modem Connectivity (Probably wireless soon!)
Simputers
are presently not available to individual buyers; PicoPeta is undertaking pilot
projects to establish Simputer platform based solutions for institutional
buyers (Government, NGO, Defence and Corporate Applications) in
Various
Rural Economy Applications
Educational
and Content Delivery
Applications
requiring a SmartCard readers
Various
Mobile/Field Applications requiring Mobility and Occasional Connectivity: Micro
banking
Simputers
are expected to available to individuals by March 2002, and by then I think lot
of personal productivity applications will be available.
Visit www.simputer.org and www.picopeta.com to know more about the
Simputer.
You can mail me at ash@picopeta.com for any specific queries
