AMD Cuts Personal Internet Communicator

DaGiants writes "AMD has killed the Personal Internet Communicator (PIC), one of the first major efforts at designing ultra low-cost PCs for the third world. Ars Technica reports that AMD decided to pull the plug, taking a loss on the project. AMD can't be too disappointed though, as the OLPC uses AMD's Geode x86 processor, and delivers a lot more for much less. While OLPC gets most of the attention these days, AMD's role in spurring interest in low-cost PCs for developing nations can't be overlooked."

Good decision

[Salvance]

Considering that low-end desktop computers (w/ monitors and software) are now running in the $300 range from large computer vendors, it's tough to make a business case for selling $250 computers to third world countries ... so it sounds like they made the right decision. Either that, or they realized that since even Negroponte's $140 alternative wasn't really catching on, there'd be no way that a $250 machine would.

Is the developing market lucrative?

[BadAnalogyGuy]

When building low-end devices based on boards like Geode, margins are so razor thin for the OEMs that it generally requires the presence of a significant market demand for the product just to make up the development costs. How you can spin the dissolution of an unprofitable division as a strategic market win and continued prosperity for that particular segment baffles me.

There is a need for low-end computers to satisfy the basic computing needs of developing countries, but those computers need to be based off of hardware that has relatively good performance compared to the average PC. Geode is a baseline platform good for set top boxes and kiosks, it fails it as a true PC computing platform.

Re:Is the developing market lucrative?

[suv4x4]

Geode is a baseline platform good for set top boxes and kiosks, it fails it as a true PC computing platform.

Hello. I'm writing this from AMD K5 100 MHz. Yes. 100 MHz.

8MB RAM.

Do you think it's impossible to use? It's certainly not the machine I use for 3D and Photoshop design, but still I managed to get ermm "informed" by Slashdot, and post a responce.

How powerful a Geode is? It's certainly better than AMD K5 100 MHz.

Buzz off bozo

[ghoul]

You get the right to make fun of Hector when you have achieved 1% of what this guy has achieved. This is a guy born in Mexico who travelled across the border everyday to attend high school in Texas, went from no English knowledge to valedectorian of his high school gradiuation class in 4 years, finished a bachelors and a PhD in engineering (Yes he is a real techie unlike the slashdot script kiddies who took a 6 week course during the boom and call themselves IT professionals and now that they are unemployed spend their time bitching on Slashdot)

This is also a guy who has taken AMD and turned it into a lean mean green machine which ate Intel's lunch.

When you do something with your life other than bitching than you can make fun of him

Before I brought PC's to the 3rd world

[the Gray Mouser]

I would invest in a communications infrastructure to support them. Ground up wireless phone, computer, TV, and anything else that can be broadcast.

But, before I did that I would build a transportation infrastructure, so there were roads everywhere people wanted to go and goods could be moved from one place to another efficiently.

I know computers seem high on slashdot readers' priority list, but honestly, America did pretty well without them for a long time. And many 3rd world citizens would love to have the standard of living that Americans enjoyed in the early 20th century.

I'm not saying computers are bad or not helpful. But the grandiose schemes of bringing them everywhere when so many more basic needs and wants haven't been met seem a bit misplaced.

Re:Before I brought PC's to the 3rd world

[linguae]

Well, I would argue that automobiles are a symbol of freedom. Automobiles allow us to get from door to door, without having to walk for over 5 minutes to a transit stop and without having to transfer buses a few times if you're going longer than a few miles. Automobiles allow us to travel anywhere we choose, instead of wherever the bus or train line goes. With an automobile, getting a load of groceries is easy. Try getting groceries without a car; you wish that you had one by the time you finally carry your groceries over (or give up and pay the taxi). Automobiles allow us to mind our own business. I don't want to listen to a passenger curse somebody out on a cell phone, or deal with some of the seedier characters on the bus or train (this is actually a common occurrence riding public transportation in Sacramento). Finally, with an automobile, we don't have to revolve our lives around other peoples' schedules. You can leave whenever you feel like it with a car. You can't do that with public transportation.

Am I saying automobiles are perfect? No. They are energy inefficient, for one, and I wish hybrid technology will further improve. Our roads are getting much more congested everyday, and our political leaders (in California) refuse to do anything about it (they have refused to build any roads on a large scale statewide since the Jerry Brown administration started in the mid-1970s. Don't get me started. To make a long story short, the Jerry Brown administration dismantled California's grand statewide freeway plans of the 1950s and 60s [which would have been completed by the 1990s], helped cancel many freeways in metro areas [Sacramento, Los Angeles, Bay Area except San Jose, and other areas], and left current construction projects abandoned. Thanks to his administration, and the lack of will from subsequent administrations to roll back his changes, California's highway system went from the best to the worst. Read more about it here [ca.gov].). However, we, as Americans, appreciate to mobility and convenience that we get from automobiles, and I do not feel that public transportation is as flexible or as convenient as automobiles are. We are willing to suck up congestion and higher gas prices in order to ride our automobiles.

Re:Good decision

[msisamonopoly]

"Negroponte's $140 alternative wasn't really catching on ..."

Hmm, have you been living under a rock?

There is already a MOU for 1.2 million units from Libya. Nevertheless, given that the product is still pre-production, your statement is akin to someone postulating that Windows Vista hasn't caught on because you can't buy it in a shop as yet.

Re:$100 laptop? $250 desktop? INSANITY

[xappax]

It's hard to believe you're not trolling, since you're so aggressively and pointedly wrong - but I suspect you just haven't been following the story, or the situation is many developing countries.

it's something geeks can relate to a little better than starvation, typhoid and malaria. But [...] cheap computers are a hell of a long way down the list of needful things

It's true that there are many people who die of disease and starvation in the third world. Over a million are expected to die in central Africa alone this year. These people (especially those in Darfur right now) need food and medicine, badly. There are other people, however, who are not dying of starvation or disease at the moment, but are still quite poor, with few options for supporting themselves or improving their situation. Many villages are prosperous because of a single factory providing jobs, or a certain ecosystem providing enough food. They may be doing okay now, but if that factory closes, or that river gets over-fished, it's back to the starvation game.

These people need education, they need communication, they need the ability to learn independently and develop skills and connections that will make their community independently sustainable, instead of dependent on a tenuous and unreliable livelihood.


And yes, the laptops will be able to run on human power - no infrastructure necessary.