CherryPal Announces Pocket-Size PC

CherryPal will introduce a personal computer that measures 1.3 x 5.8 x 4.2 inches (smaller than a paperback book), weighs 10.5 ounces, and consumes two watts of power.The CherryPal PC is based on Freescale Semiconductor's mobileGT MPC5121e processor, a Power Architecture chip running at 400 MHz. The chip's triple-core architecture includes a 3D graphics processor core and an audio processor core. The PC's low power consumption is due to the processor and to the fact that the system has no moving parts and 80 percent fewer components than a regular PC. The company describes it as the first true cloud computer.

Other specs include 256GB of DDR2 DRAM, a 4GB solid state drive, 802.11g WiFi, two USB ports, one 10/100 Ethernet port, and a VGA connector. It will run a customized version of embedded Linux. The company claims it will be "substantially cheaper" than other ultra low-cost PCs, though of course it doesn't include a monitor. "The CherryPal PC is inexpensive to buy, inexpensive to operate and saves people the aggravation of managing increasingly complex operating systems, not to mention dealing with viruses," said CherryPal CEO Max Seybold.

The product will be out in the third quarter of this year.The Register, The Earth Times