AMD's 50x15 PC hits Jamaica
Cheap, no-frills PCs with Internet access in Jamaica? Very Irie mon!
Advanced Micro Devices said this week that it teamed with Cable & Wireless to offer the specially designed computers called the Max Personal Internet Communicator (PIC) bundled with Cable & Wireless' high speed service.
The green and grey chassis is about the size of a tissue box, weighs 3 pounds and runs on a 400 MHz AMD Geode GX 533 processor that uses 1.1 watts of power. The device also comes with a 3 1/2" internal hard disk drive with 10GB capacity, four USB ports, internal 56K v.92 modem, a mouse and a keyboard. Monitors are sold separately.
AMD said its PIC operates using Microsoft's Windows CE 5.0 kernel with an XP extender so that users can access XP-based applications.
Prices for the Jamaican version of the PIC were not disclosed. AMD said it lets Internet service providers (ISP) call the price, but AMD has sold the PIC with other ISPs for $249 with a 15" VGA monitor and $185 without.
The computer is part of AMD's 50x15 (pronounced fifty by fifteen) campaign. The goal, according to AMD is to connect 50 percent of the world's population to the Internet by the year 2015.
Even though Jamaica and the British Virgin Islands are two of the most Internet-connected countries in the Caribbean, the vast majority of citizens still do not have Internet access, AMD said. Less than 23 percent of Jamaica's population is connected and only 19 percent of British Virgin Islands citizens have Web access.
AMD has similar offers in the Caribbean including the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Anguilla, Turks, Caicos, Barbados, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Antigua & Barbuda and Dominica.