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BANGALORE, INDIA - While Western companies have been searching in vain for the "next big thing" in computing, Indian researchers in partnership with a local company have unveiled a cheap pocket device they hope will change the way users in developing countries relate to computers.
Dubbed Simputer, for simple computer, the sub-$200 pocket computer results from two and a half years of research and design work by a team at the prestigious India Institute of Science here, in collaboration with Encore Software Ltd. Simputer targets applications ranging from electronic cash transactions to Internet browsing, and is designed so several people can share the machine-even users who can't read.
The Simputer Trust, a nonprofit group that backed development, opted to bypass the Wintel platform, judging that it was unsuitable for a low-cost machine. Instead, the prototype device uses the Intel StrongARM SA-1100 RISC processor running at 200 MHz. Whether Intel can supply the processor in large volume in the...