According to an IDG News Service article written by Martyn Williams, Taiwan's First International Computer Inc. (FIC) is on the verge of beginning mass production of a tablet PC based on Transmeta's Crusoe microprocessor (called the AquaPAD), more than a year after first unveiling samples of the device. Williams writes . . .

” ' The AquaPad tablet PC is based on a Crusoe 5400 processor running at 500MHz and will be available in two versions — one running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows CE and one running the Midori Linux operating system,' said Allen Chen, a sales account manager for FIC speaking at the World PC Expo exhibition, which is currently running just outside of Tokyo.”

” 'We will start mass production this month,' said Chen. 'Samples of the device should be available towards the end of the month with a Japanese language version available one month later,' he added.”

“The company won't be selling the AquaPad direct but supplying it as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) product to larger vendors. Chen said talks are currently underway with Toshiba Corp., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Sotec Co. Ltd., Compaq Computer Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., but no deals have been signed. When the AquaPad does go on sale, he estimates the street price will be around $599. 'We are aiming for a price somewhere between a PDA and notebook computer,' he added . . .”

Read full story

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.