National Semiconductor Corporation and ViewSonic Corporation announced a strategic relationship whereby National's Geode WebPAD reference platform will form the basis of several of ViewSonic's new Internet appliances. The National Geode WebPAD platform is a hardware/software reference design that can be used to build both wired and wireless personal Internet access devices. ViewSonic has designed the National platform into a number of products including integrated LCD and CRT devices, web phones, and wireless Internet access terminals. The units support a range of operating systems including Linux.

About National's Geode WebPAD Platform

The Geode WebPAD platform is a complete hardware and software reference design for a personal Internet access device that is optimized for Internet browsing. The platform is powered by the highly-integrated National Geode GX1 microprocessor, a low-power x86-based chip that includes sound, graphics, memory control, and a PCI interface. The platform also includes other National silicon, including a Geode companion chip, several analog parts including an audio codec, a microcontroller, and several power management chips. An advantage of building information appliances based on the x86 architecture, is support for most popular software plug-in modules for the Internet. Information on the WebPAD reference platform is available here.

 
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