[ Thanks to Sree for
this link. ]
“The primary goal of the Simputer Trust is to deliver an
extremely low-cost product. To achieve this, they have decided to
use widely available, free public-domain software for the operating
environment and even to develop the software applications which
will run on top of the operating system. The basic software
applications on this device will be offered free of charge.”
“The Simputer Trust has extended the free software concept also
to the hardware design of the Simputer Platform. The hardware
design will be open and extensible, so that any licensee can add
value to the platform. The Simputer Trust will still retain
ownership over the basic platform so that it can continue to guide
its development based on the philosophy of the Trust.”
“The initial version of the Simputer is based on a StrongARM
CPU. The StrongARM is a Reduced Instruction-set (RISC)
microprocessor, which is designed for embedded applications.
The operating system is based on Linux. To enable rapid
development and deployment of application software, the basic
development platform is Perl / Tk. A Simputer simulator and a
comprehensive software development kit will be made available by
the Trust to facilitate widespread application development.”