“Philips Components wants to make it easier for manufacturers to
build Internet appliances. On Friday, before the official start of
the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company will unveil
two “reference platforms,” or nearly complete systems, for Internet
appliances.”
“The Royal Philips Electronics division will provide nearly
80 percent of the finished product, which has an LCD display with a
touch screen and is compatible with several operating systems. The
appliances will support Windows CE 3.0, Mobile Linux or Linux
operating systems. One of the models depends on a Crusoe
processor from Transmeta, while the other uses a Geode chip from
rival National Semiconductor.”
“The appliances will be able to take several forms, such as Web
tablets, which resemble Etch A Sketches, or computer kiosks.
Philips Components’ approach takes much of the heavy lifting off
manufacturers and even opens the possibility of manufacturers
outside of the computing industry joining the Internet appliance
race. The move also relieves Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Philips
Components from having to market the devices.”