Webzter PC

["dirnfir" <dirnfir@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I just saw this link on Ars Technica: http://www.webzterpc.com/

It is a $300 computer.  It has a 300MHz Cyrix processor, 32MB RAM, a 3.2GB
HD, and Windows 98.  No monitor is included.

As I read over their webpage, I thought that this would be a good
application for MISC.  The market of people who don't have a computer yet is
ripe.  And a MISC computer would be simpler, easier to use (since it
wouldn't run 98 :), and you might even be able to sell it at a profit *WITH*
a monitor included.  (Would have to be a small profit though.)  It would
include an on-chip modem, video, etc.  In the software department, it would
have a word processor, Web browser, media player, etc.  You would be able to
write new programs for it, of course.

And then inspiration struck.  Here it is: put non-volatile SRAM in the
machine.  No more lost work during power failures.  No more people
forgetting to save their work.

The non-volatile SRAM, if I am not mistaken, is a SRAM/Flash hybrid.  The
data is stored in SRAM when the power is on, and is written to the Flash
when the power is turned off. (Both SRAM and Flash are on the same chip.)
When power is re-applied, the data is read back into SRAM.  This means that
it can be pretty fast.  On the site I saw it on, you could get 45ns NVSRAM.
That means, executing 6 instructions per cycle, you could get 144 MIPS.

If I were out of high school, we would probably have some MIPS machines
already. :)

dirnfir