The Hindu Business Line : Hyderabad co makes computer, TV combo device

Hyderabad, Nov. 25 A team of about two dozen engineers based in Hyderabad have developed a device that may replace a home PC and allows entertainment and Internet.

The best part of this hardware device developed by Ichip Technologies is that it comes at a fraction of the sub-10K home PC, and brings about the flexibility to use the existing TV as the display device.

The company has filed four patent applications and is in talks with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to offer this packed with new televisions and also with four large domestic telecom carriers.

“If you look at the usage of PCs at home, nearly 70-80 per cent of its actual capabilities are hardly harnessed. And yet people spend about Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 for it. What they require is a device that meets basic requirements of surfing, handling word processing and the ability to make calls. This has lead us to develop @Box, that becomes the single point interface with the world,” Mr Kota Bhaskar, Chief Technology Officer and President of Ichip, said.

Addressing a press conference here, he said that @Box packs two processors developed by the company in house along with a Linux-based operating system that has been retuned to be compatible with the hardware. Once connected to a TV or a monitor, it can handle most of the tasks a computer could possibly handle, including video conferencing when connected to a web camera.

This does not have any moving parts and can withstand worst of power fluctuations. There is no hard drive and does not require booting.

Significantly, this box can serve as IPTV interface and offer Internet calls through a service provider like Skype. But all it needs is a broadband connectivity. This box goes beyond the concept of thin clients as it is versatile.

The company is set to launch the product shortly in the market and has finalised a deal with one of the country’s largest telco.

Asked about the pricing, Mr. K.A. Padmanabhan, Chairman and MD of Ichip, said that this could be priced at about the cost of a mobile phone (say about Rs 4,000) but it all depends on how the services associated with the box get bundled with the telco. Some private equity companies are interested in the company, but it has preferred to stay away from them, they claimed.

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