Appealing to carbon-footprint-conscious consumers, a company called CherryPal has announced a $249, paperback-sized desktop "PC" that runs Linux, uses a small amount of onboard flash memory plus online storage, boots in 20 seconds, and consumes a mere 2W - 97% less than a typical desktop.

The CherryPal machine is by no means equivalent to a standard-issue PC. Users cannot install software; the company controls and updates the software package, which includes the OpenOffice productivity suite, iTunes, a media player, an instant-messenger program, and Firefox.

The device's operating system is invisible to users, who will use the browser to manage all functions and applications. In the background, the machine relies upon online processing and storage resources in what the company terms the "CherryPalCloud."

While users accustomed to the traditional PC might find this closed-box approach restrictive, the company points out that the system is inherently secure, freeing users from worrying about virus scans and firewalls. The company also claims that the computer will provide a decade or more of service.

The PC features Freescale's 400-MHz, 800-MIPS MPC5121e mobileGT processor; 256 Mbytes of DDR2 DRAM; a 4Gbyte flash-based solid-state drive; integrated 802.11b/g, two USB 2.0 ports; a 10/100 Ethernet port; a display output jack; and a headphone jack.

The two USB ports support all manner of external peripherals, including DVD drives and external hard disks, according to the company's online support materials. Users will have up to 50GB of online storage at their disposal to begin with, although CherryPal says this number is likely to rise.

"I think there's a huge untapped demand here," said Mike Bryars, Freescale's global manager for mobileGT computing. "There is a significant market that's looking for lower-priced devices that are very robust, reliable, and also very green. And that ranges across different demographics, from your professional to your high school and college student."

By integrating functions that would require hundreds of components in a traditional PC architecture, including multimedia processing and the graphics subsystem, Freescale's MPC5121e plays a key role in enabling not only the CherryPal device, but also future break-the-mould offerings from other companies, Bryars said.

The traditional PC architecture can only go so far in terms of size and form factor, he added. By contrast, the mobileGT platform's robustness, low power, and ability to integrate diverse functions liberate the designers of end-user products, he claimed. "We can take the handcuffs off, and they can go and do the research and truly understand what that customer really wants, and they can go and build it. "I think this will literally change the way that we view building personal computing products. There are alternatives."

CherryPal is taking pre-orders and expects to start shipping the systems by month's end. The company states that its business model is based on advertising, but offers no details about how users will be exposed to ads, other than to say that advertisers will not be allowed to view information about users.

Matthew Miller, Editor in Chief, EDN.com - Electronic News

See also: Electronics Weekly's Focus on Mobile Linux, a roundup of content related to the open source operating system shaped for mobile devices.