VIA's low-cost PC box for the masses

VIA's on a mission to crack the Chinese and Indian markets in a big way. With a combined population in the region of 2.5 billion, the potential is clearly huge, and the two countries' economic-growth figures over the last 10 years suggest that a decent proportion of households have or will have the means to acquire low-cost PCs.

In view of this, VIA designed the PC-1, an ultra-low cost PC priced at $250 or below, and aimed at the next billion users to get connected to the net. Take a look.



VIA will now be pushing the PC-1 powered by its latest C7 processor family and, we reckon, a low-cost VIA motherboard with integrated IGP. A couple of versions are currently available, consisting of full-ATX and micro-ATX-sized motherboards. The $250 figure includes PC and screen, and systems are designed to be as flexible and scalable as possible.

We, the press, sometimes forgets that the vast proportion of the world's inhabitants have no access to computers or the internet. Any initiative that empowers them to join the ever-increasing WWW can only be seen as a good thing.