First Chrome OS Desktop PC Will Ship in July

As the U.S. arrival date approaches for the get-go Chromebooks from Samsung and Acer, computer hardware maker Xi3 on Friday announced its own entrant in the form of a desktop Personal computer running game Chromium-plate OS.

Due along July 4, the radical device is apparently the first desktop computer announced so far based on Google's new Linux-based operating organisation. It's been under development since 2009, Xi3 says, and will be based on the company's proprietary Xi3 architecture.

The low-power machine will run connected just 20 watts, accordant to Xi3. Pricing has not yet been disclosed.

Three Boards for Flexibility

Xi3's ChromiumPC computer will sport an unconventional form factor, with a small, block-like design. Housed in a diminutive shape measuring just 4 aside 3.6 by 3.6 inches and accessible in multiple colors–including, appropriately sufficiency, a chromium-plate-plated alternative–the ChromiumPC will be power-driven past a dual- or single-core 64-morsel, x86-supported processor.

Inside its diminutive chassis, meanwhile, will equal a standard design consisting of three lilliputian but interconnected boards: unmatchable holding the processor and RAM; a primary I/O module typically housing the majority of the extraneous communications ports; and a secondary I/O module trapping Ethernet, video and superpowe connections.

That modular design is also a part of the Xi3 Standard Computer, which was officially unveiled in 2020 and titled an Innovations Award Winner in the Computer Hardware class at the 2020 International CES trade in display.

A Choice of Operating Systems

Tractableness is one key benefit of Xi3's modular design. In fact, although the ChromiumPC will ship with Chrome OS, users will be able to unreal virtually any other operating system, if they choose.

"The Xi3 computer architecture is designed to support any x86-based operational scheme, including Windows, Linux, Unix and other open source-supported operating systems," aforementioned Jason A. Anne Sullivan, president and CEO of Xi3 Corp. "If someone chooses to switch their ChromiumPC to run over a different OS, IT's as easy arsenic swapping out unmatched of the three boards at heart the computer."

Indeed, such flexibility is besides a hallmark of Linux and all but free and open germ software, and IT's exciting to see it coming made-up into this spick-and-span desktop Personal computer. Can there of all time constitute too much choice or room for customization? I'm thinking not.