Intel's Community PC: a first-hand review

I remembered the village of San because I used the mnemonic "sand" to remind me of its name; to get there one had to cross the dusty plains along the Niger river from Bamako, the capital of the West African nation of Mali, so sand was an obvious memory aid.

Amadou, our lead trainer, had invited us to visit his family whom live in San, while we were on our way to project sites near the mystic Dogon country. After an entire day on the "road", then meandering through quartiers of mud built homes, over large and open sewers and past numerous improvised soccer pitches we finally arrived at the Konate home. Like most homes, perhaps anywhere in the world, the family was huddled around a television. That television was, however, unlike any that I had seen before. Sitting beside it was a car battery and wires running from it to the TV. The Konate's live in a quartier that isn't "electrified" and so their television, like the lights in their home, is powered by a 12 volt car battery. A local electrician had re-wired it from a standard 220 volt input, to a 12 volt system, for about $5 and in a few hours.

Later on our voyage we passed into the cliff side villages of Dogon. There too perched along the sun scorched and weathered rock of the cliffs the quiet hum of televisions could be heard. Young men made the trek up the cliff every few days to the larger village where one can find a generator and for 200 francs (30 cents) have it re-charged. They would wait for the battery slowly absorb power from a solar panel while they sipped tea and ate from the shell of a Boabob nut.

What I found intriguing was that a couple of simple innovations, converting the TV to 12 volts and the use of solar panels to charge a "portable" battery made watching TV possible in arguably, one of the most remote villages on earth.

The Intel Community PC has also made this innovation. The computer comes equipped with a power supply that is able to use power either from the electricity grid, or like the TV in Dogon country, via an old car battery or solar panel. Though this isn't a novel invention, Intel is making an effort to standardize this innovation as they have with so many other inventions in the past. This is important because now such power supplies will become much, much cheaper due to new economies of scale. It may be standard in all computers, and certainly all shipped outside of Europe and North America.

Other important features of this computer are more subtle. The fan screen seen in the picture is one that might not seem terribly important elsewhere but to anyone who has experienced the "Harmattan" winds blowing from the Sahara, or the dust that blows into Beijing (so I hear) will understand how important such a feature can be. Again, some of the savvier innovators in Dogon have beaten Intel to this, using old nylons over the vents, but making this standard, again makes it more universal, simple and ubiquitous.

Another feature that distinguishes this computer is the "reload" button on the front. For those of you, like me, who answer skype phone calls from distant places on the planet for tech support for Mom, you'll understand. The button with a simple push reverts the system to its last known good state. Once you have installed and tested software, you push the button and save this as a "good state", and later when Mom has accidentally erased Firefox she simply has to press the button. This again is even more important for computers installed in the remotest of remote locations. Like the television with a simple fuse that can be fasioned from a small and thin wire, this innovation will be useful where one can't simply call-in tech support.

Finally, the greatest innovation is simply that it is a desktop that consumes less energy and also, consequently produces less heat. For people in places where electricity is expensive (most of the planet), or limited, or not available at all, this will be appreciated. A desktop has many advantages and the components in this system are somewhat "off-the-shelf" and thus one can simply swap defective parts, or upgrade the computer. Knowing how cars long dead in France have been reborn to many lives in Africa, this PC too can expect a long life. Desktops are also harder to walk away with and thankfully this brick of a computer is at no risk of doing that. Desktops are also better at cooling, having more space to allow air to circulate. Moreover they allow users to easily add other pieces, cards, or larger and redundant disks for example. Most important, their screens are detached. This allows a screen to be replaced, or to use of a cheaper CRT, or perhaps that old 12 volt television. Thus, because of these advantages when the VIA low-power computers and other low-power and affordable computers came to market many people wondered where is Intel? I think this initiative is a clear signal that Intel has finally understood the importance of the bottom of the pyramid (the vast and poor of the world).

This brings me to my final point, though I think this computer is a great idea and I applaud Intel for finally making it, I think that many whom have thus far written about it have not really understood where it will be important. This is not a computer for a telecentre. This is a stand-alone computer. Labs where power is a concern ought to use thin-clients, multi-headed computers or other solutions (see "Skol Linux"), as those solutions can save much more power. These computers are suited for the home and because of the 12 volt option (or computers like them) and its low power, they will be attractive to the middle class, in their homes. With burgeoning home internet access via DSL, wireless, GPRS, WiMAX etc. people now need a computer that will work in places where electricity is expensive such as in Bamako, or too often not available, such as in Kinshasa. Hence I believe that this computer, though also suited for the village will be most useful to the new middle class of emergent markets, in the city.

Thanks to Intel for sending me a demonstration unit, and thanks to First Voice International and the RANET project for commissioning me to study this subject.