The Gdium is a subnotebook / netbook computer produced by

EMTEC EMTEC is part of the Dexxon Group headquartered in Gennevilliers, France, and markets consumer computer data storage products and other computer related consumables. Dexxon Group's North American subsidiary, Dexxon Digital Storage Inc. is locat ...

. The Gdium product is distinguished by its unique

Loongson Loongson () is the name of a family of general-purpose, MIPS architecture-compatible microprocessors, as well as the name of the Chinese fabless company (Loongson Technology) that develops them. The processors are alternately called Godson pro ...

MIPS processor and the use of a

USB key A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since first ...

as a primary storage device. The Gdium netbook is marketed as an interface device to the Gdium "learning community"—a website that provides hardware support, MIPS builds of

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

computing tips, and educational resources targeted towards teachers and students within the K-12 demographic.

Technical overview

The EMTEC Gdium Liberty 1000 is built on an STMicroelectronics

2F MIPS

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...

and uses a proprietary form-factored

, called the G-Key, as its primary storage medium. The G-Key, which fits in a specially designed USB slot recessed within the unit, is available in 8GB and 16GB capacities. The key generates no noise, and is less susceptible to mechanical shock damage than hard drives. It also includes an

SD card Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDis ...

reader, which provides support for MMC, SD and SDHC cards as supplemental storage. The Gdium uses

Mandriva Mandriva S.A. was a public software company specializing in Linux and open-source software. Its corporate headquarters was in Paris, and it had development centers in Metz, France and Curitiba, Brazil. Mandriva, S.A. was the developer and maint ...

as its sole

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

and boots in approximately 30 seconds. The desktop uses the

Metacity Metacity was the default window manager used by the GNOME 2 desktop environment until it was replaced by Mutter in GNOME 3. It is still used by GNOME Flashback, a session for GNOME 3 that provides a similar user experience to the Gnome 2.x seri ...

window manager with a lxplanel and idesk-based interface. Like most modern

Linux distributions A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...

applications such as

OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org (OOo), commonly known as OpenOffice, is a discontinued open-source office suite. Active successor projects include LibreOffice (the most actively developed), Apache OpenOffice, Collabora Online (enterprise ready LibreOffice) a ...

, Mozilla Firefox,

Thunderbird Thunderbird, thunder bird or thunderbirds may refer to: * Thunderbird (mythology), a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture * Ford Thunderbird, a car Birds * Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds ...

, and The GIMP are included in the default installation. There are no compilations of

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

, OS X, or

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...

available for the

MIPS architecture MIPS (Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipelined Stages) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures (ISA)Price, Charles (September 1995). ''MIPS IV Instruction Set'' (Revision 3.2), MIPS Technologies, ...

, but e.g. Debian offers packages compiled for MIPS. The EMTEC Gdium Liberty 1000 specifications are as follows: *Screen size: 10" (254 mm) *Resolution: 1024 x 600 *CPU: 900 MHz 64-bit Loongson 2F by STMicroelectronics *Operating system: Mandriva G-Linux *Video chipset: Silicon Motion SM502 (16 MB dedicated video memory) *RAM: 512 MB DDR2 (supports up to 1 GB, not user upgradeable) *Primary Storage: 16 GB to 32 GB USB G-Key (removable) *Webcam: 0.3 or 1.3 Mpx *Keyboard: 240mm long and 96.8mm wide. *Wireless LAN:

IEEE 802.11b IEEE 802.11b-1999 or 802.11b is an amendment to the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking specification that extends throughput up to 11 Mbit/s using the same 2.4 GHz band. A related amendment was incorporated into the IEEE 802.11-2007 standard. ...

/ g *LAN: 10/100 Mbit/s *Battery: 5000 mAh / 2.5 hours (some users report ~30 minutes) *SD / SDHC Card reader *3 USB ports available: 2 standard USB 2.0 and 1 USB 2.0 for the G-Key *1 VGA ext 15pin D-sub enabling 1280x1024 external monitor resolution *Speakers/headset Output: 1 port for 3.5mm audio jack *Microphone Input: 1 port for 3.5mm microphone jack *Dimensions: 250 x 182 x 32 mm *Weight: 1.2 kg

Starting phase

*Gdium was originally planned for release in September 2008, but after multiple hardware and software glitches attributed to poorly managed contracted labor across France and China, the product was delayed until end of February 2009 for its soft launch. Gdium's soft launch was on the Belgium market and received a mild user acceptance. *The target price of the Gdium at Euro 379 makes the Gdium an expensive and poorly valued netbook given its modest hardware and short battery life. Analysts have wondered if a market actually exist for it.

Status

Website went down around Sept 2013. It's unsure if the community is still alive elsewhere.

References

External links

Home page of the projectOne Laptop Per Hacker program from Gdium
(links to wiki, forum, planet and more) {{Linux devices Computer-related introductions in 2009 Mandriva based devices MIPS architecture Subnotebooks Netbooks