The SIMPUTER – a Simple, Inexpensive, Mobile ComPUTER – was co-developed in 1998 by Encore Software Ltd and scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore. I have heard about this Simputer before. But not seen till this Linux-Bangalore 2004. Encore was the Silver Sponsor for the event. So they had a stall. And gave a talk in the event about the Sathi.

 "Are you from the country where Simputer was born ?", somebody asked Atul once in Singapore it seems, he said in the LB2004 event.

Really its cool. I had chance to work in that for few minutes. Great work by a Indian Company. It was fast enough to take my inputs. Myself and Prady were in their stall. They explained well about the device. They deliver Simputer with Linux, but previously they had a option of giving it with WinCE.Net :)

Once I read a article in PCQuest, " Honey I shrunk the Kernel". This suits them well. 
 

Hardware Specifications:
 » Intel Strong ARM Processor-SA1110 @ 206 MHz  
 » 240x320 Monochrome/Color TFT Panel with backlight Touch Screen used with Stylus Pen  
 » 16MB-64MB of DRAM 
 » 08-32 MB of Flash for Permanent Storage 
 
Connectivity/ Interfaces:
 » Internal V.90 Data Modem 
 » SmartCard Reader/Writer 
 » RJ-11 Telephone Jack 
 » USB Master Interface 
 » IrDA (Infrared) Interface 
 » Internal Speaker/Microphone/Voice Recorder 
 » Connector to External Speaker/Microphone 
 » Connector to Expansion Cradle  
 
 Power Supply:
 » Internal power management system 
 » Operates with External AC Adapter 
 » Operates with 6V-12V Solar-Power Kit 
 » Two AA-sized NiMh rechargeable batteries with internal battery charger 
 
Systems Software:
 » Linux Kernel 2.4.18 
 » TCP/IP, FTP, Telnet, PPP, HTTP, etc. 
 » GTK+, glibc Library, J2ME 
 
Applications:
 » Address Book, HTML 
 » Browser, E-mail, MP3 Player, Memo Pad, Calculator, Image Viewer, File Transfer  
 
Application Development Software Support:
 » GNU/Linux ARM Cross-development Tool Chain on Linux PC 
 » X Windows Library 
 » GTK Toolkit 
 » Encore's Application Development Framework 
 » ADB Mobile Framework

My Idea : I feel this great one. If they add a mobile unit(supporting GSM Mobile Kit), then it can be marketed as a PDA (World's Feature Rich PDA!!!!)

[Encore Simputer]

 its a  SPECIAL TRIP   since we went to see the elephants  from different parts of the state. Cool, its our CM JJ's order. But, i felt its worth doinggg. This is the second yr,

As usual we(anna, myself & athai, Akka was in madras, so she couldn't )  started in the morning,  to mudumalai from Tirupur. yes, its his SKODA, which took us all there....

From ooty it was 37 Kms to Mudumala(via Thalaikundha & Kallatti ). But it took more than 1 hour. Near Kallatti we saw a jeep standing by its side .. its Bajaj Trax .......Thank god, it didn't slip the other side of the road, which is a big slope...

When we reached mudumalai, we were honoured by some monkeys. :)  From 1 1/2 yrs old baby elephant to a old one, was just enjoying the climate. Few doctors were trying to give some medicine too.... They feed those huge animals with big balls of RICE mixture(made up of rice, sugar, etc.,) And few of them took bath in the nearby stream

We were there for two hours, we took some stills too, but I couldn't bring it back, since some problem in my bro PC's USB port.

And you know, while coming from mudumalai we saw a single elephant(not the one in the temple, real wild one)just crossing the road and was just going towards the stream, hopefully to drink water.... Its december, and still it was hot........

Try visiting http://www.kiruthik.com/pic.php?mudumalaitrip  for the pics..... Hopefully it will be available soon.