Dust, Heat, Intermittent power, no phone lines – limitations of the “bottom of the pyramid” converted to opportunity by Intel

Intel Developer Forum at San Francisco on Aug 23, 2005, like every year had great product announcements. Intel CEO Paul Otelini talked of microprocessors designed with focus on low energy consumption - notebook computers consuming 5 watts, desktop 45 watts and servers 85 watts – soon. There was another announcement too – “community computer” a reference design of a PC that addresses the “emerging market” needs; typical in India; humidity and dust, high temperature (no cooling), intermittent and low quality power and no access to landline phones in the vicinity.

The fact that Intel focused on such a uniquely Indian problem and also nearly solved it including affordability, is satisfying indeed. More satisfying is the fact that it was done at Intel Bangalore, and Rakesh Godhwani who taught part of the course at IIIT-B this Summer was one of the Project leads!