The Gdium Netbook is a little different from all the other UMPCs out there. That’s because it’s not using any of the usual Intel Celeron/Atom or Via C7M processor but a relatively new one called Loongson 2F CPU.

The Loongson series (also known as the Godson or Dragon chip) is a 32/64-bit architecture of general CPUs developed at CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences). The primary purpose of the chip is to run localized Chinese versions of Linux, with emphasis on Chinese character support.

In the Gdium’s case, they’ll be running Mandriva Linux (Mandrake). The CPU is 900Mhz at 64-bit with 512MB of DDR2 RAM. The 10-inch LCD screen has a resolution of 1028×600 pixels.

Another unique feature of the Gdium is the storage — the G-Key, a Linux “bootable” USB key, boots up up the laptop and stores all information at 8GB and 16GB. Additional storage will come in the form of the 32GB SDHC or the USB extension.

There’s WiFi 802.11 b/g, webcam, multipoint touchpad, a battery that can last up to 4 hours and will come in many colors from pink, blue to white and black. Weighs 1.1kg.

permalink