AMD ditches the PIC

The PIC was designed to stimulate IT in developing countries and announced in 2004 as part of its 50x15 initiative, which aimed to have 50 per cent of the world's population tapping away at computers by the year 2015.

AMD was confident of making at least some profit on the PIC, which came with a price tag of $185 and $249, depending on whether it included a monitor.

However, AMD's quarterly results filing with the SEC shows that revenues have been negligible.

'The PIC is not a reportable segment because it does not meet the threshold criteria for a reportable segment as required by SFAS 131, Disclosures about Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information. Revenue from sales of PIC products has not been material...

'In the third quarter of 2006, the Company stopped manufacturing PIC products,' it reads.

For the nine months of AMD's fiscal year 2006, the All Other category, which includes the PIC endeavour, resulted in an operating loss of $32m, according to the filing.

AMD says it will continue to partner on other initiatives to push computing into developing countries, such as the $100 laptop per child project, and with Microsoft on its pay as you go computing project.

The PIC was designed around a Geode GX processor, with built in DDR memory and a 10GB hard disk. It offered a built in v.92 modem, 4 USB ports and audio and graphics ports. It came with Microsoft's Windows XC platform preinstalled, which is a version of Windows CE but with added extensions from XP to support a range of applications.

It was launched by a number of OEMs including the TATA Group in India, CRC in Mexico, and Cable and Wireless in the Caribbean. TATA was to roll out the PIC initially to customers in five cities in India while CRC offered the system in Mexico bundled with educational software. C&W used the PIC in support of disaster relief efforts the Caribbean following the spate of hurricanes that season.

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