Hope at last, for an instant-on PC

26th September 2009
Hope at last, for an instant-on PC
Phoenix Technologies' CEO Woody Hobbs with the India General Manager Kirthiga Reddy at the launch of the company's new products in Bangalore, Sep 25 . Inset: the new Intel Atom motherboard embedded with Phoenix' HyperSpace OS

Phoenix Technologies launches HyperSpace solution in India
That perennial problem for desktop and laptop PC users – the ages it seems to take to start up and shut down -- may finally be solved. US-based Phoenix Technologies, better known for their BIOS products, have brought their HyperSpace solution to India. The Open Source software tool - a full fledged PC operating system --promises instant-on, always connected, all-day computing. For users who still want to use a Windows environment, HyperSpace offers the ability to switch between two operating environments with a single key stroke – and promises to make the Windows experience faster, more friendly in the bargain.
HyperSpace is currently available only to OEMs -- at least two leading Taiwan –based players are already offering multiple brands of Net books fuelled by the HyperSpace OS. But by end 2009, says CEO Woodson (“Woody”) Hobbs, Phoenix hopes to make the solution available as a download to lay users who will then be able to port it on their own machines.

At its annual developer event in San Francisco last week, Intel unveiled the latest motherboard for the Atom 230 and 330 family, where the HyperSpace OS is bundled with the embedded software… launching the first mainstream mass availability of the OS on the popular NetBook form factor.
At the India launch event on Friday, Hobbs, also introduced Kirthiga Reddy, Phoenix Technologies’ Vice President and India General Manager, whose R&D team is already involved in significant value additions to the parent company’s innovations. The India centre is also poised to lead the future development of the other flagship product, FailSafe a portable PC theft deterrence system which allows owners to track the machine on GPS,m remotely disable the desktop or erase sensitive content. A “lite” version of FailSafe, “Freeze” is also on offer. Dell has put FailSafe on its new PC range. 

Bangalore Sep 25 2009