The company could be looking to usurp the Chromebox and Raspberry Pi

Jun 8, 2012 14:12 GMT  ·  By

The world can never have too many mini PCs, especially when said mini PCs are made out of versatile processors and sell for a pittance.

In this case, we can't really guarantee the product will be cheap. Advanced Micro Devices didn't say what price we should expect, or when shipments would be ready to start.

But that's the thing: it's AMD, of all people, that brought a mini PC to Computex 2012. Engadget has the scoop.

Called LiveBox, it gave visitors something else to gawk at besides the Lightning Bolt technology.

We aren't looking at a Trinity machine here. Instead of an A-Series chip, AMD chose a Fusion C-60 APU, at 1 GHz.

Said processor includes the Radeon HD 6290 graphics card and is backed by 1 GB of RAM. In short, it is more than strong enough for web surfing, e-mails and YouTube video playback.

As for connectors, AMD tossed in Gigabit Ethernet, a SIM card slot (quad-band 3G WCDMA), Bluetooth 4.0 and a pair of USB 2.0 ports. Finally, storage space is provided by a 64 GB Samsung SSD.

The only noticeable drawback of the test model, besides running Windows 7 rather than 8, is the lack of USB 3.0. There's nothing stopping AMD from adding it between now and the time of arrival though.

For those wondering, this is not the first sign that AMD was going to make a grab for the multimedia PC market. That much was made clear when this competitor to Google's Chromebox made itself seen.

All in all, we can safely say that the mini PC market is more vibrant than ever, with ARM, Linux, VIA and many other throwing their two cents on top of the pile. Head on over here for a list of items that Advanced Micro Devices LiveBox will have to compete with.