Long time ago, the Apple I computer was built in a wooden box. Since then, things quickly evolved and we have been facing the plastic and metal invasion: the notebooks we know today. Asustek is trying to revive the good old days and promises to deliver an eco-friendly notebook, made out of laminated bamboo stripes.

Bamboo is flexible and resistive, and harvesting it in worth-mentioning quantities is highly unlikely to damage the ecosystem, since it grows at an accelerated pace. The industrial processing of the bamboo wood involves using some glues and laminates that contain toxins, yet, the Earth is spared from forest wood harvesting.

Asustek have a history with designing notebooks from alternative materials. High-end users can enjoy the Asustek notebooks that are calf leather-bound or the more recent faux alligator-skin models. "Originally we came out with a leather model style-book", said Cher Chronis, director of marketing communication for Asus Computer International, the Taipei-based company's US unit. "It was very popular. After that, it was kind of natural for us to experiment with other types of materials, so we decided to go green", she continued.

The bamboo model is still on the prototype workbench and the company engineers have to ensure that such approach is possible, since bamboo wood will be subject to serious resistive abuse and at the same time, it will have to allow the heat transfer from microprocessors and monitors.

The notebook comes in a time when every major hardware manufacturer wants to ensure everybody that their products love and care about the environment. There are energy-saving components, lead and mercury-free memory modules and even peripherals entirely made of recycled materials, but Asustek is the only one to offer a bamboo-cased notebook.

"As part of a portfolio of case choices, it makes sense. I don't think the computer is going to go over to wooden casing. It's ecological to grow it, but my sense is there's probably more show than substance to the claim of sustainable manufacturing", said Roger Kay, president of PC market researcher Endpoint Technologies Associates Inc.