14 DAY TRIAL // Giada may not have made any official moves so far, but its Slim-i30 nettop, otherwise known as Slim-N20, seems quite ready to make it to US stores, at least that's what the recent tests it went through under the supervision of the FCC appear to suggest.
For a long time, filings submitted by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) have revealed the existence and/or approach of a significant number of electronics, often well ahead of their formal announcements.
The Slim-i30 from the Chinese company Giada has now become the latest such 'victim' and has passed all the FCC tests already.
On previous such occasions, the FCC posted little besides just a picture or two, or sketches of the product, leaving the specifications up for speculation.
This once, however, the filing actually includes a rundown of the general build, hinting at a fairly competent entry-level desktop, in terms of not only computing, but also video and connectivity.
As end-users might expect, the Intel Pine Trail platform acts as the foundation of this nettop, with the Atom D510 dual-core handling processing tasks.
This CPU is clocked at 1.66 GHz, is backed up by 2GB of RAM and paired with the NVIDIA next-generation ION 2 graphics processing unit.
One can already deduce that HD videos and most other types of multimedia files will encounter no issues during playback.
Other specifications of the device include a hard drive of 320GB, a 4-in-1 card reader, a HDMI output, a D-Sub connector, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, 2 USB ports, an USB/eSATA combo port and Gigabit Ethernet.
All of these components are crammed inside a slim, gloss white chassis and the product should reach US stores soon.
Unfortunately, it is not known exactly when this will happen, nor at what price the orders will be carried out. Still, considering that tests are already over and done with, it shouldn't be long until pricing and availability details finally surface.