AMD plans to unveil next week a blueprint for building low-cost "Internet PCs" based on its Geode x86 processor, the machines will be aimed at the so-called emerging markets. According to this article at CNet, there are already three companies in India and Latin America interested in building such machines.

The Personal Internet Communicator, or PIC as AMD calls it, will cost about $249 without a display. To reach that price, AMD selected several standard PC components, including one of its own Geode x86 processors, 128MB of Samsung RAM and a 10GB Seagate hard drive. The company also specifies a version of Microsoft's Windows CE operating system, fitted with Windows XP-extensions, allowing it to provide consumers with a graphical interface, e-mail, Web browsing, instant messaging and word processing. The PIC machines will also be able to play multimedia files and show PDF and PowerPoint files, AMD said.

The big question is however if such price point will be maintained across the different countries where the PCs will be offered. As some of you know, I live in Ecuador and as you can imagine, PC parts here are more expensive than in the US. I'm currently looking to build a very basic machine for my father (the cheaper the better) and one of these wouldn't be such a bad alternative considering what's going to be used for, that it's built already and the low price, of course.