AMD has launched a cheap PC in the US - a system that was originally meant for farmers in India or residents of favelas in Brazil. But now US customers will be able to get their hands on the $299 computer, which went on sale at Radio Shack over the weekend. The device, which was originally intended only for developing countries, went on sale in India nearly a year ago.

The chip maker decided that maybe, just maybe, there could be a market in the United States. AMD put together the deal with Radio Shack in six weeks. The nation's largest electronics retailer will sell the device under the brand Presidian.
The machine is "roughly the size of a lunch box", and weighs three pounds, sporting USB ports, a hard disk drive, and headphone/microphone jacks. It runs on the Windows CE operating system, and also comes pre-installed with Microsoft's Internet Explorer and PowerPoint, Macromedia's Flash Player, and SoftMaker's word processing and spreadsheet programs.