http://liliputing.com/2014/03/ecs-liva-mini-pc-tiny-bay-trail-desktop-200.html First Shot out of the Chinese Cheapie GuysNo, it isn't a chrome box, it has no OS at all.
Specs are: Taiwan-based ECS has unveiled a new mini-desktop PC with an Intel Atom Bay Trail-M processor and it has 2GB of RAM, 32GB of eMMC flash storage, 1 USB 3.0 port, 1 USB 2.0 port, HDMI, VGA and Ethernet jacks, and 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0. Unfortunately the memory and storage are not upgradeable — they’re soldered to the motherboard.
If it starts out at $200 it will quickly drop down to a competitive $179 and then slowly go down below that some.
"At launch the ECS LIVA will support Windows 8.1, but the company says support for Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux are also in the works."Now that Asus has shown the way, there will be a plethora of cheap little PC boxes hitting the market very very quickly.
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The very least of the ARM processors that can do this Chromebox duty are out now, that being Rockchip's RK3288 (quad core A17 with Mali T760 4 core graphics engine). This chip is cheap, readily available and it makes a dual core Exynos chipset look sick in comparison.
Look for Samsung and HP to upgrade their ARM based Chromebox products to better, more powerful A17 (and upwards, up to Hexa and Octa core chipsets) ASAP.
Because the low end is called out now by the A17 generation from Rockchip and Media Tek, also look for HD accelerated graphics output to be available in the new low end ARM Chromeboxes from the very beginning.
Also look for stick PCs to carry this same chipset starting very soon.
Look for the Intel Bay Trail, Haswell and Merrifield chipsets to keep going into these boxes as well, for just as long as Intel is giving "free money" away if you use their chipset products anyway.
Microsoft is giving away free Win 8.1 to those OEMs that are making sub $250 devices -- the intent here is to bribe the OEM to not use Chrome OS, but instead to lock himself into using Windows 8.1 by giving it to him for free for a while.
Bad news is that Win 8.1 for ARM plumb sucks ditchwater, so it really isn't working out for MS the way they wish it would. Nobody is taking them up on their offer.
Can the old school big boys really bribe the oriental vendors to stay away from Chrome OS?
Hah ...... the orientals will take their bribe, and their wristwatch and their shirtsleeve, then go do whatever the heck it was they were going to do before anyway.