We have reported on the Indrema Entertainment System (IES), project name L600, before but its approaching release, April 2001, tempts us to focus on a few points which set this entertainment console apart from the others.
Unlike your X-Boxes, Gamecubes and Playstation 2's this console will run DVlinux and will be completely open source.
The IES is an x86 based platform running at 600 MHz with 64 MB of main memory. The GPU is a next generation nVidia GPU with 32 MB of frame buffer memory. The GPU and frame buffer memory reside on the IES Slide Bay, a proprietary technology that allows the consumer to upgrade the GPU and frame buffer memory by ejecting a custom card that resides in the IES Slide Bay and upgrading to a new card with an upgraded GPU and expanded frame buffer memory. The IES will ship with a 10 GB hard drive, DVD player and Ethernet connection.
The producers have released a hardware comparison chart which certainly shows that the L600 has potential.
The question remains, will anyone produce any worthwhile titles for this or will it remain
as a museum piece, reminding gamers of what could have been?