New Trend ? Hardware embedded Software

Does it make sense to embed a web browser like Firefox or a Voice over IP client like Skype into a motherboard ? It surely has some advantages like fast boot times and increased security because everything done using those softwares is stored inside the RAM and not on the hard drive.

Asus is the first company to introduce a motherboard that has a version of Firefox and Skype embedded into the hardware. It is possible to boot directly into a Linux system and run Firefox from there in about 15 seconds which means that users can save some boot time for a quick lookup or phone call.

This new trend does raise some questions however. The first question that I had was if it is possible to update the softwares. If that would be possible it would surely be a similar procedure to updating the bios of your motherboard. Nothing that a “normal” computer user likes to do.

Imagine that you have to flash the softwares every other week if they do get updated frequently. The company plans to embed more applications which means more updating.

A second criteria is price of course. The motherboard sells for $350 which is a very high price for a motherboard. The company behind this technology, DeviceVM, is planning to embed their products into laptops and desktop PCs as well.

I personally think that this is a good idea as long as the method to update the softwares is not complicated. Updating it from within the software or operating system with just the click of the mouse would be the way to go in my opinion.

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Hardware for Webware: A motherboard with embedded Firefox