A new style of “slate” PC is now available in Cambodia for $599 from USC Technology Company Ltd. located adjacent to the north side of Central Market.

Similar in size to an Apple iPad, the Gigabyte S1080 runs Windows 7 and has a 320 gigabyte hard drive and 2 gigabytes of RAM memory.

The S1080 made its debut at Nagaworld Hotel July 19.

“I strongly believe that the Gigabyte notebook will enter the market with great success and become more outstanding than everybody else in Cambodia in the near future,” said USC President and CEO Bruce Yin, who previously worked in California’s high-tech industry, has the exclusive agreement with Gigabyte of Taiwan to distribute their products in Cambodia.

The Gigabyte breakthrough model S1080 features touch-screen capabilities that allow the user to either choose a keyboard to touch, or to use fingertips to write letters which are then recognized by the machine.

The S1080 is 10.63 inches wide, 6.8 inches tall and slightly more than half an inch thick.  It weighs just under 2 pounds and comes with a stand that looks like a picture frame stand.

According to Gigabyte account manager Cecilia Wai, who flew in from Taiwan to join Bruce Yin of USC for the launch event, docking stations are available that make it easy for users to convert from portable to desktop use.

“Most of our in-house products we have a docking station,” Wai said.  

“We don’t want to follow Apple because this is a Windows-based system. We want to relate this slate PC with a docking station as well.  Later if you want to use it as a desktop, you can use the docking station,” she said.

Taiwan-based Gigabyte, one of the world’s top manufacturers of motherboards, an essential component of personal computers, made a strategic shift into the development and manufacture of notebook and slate PCs.

About 4,000 units have been sold so far of the S1080, many of them in Taiwan, according to Wai.   Gigabyte employs about 7.600 people with two factories in Taiwan and two factories in China as well as branches in 24 countries.

Gigabyte’s strategy is to become one of the world’s top brands in tablet or “slate” PCs as well as notebooks.

Gigabyte products its first notebook computer in 2003; its first tablet computer in 2008, and 2009 docking station.

The Gigabyte engineers who started the company in 1986 undoubtedly made the strategic shift toward notebook and slate PCs from motherboards because of a trend trend in global customer preference away from desktop and toward laptop or notebook technology.

Gigabyte S1080 Windows 7 Tablet Specifications

• Runs on Windows 7 OS
• Intel Atom N550 Dual Core processor for high multitasking
• 10.1 inch multi-touch screen backlight TFT-LCD display with 1024×600 pixel resolutions
• 320GB built-in storage HDD
• 1.3 megapixel web camera
• Bluetooth 3.0,802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, USB 3.0
• SD card slot for expansion of storing large files
• Built-in VGA port
• weight under 0.90kg (1.98lb)
• Supports multi-touch, on-screen keyboard and handwriting recognition software