Startup develops mini PC with Cinnamon desktop on top of Ubuntu

Start-up Imp is trying to collect enough money via Indiegogo to be able to market the eponymous mini PC based on a Samsung Exynos 4412 Prime soc. The compact Imp will run on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS by default and offer the Cinnamon desktop.

Samsung’s Exynos4412 Prime soc is clocked at 1.7GHz and contains four Cortex A9 cores and a Mali 400 GPU. The processor is placed on an Odroid U3 motherboard that measures 83x48mm. There is 2GB DDR2 RAM available along with, depending on the version, 8 or 16GB internal flash storage. The storage can be further increased via a micro SD card or the internal emmc socket.

A monitor or television can be connected to the Imp via the micro HDMI connection. Furthermore, the compact computer contains a 100Mbit Ethernet port, an analog audio output, a micro USB connection and three USB 2.0 connections. A USB stick based on the RTL8188 chipset is included for making a WiFi connection.

The start-up installs Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with the Cinnamon desktop environment by default. The company states that users can access data on various commercial and open cloud storage services by default. Imp will also pre-install Kodi, the successor to XBMC. There are also plans to remotely access content on the Imp using an iOS and Android app.

The Israeli Imp hopes to raise $100,000 through its Indiegogo project to market the mini PC. If that succeeds, the Imp should be on the market in March with an expected price of approximately $200, or 160 euros, for the 8GB edition.