Overview
- Chief Minister Siddaramaiah unveiled KEO at the Bengaluru Tech Summit, positioning it as a state-built device to narrow Karnataka’s computer access gap.
- Developed by the Department of Electronics, IT & BT with KEONICS, the compact PC runs a Linux OS on an open RISC-V processor and includes 4G, Wi‑Fi, Ethernet, USB‑A/USB‑C, HDMI and audio support.
- The device features an on‑device AI core and ships with BUDDH, an AI tutor trained on the DSERT syllabus designed to work offline for students in low‑connectivity areas.
- Officials said pre-orders are live, noted interest from backers including Kris Gopalakrishnan and Kiran Mazumdar‑Shaw to sponsor units for schools, and cited a 60‑day delivery window after pre-order.
- Ministers touted KEO as “India’s first AI PC” with a claimed 4 trillion computations per second, while adding that supply costs for memory and other components could influence future pricing and scale.