Overview
- Chief Minister Siddaramaiah launched KEO at the Bengaluru Tech Summit, pricing the compact PC at Rs 18,999 and positioning it for everyday computing with on‑device AI.
- KEO runs a locally designed RISC‑V processor on Linux and ships with 4G, Wi‑Fi and Ethernet, USB‑A/USB‑C, HDMI, audio, and the BUDDH tutor trained on the Karnataka DSERT syllabus.
- KEONICS says pre‑orders are live and reported commitments total about 1,500 units, with industry leaders Kris Gopalakrishnan and Kiran Mazumdar‑Shaw backing school deployments.
- The chip was designed in Bengaluru by a fabless partner and fabricated in Taiwan, and the state is exploring domestic assembly options rather than setting up immediate manufacturing.
- Availability is targeted within roughly 60 days of pre‑order, with an initial B2C tranche of 500 units, as officials cite recent memory price spikes and say costs may ease as supply pressures stabilize.