Xi3 Corporation’s $1,000 “Piston” device, meant to be a PC and game console hybrid, is the size of a grapefruit, and despite its miniature form-factor, will be easy to upgrade, says Xi3’s Chief Marketing Officer, David Politis. In the video interview above with Geek Exchange, Politis demonstrates how one of Xi3’s other modular computers is split into three boards that can be pulled apart.
Because the Piston uses an X86 processor, any X86 application or OS will be able to run on it. As far as the operating system goes, the Piston, Politis says, will “ship standard with Windows,” but if you want to run Linux or even Android on the device, you’ll be able to do that.
As far as the Piston’s user interface goes, you can either use the Windows interface or Xi3’s custom interface, which was demonstrated this past weekend at the SXSW expo, including how you can boot a game up from Steam. Polygon managed to grab camera footage of the demonstration and you can watch it below:
The Piston will be released in time for the 2013 holiday season. Prices for the device start at $1,000. You can read more about pricing details here.
