Information Markup Language is the primary format of the content accessed by the Simputer. Hence the specification of IML is intimately tied to the system architecture of the Simputer and its application environment.
The Simputer has following features:
Simputer runs linux. It is designed so that linux has to be started up infrequently (at the time of battery change for example), but otherwise its in a low powermode. When its 'powered on', the user is presented with a screen having several icons (similar to the Palm home screen). Its aimed for followig use:
The Simputer is meant to be a shared device, shared between members of a family, or shared in public places like phone booths, shops and banks and other establishments. For this reason, and for the reason that there is no harddisk or other longterm storage media on the simputer, the smartcard is conceived as the personalizing agent. That is an individual's personal information is securely carried in a smartcard, and then this information will be introduced into the simptuer during a user session. At the end of the session, all traces of the data from the smartcard are deleted so that the personal information is secure [simb].