Back in 2011, Google was testing a new touch UI for Chrome OS — that much wasn’t a secret. I’d seen bug fixes landing for this touch UI even that day. But where were they testing it? There had to be a touch-enabled device somewhere: a tablet, or a netbook with a touchscreen?
Yes, there is one such device, and they call it “Seaboard”
After reading about Acer’s ZGB device, I spent a few hours digging through Chromium bug reports and found this device mentioned repeatedly. Remember that the Cr-48 was called “Mario” internally? Seaboard sounds like a similar internal code name.
Hardware Specs
I couldn’t get much info about this, but here is what I found.
1. Tegra 2 processor from Nvidia
2. Atmel MXT Touch Screen
3. 2MB of SPI storage – ( whatever that means — )
4. DRAM: 1 GiB
5. Two USB Ports
Is This a Tablet or Netbook With Touch Interface?
I’m 100% sure that this device is touch. But is this a tablet? I couldn’t confirm that. Maybe some of you may be able to read the code better and interpret it. Why am I confused if its a tablet or a netbook with touch? Here is some info from those bugs I read.
“know we only have the traditional models, no clamshells,” one bug says. A netbook with a keyboard should be a clamshell right? So, that sounds like a tablet.
“What steps will reproduce the problem? 1. Start seaboard.2. Press ctrl+alt+f2” does that sound like a netbook with a keyboard or a tablet? ( with a keyboard connected for development purpose ? or maybe on-screen keyboard ?)
Here is another “suspend (flip lid switch)6. wait until backlight is out7. resume (flip lid switch)” that’s a method to test bug. Flip lid switch? sounds like a tablet?
I’m still looking for more info on this. If you find something cool, please drop a comment. Oh, and if you want to dig deeper into this code base, click here.
Update: Looking back, “Seaboard” turned out to be the generic reference board name Google used for Tegra 2-based Chrome OS hardware, alongside other early boards like Aebl and Kaen — rather than a single tablet that ever shipped to consumers. It’s a fun snapshot of how much speculation surrounded Chrome OS hardware back in 2011.
