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Google’s Own ‘Seaboard’ – A Tegra 2 Powered Chrome OS Touch Device

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…

Dinsan Avatar
Dinsan

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.

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Dinsan Avatar
Dinsan
Dinsan Francis is the founder of Chrome Story, which he started in 2009 — the same year Google launched Chrome. He has covered the Chrome browser and Chromebook ecosystem for over 15 years and has used Chromebooks as his primary computing device since 2010. He’s always on the bleeding edge, running the Canary build of both Chrome and ChromeOS as daily drivers.

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23 responses to “Google’s Own ‘Seaboard’ – A Tegra 2 Powered Chrome OS Touch Device”

  1. Daniel Avatar
    Daniel

    I hope this test pilot program hits the UK and not US 😉

    Reply
    1. Dinu Avatar
      Dinu

      LOL !! yes, and India too please !!

      Reply
      1. Guest Avatar
        Guest

        And the Netherlands too please !!

      2. maldar Avatar
        maldar

        yeah, Netherlands!
        maybe some arrangement with ChromeStory readers 😉 and our writer too of course @Dinu

      3. Dinu Avatar
        Dinu

        LOL .. I wish someone gives me one piece for free, for review or some promotion 😀

      4. Daniel Chenery Avatar
        Daniel Chenery

        Ask people for donations (via PayPal?). Something like “Want to see more reviews of Google Products. Click the “donate” button below”

  2. Dinu Avatar
    Dinu

    thanks !!

    Reply
    1. morocarlo Avatar
      morocarlo

      Mentioned also in engadget!

      Reply
      1. Dinu Avatar
        Dinu

        yes, saw that .. ( was waiting for it .. sssh !!! )

  3. Daniel Avatar
    Daniel

    Well, it’s only fair. I received an email saying I was invited to the program, then was told it was US only!!

    Reply
    1. Dinu Avatar
      Dinu

      I received one too !!

      Reply
  4. morocarlo Avatar
    morocarlo

    Maybe it will be like asus eee pad transformer 🙂
    http://www.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Pad/Eee_Pad_Transformer_TF101/

    Reply
    1. Dinu Avatar
      Dinu

      thanks for that link ! I just saw one bug that says “seaboard with clamshell” 🙂

      Reply
      1. morocarlo Avatar
        morocarlo

        thank you for all this good information 🙂
        This is my italian blog about Chrome OS.
        http://www.chromeos.eu/2011/04/28/seabord-il-tablet-con-chrome-os-potrebbe-essere-come-lasus-eee-pad-transformer/

        p.s. sorry for my bad english

      2. Dinu Avatar
        Dinu

        hey ! welcome aboard 😀 hmm, you English is not bad at all ! 😀

        will keep an eye on your blog too 😉

  5. Dinu Avatar
    Dinu

    @ Daniel

    na ! that’s not fair 🙂

    Reply
    1. Daniel Chenery Avatar
      Daniel Chenery

      I have seen many WP plugins do it! And at the end of the day, it is always the users decision if they wish to part with their money 😉

      Reply
      1. Dinu Avatar
        Dinu

        btw, I can’t take paypal money to my bank account here in India now .. I am ok to invest a $300 more .. with hopes that some day adsense will pay me back ..

      2. Daniel Chenery Avatar
        Daniel Chenery

        Well there goes that idea, let’s hope you earn money from the ads.
        I thought they sent cheques out every 1 month?

      3. Dinu Avatar
        Dinu

        only when you make $100

  6. Harvey Avatar
    Harvey

    3. 2MB of SPI storage – ( whatever that means — )

    The SPI is probably where the boot loader code resides. The fact they called out 2MB leads me to believe they have more boot loader code than a normal tablet. This would be consistent with other Chrome OS platforms that also have more BIOS code than normal netbooks or notebooks.

    Reply
  7. morocarlo Avatar
    morocarlo

    Look this, asus say me that on Computex in Taipei we see the first Chrome OS tablet and netbooks 🙂

    http://www.chromeos.eu/2011/05/01/asus-presentera-i-tablet-con-chrome-os-al-computex-di-taipei/

    Reply
  8. xatoga5071 Avatar
    xatoga5071

    Reading this post really puts the evolution of hardware into perspective. I had to laugh at the mention of “2MB of SPI storage”—it’s comical to think about today when a single high-resolution favicon is probably larger than that entire boot chip. I remember the hype around the Tegra 2 days; back then, we were all just trying to figure out if ARM could actually handle a “real” desktop experience.
    I spent way too much time in 2011 trying to side-load Ubuntu onto early netbooks, constantly fighting for every megabyte of space. It’s a far cry from my current project where I’m configuring a 7.68TB 2.5-inch NVMe SSD https://serverorbit.com/solid-state-drives-ssd/nvme-ssd/7-68tb-2-5inch for a local media server. Going from 2MB of firmware storage to nearly 8 terabytes of raw Solid State Drive capacity in roughly the same decade is just mind-boggling. It’s wild how “Seaboard” was essentially just a skeleton for testing, yet it paved the way for the high-end Chromebooks we see now that actually require that kind of massive bandwidth for Linux containers and heavy multitasking.
    It makes me wonder—if Google had stuck with those ultra-lean, 1GB RAM specs, would Chrome OS have just stayed a niche cloud experiment, or was the jump to “beefy” workstation-grade hardware always inevitable for it to survive in the professional world?

    Reply

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