Asus' Eee Keyboard - a full netbook built into a keyboard chassis - has been demo'd time after time by the manufacturer and now, more than a year after it was first seen, the computer may actually be coming to market.

You can see our video of the product here.

This weekend, Asus formally announced the machine in its native Taiwan.

The problem: the Eee's spec doesn't appear to have been updated in the intervening months.

The CPU, according to Asus, is Intel's now old Atom N270, the chipset the equally past-its-prime 945GSE. It comes with Windows XP Home.

Still, there are innovations: the Eee Keyboard now connects to a monitor by an ultrawideband (UWB) wireless link. Presumably, Asus bundles a dongle for the other end of the connection. If not, the 425 x 145 x 10-24mm Keyboard has HDMI to fall back on. A Broadcom video decoder has been built in to augment the weak integrated graphics.

The unit also sports a 5in, 480 x 800 multi-touch control panel for launching favourite apps and such. And the main key array is now backlit.

The Keyboard incorporates 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, Gigabit Ethernet and three USB 2.0 ports for connectivity, and Asus has built in a four-hour battery for usage away from a desk.

Alas there's no word yet on UK availability or pricing. ®