Canonical today announced Ubuntu Edge, a new smartphone that will be the focus of the company's new Indiegogo funding campaign. The project aims to create a device that dual boots the Ubuntu phone OS and Android and can also be hooked up to a monitor and transformed into a full-on Ubuntu PC.

The Ubuntu Edge project seeks to gain a total of $32 million before the end of August 21. There are several contribution tiers available, ranging from a $20 "Founder" that will place the backer's name on the Ubuntu Edge Founders page all the way up to an $80,000 "Enterprise 100 Bundle" that includes 100 Edge units and online support.

The two levels that most folks will probably be interested in are the $600 "For One Day Only" tier and the $830 "Ubuntu Edge" level, both of which will get buyers an Edge smartphone and placement on the Ubuntu Edge Founders page. The Ubuntu Edge is slated to ship in May 2014.

So what will backers be getting when they thrown down their hard-earned cash for a smartphone that's slated to ship in mid-2014? Canoncal says that the Ubuntu Edge will made from a "cool, textured amorphous metal" and feature chamfered edges and a sapphire glass crystal display. The Edge's straight-up spec rundown is as follows:

• 4.5-inch 1280x720 display
• "Fastest available multi-core processor"
• 8-megapixel rear, 2-megapixel front cameras
• 128GB built-in storage
• 4GB RAM
• Dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi
• 4G LTE
• Bluetooth 4, NFC

That's obviously a pretty beefy spec list, but it also makes some sense considering that the Ubuntu Edge is meant to be able to boot into a full-on desktop environment and won't be shipping until May 2014. Canonical does note that the specs are subject to change between now and next May, so it's possible that the Edge's internals could look slightly different by the time that it arrives in the hands of backers.

Ubuntu Edge looks like a pretty interesting project, and Canonical is using it to really push on the aspect of converged computing with abilities that like dual booting and turning Edge into a full-on Ubuntu PC. Those features are likely to attract quite a few backers, and I'm sure that the existing Ubuntu community itself will do all that it can to help push Edge over the, well, edge. We'll just have to wait and see if that's enough to help Edge reach its goal of $32 million by the end of August 21.

Via Ubuntu Edge on Indiegogo