One-Laptop-Per-Child
 

AKA "The OLPC", AAKA "The Hundred-Dollar Laptop".



They've been giving 'em out to all the usual third world suspects.

Physical dimensions:

Dimensions: 242mm × 228mm × 30mm (approximate, subject to change)
Weight: Less than 1.5 kg (target only — subject to change)
Configuration: Convertible laptop with pivoting, reversible display; dirt and moisture resistant system enclosure

Core electronics:

CPU: AMD Geode LX-700@0.8W (datasheet)
CPU clock speed: 433 MHz
Compatibility: Athlon instruction set (including MMX and 3DNow! Enhanced) with additional Geode-specific instructions
North Bridge: PCI and Memory Interface integrated with Geode CPU (info)
Graphics Controller: Integrated with Geode CPU, using a unified memory architecture
South Bridge: AMD CS5536 (datasheet)
DRAM memory: 256 MiB dynamic RAM
Data rate: Dual – DDR333 – 166 MHz
BIOS: 1024 KB SPI-interface flash ROM; LinuxBIOS open-source BIOS; Open Firmware bootloader
Mass storage: 1024 MiB SLC NAND flash, high speed flash controller

Drives: No rotating media

Embedded Controller: ENE KB3700: Image:KB3700-ds-01.pdf

Display:

• Liquid-crystal display: 7.5” Dual-mode TFT display
• Viewing area: 152.4 mm × 114.3 mm
• Resolution: 1200 (H) × 900 (V) resolution (200 dpi)
• Mono display: High-resolution, reflective monochrome mode
• Color display: 800 (H) x 600 (V) or greater transmissive color mode
• Power Consumption: 0.1 Watt with backlight off; 0.2-1.0 Watt with backlight on
• The DCON - Display Controller chip with memory that enables the display to remain live with the processor suspended. The display and this chip are the basis of our extremely low power architecture. The machine is usable and relaying mesh networking traffic while the CPU and much of the motherboard is regularly turned off. The display controller chip also enables deswizzling and anti-aliasing in color mode. You can examine this photograph of the display (it looks even nicer in person; photographing a display is remarkably difficult).

Copying and pasting gets the job done once again. It has no bluetooth, but how many of these kids have smartphones? It also comes with a webcam and a mic for conferencing with other nine-year olds. It's open source, a la Linux of the Red Hat variety but with the extremely simple "Sugar" GUI. Naturally, this can run anything Linux can.

Factoid: Steve Jobs, the kind soul, offered up his OS, (stripped down, of course), but they said no because it wasn't open source. Apple gets boned, even when they want to be charitable.

Anyway, they're available for consumer purchase in '08 and will probably be around $135 with the price going down as tech progresses. I'll be buying one. This thing rocks, especially the (completely and utterly optional) pull-string power supply.

On a side note: I'll give you three guesses as to whom the biggest order went to, but you'll only need one. I'll give you a hint. It's in Africa.

Fucking Nigeria.

I read about this awhile back. I remember it having a crank but I guess they took that off because the African kids took it off and killed elephants or something.

Mabye if the thing's capabilities weren't from fucking 1977 I'd consider buying this. This computer is seriously composed of shit I could just find in the garbage. Hell, a slightly used 1.3 GHz desktop costs less than this.

What do you expect from mass produced computers?

Exactly. Plus, this is as laptop.

And they took of the crank because it was ungamely (sp?). It's got a pull string attached to the power brick now.

They got rid of the hand crank because they figured that children's arms would get too tired turning them after a full 18-hour day at the factory.

Uh, yeah, that's just what Africa needs. :rolleyes

Here's the contender to the OLPC, Asus' Eee PC.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3829

• Display: 7"
• Processor: Intel mobile CPU (Intel 910 chipset, 900MHz Dothan Pentium M)
• Memory: 512MB RAM
• OS: Linux (Asus customized flavor)
• Storage: 4GB, 8GB, (possibly 16 GB) solid state drive
• Webcam: 300K pixel video camera
• Battery life: 3 hours using 4-cell battery
• Weight: 2lbs
• Dimensions: 8.9 in x 6.5 in x 0.82 in - 1.37 in (width x depth x thickness)
• Ports: 3 USB ports, 1 VGA out, SD card reader, modem, Ethernet, headphone out, microphone in

Start-up and shut down are mere seconds because of the solid state drive inside. Love those things, but they're expensive as hell. Luckily it's all fairly cheap. Starts at $199 for 4 GB flash drive and $250-299 for 8 GB with the 16 GB being a lot more.. It's also competing against the Palm Foleo, which goes for about $499. Of course, this doesn't have the hand-pull and such like the OLPC or the child-like asthetic, but if you're looking for a sub-notebook that's pretty cheap for web browsing, word processing, and the like, this may be for you.

I just may get it over the OLPC. The only downside for me is the black area around the screen seems like a whole lot of wasted space, even though it actually hides the speakers. They could have put more there, perhaps programmable buttons or something.

Ever since my under 2 pound sony vaio crapped out on me, I've been looking for a tiny little laptop. Like, one I could put in my purse. Like my Sony Vaio.

Try the Sony Vaio UX if you're adventurous.

A friend of mine read an article of how some guys went to see how the kids are doing with those laptops, only to find out that they were filled with porn.
:(

Yeah, you can tell it was a slow day at Reuters when they do a piece on third world children looking at porn.

i got my old vaio for free, and i'm saving for a $380 theremin. what makes you think i can spend $1500 on a Vaio UX? ;<

Well, I dunno. You could find 'em used for just over a grand.

Raon Digital Everuns start at $699 and they're purse-able.

But it all depends on what ya need. Sounds like the Eee PC may be for you, if your demands are light enough.

for purse-ing, really, all i want is wifi, word processing, good internet browsing, a decent sized keyboard but hopefully a little on the small side for dimention's sake, like the old sony x505's, and instant messaging stuff. possibly some music playing, but that's not a necessity.

Yeah, you should wait for the Eee PC. It's got the right size keyboard for you as it's fairly easy to touchtype. It's got three USB ports so you're hardly ever at a loss for connectivity. It's light physically and software-wise. It's got Firefox for web-browsing, Open Office for productivity tasks, and Skype and Pidgin (ex-Gaim) for communication and junk. Should come out mid-September, if I remember right.

Looky at the size in relation to people's hands and see if it's the right size for ya.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tFLJJw6WRqM

Keep in mind, it runs Linux out of the box even though it's capable of running XP.

http://www.ncixus.com/search/?categoryid=0&q=eee

Asus Eee PC preorders are now accepted. Coming in at under $400 for the top of the line and $259 for the lowest.

Is the smallest hard drive size out yet and how cheap will that be? I'm hoping for $200 or under.

Oh sorry.

They took the page down because they "accidentally" broke the non-disclosure agreement with Asus. But it should definitely go on sale this month. For reals.

And I think it was $250 or so before they pulled the listings. Of course, Asus may have told them to take it down because they wanted to make changes before final shipping. It may end up being sub-$200 before ya know it.

Why isn't this on sale yet >: I really want one now ;< A Sony Vaio PCG-505tx just went on ebay for 10k. This laptop is a 300mhz unit. That's how nice and small it is. Plus some people were just really gullible.

The Picturebooks are cool. I was looking at them before I found more powerful and likely cheaper stuff that's coming out recently.

Also, looks like they're not bringing the $199 model to the states, but you can really order 'em here, I believe:

http://www.allasus.com/CATALOG/advan...de5ad3&x=0&y=0

They specialize in Asus stuff.

"I have an update for anyone interested. First, I found a few typos on our site(s) that were corrected regarding the Eee. Second, Asus has no plans to bring the $199 version to the US. In an email from Asus this morning, Donald tells me that the 256/512 memory is embedded as is the 2/4 Gb flash storage meaning they are NOT user-replaceable as people keep speculating. Be careful when looking at the specs outside the US - even in Canada (we've seen differences in the past and could not get those units). Linux will be installed on the flash storage module (2/4 Gb) but may be changed to XP by the user (through a USB storage device, presumably). The machine will play any type of video files: WMA/AVI/MPEG specifically (people have been asking me about this). I don't know if any of this is helpful but I thought I would pass it on. We're still waiting on info regarding optional batteries. The target release is still the end of September but I've been through this before with Asus and I know how weeks can turn into months. Still, we have been taking preorders (we will start charging deposits soon). If you're wondering why we must do this it's simple: we need you to commit to us since we have to commit to our distributors/Asus. It's pretty simple. Feel free to call us with questions or check our site(s) for information: www.stipc.com or www.allasus.com."

Release is, evidently, still slated for end of September. The RAM is replaceable, though, if anyone's interested in that. Asus confirmed it.

Here's a really good size comparison of the EEE to the Macbook.



Poor thing. Rumor has it that the $199 model will only be available to education and government sectors.

A Japanese importer called Dynamism.com will have 'em when they're finally released.

i am drooling over this ;< since you're such a techie, please let me know what the developments are with the $199 version. is the $249 version coming to the states? i'd pay that much more to have the ability to call technical support for something this nice.

actually, i've been thinking, and as long as i get another full time job (i was laid off by the district manager over at t-mobile), i'll go ahead and splurge and get the $399 version in white <3 it's so pretty ;<


PS- do you know if the EEE pc will be able to read SDHC SD cards? (those are the higher density ones that now go up to 8gigs)