Working Model of $100 Laptop
A working model of OLPC’s “$100 laptop” is starting to make the rounds.
“At the MITX (Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange) What’s Next Forum and Technology Awards June 7 in Boston, Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder of the MIT Media Lab, was inducted into the MITX Innovation Hall of Fame…
But Negroponte used his time at the podium to talk about his current job as chairman of the One Laptop per Child association and its goal of putting what is commonly referred to as the $100 laptop into the hands of children in developing countries.
Negroponte didn’t just talk about the association and its goals; he also brought the first working model of the $100 laptop.”
A lot of innovations designed to specifically tailor the laptop to its intended markets have been introduced, some of which (such as wireless mesh networking) aren’t available anywhere else.
“During his talk Negroponte discussed some of the core requirements of the $100 laptop, such as that it run at very low power (around 2 watts), be readable in bright light, and be rugged enough to work in inhospitable areas.
One of the most interesting points was regarding the wireless mesh capabilities of the laptop. Negroponte pointed out that the point of most distributions will be to make sure that the villages have some form of internet connectivity in a central location, such as a school.
Each laptop will then use wireless mesh technology to spread wireless networking across the entire village. When the laptop is shut down, it will continue to work as part of the wireless network.”