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The $100 laptop is an education project for creating an inexpensive Laptop Computer intended to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. The computers will be rugged, Linux -based, and so energy efficient that hand-cranking alone will generate sufficient power for operation. Ad-hoc Wireless Mesh Networking may be used to allow many machines Internet access from one connection. The pricing goal is currently expected to start at around $ 135 not hitting the $ 100 mark until 2008. The laptops will be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. The laptop is being developed by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization. OLPC is a Delaware based, Non-profit Organization created by faculty members of the MIT Media Lab to design, manufacture, and distribute the laptops. OLPC was announced by Media Lab chairman and co-founder Nicholas Negroponte at the January 2005 World Economic Forum at Davos , Switzerland . HISTORY , Alan Kay and Nicholas Negroponte unveil the $100 laptop]] OLPC is based on “ Constructionist ” theories of learning pioneered by Seymour Papert and later Alan Kay , Mitchel Resnick , and the principles expressed in Nicholas Negroponte ’s book '' Being Digital '' (ISBN 0679439196). The founding corporate members are Google , News Corp , AMD , Red Hat , Brightstar and Nortel , each of whom donated two million dollars to the project. All three individuals and five companies are active participants in OLPC. In many respects it is the descendant of the 1997 EMate (based on the Apple Newton ), also aimed at the education market. Negroponte showed two prototypes of the laptop on November 16 , 2005 at the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society ( WSIS ) in Tunis : a non working physical model and a tethered version using an external board and separate keyboard. However, the device shown was a rough prototype using a standard development board, so there is still work on the development of the device to reach the intended cost. Negroponte estimated that the screen alone required three more months of development. The laptops are scheduled to be available by the end of 2006 or early 2007. At the 2006 , 2006 . Manufacturer The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) board of directors announced on December 13 , 2005 that , 2005 . PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES , 2006 ., Thailand , Egypt , United States (specifically the state of Massachusetts ), Cambodia , Dominican Republic , Costa Rica , Tunisia , Argentina and Venezuela have already “committed” to the project in various ways, according to Negroponte’s press releases. However, the commitment is not binding. The laptops will be sold to governments, to be distributed through the ministries of education willing to adopt the policy of “one laptop per child”. In the U.S., Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has submitted a bill to the legislature to deliver $100 laptops to all children in the state. While the OLPC originally planned to make the laptop available only through governments, Negroponte has indicated that they may partner with well known brand-name manufacturers to create a commercial version which would sell for about $225, that would subsidize units in the Developing World . TECHNOLOGY with Nicholas Negroponte showing the first prototype.]] The $100 Laptop will be a Media Lab by Joseph Jacobson ). The laptop will be rugged, use innovative power (including a hand crank), be Wi-Fi - and VoIP -enabled and a touch screen (including a separate writing pad). It will include a 900 MHz processor and 512 MiB of RAM . Design requirements Mary Lou Jepsen stated the hardware design goals of this device as:
The software design requirements and the educational objectives have not been described publicly. Hardware The Hardware specifications, As Of December 2005 , with information from:
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Power consumption The power consumption design target is 2 W to 3 W total power consumption for the device in laptop mode. Consumption in ebook mode is estimated to be 0.3 to 0.8 W. The minimum acceptable crank time to operating time is 1:10, i.e. one minute of cranking the generator powers 10 minutes of operation. The hoped-for power consumption in ebook mode is 1:40 to 1:60, i.e. one minute of cranking powers 40 minutes to one hour of ebook reading. Until a complete working prototype is evaluated, these figures remain rough estimates. In ebook mode, all hardware sub-systems are powered down except the monochrome display (including any display backlighting). When the user moves to a different page the system wakes up, draws the new page on the display and then goes back to sleep. Display The first-generation OLPC laptops are expected to have a novel low-cost TFT LCD display. Later generations of the OLPC laptop are expected to use low-cost, low-power and high-resolution Electronic Paper displays. The TFT LCD display is the most expensive component of the OLPC Laptop. In April 2005, Negroponte hired Mary Lou Jepsen —who is expected to join the Media Arts and Sciences faculty at the MIT Media Lab in September 2006—as OLPC Chief Technology Officer . Jepsen is developing a new display for the first-generation OLPC laptop, which is derived from the design of small LCD displays used in portable DVD players, which she estimated would cost about $35. Jepsen has described the removal of the filters that color the RGB subpixels as the critical design innovation in the new Liquid Crystal Display . Instead of using subtractive color filters, the display uses a plastic Diffraction Grating and lenses on the rear of the LCD display to illuminate the colored subpixels. This grating pattern is stamped using the same technology used to make DVD s. The grating splits the light from the white backlight into a spectrum. The red, green and blue components are diffracted into the correct positions to illuminate the corresponding R, G or B subpixels. This innovation results in a much brighter display and a corresponding reduction in backlight illumination: While the color filters in a regular display typically absorb 80% of the light that hits them, this display absorbs little of that light. The remainder of the LCD display uses existing display technology and can be made using existing manufacturing equipment. Even the masks can be made using combinations of existing materials and processes. The display is transmissive with backlighting when used in color/DVD mode. The conventional Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp backlighting, which accounts for 30% of the cost of a conventional LCD, has been replaced with a lower-power, less fragile alternative such as white LED s for use at low light levels. This form of backlighting should also improve the Color Gamut of the display. The display is a reflective display (with no backlighting) when used in monochrome mode for displaying ebook pages. It is unclear what mechanism is used to switch the display from monochrome to color/DVD mode. It is clear from the photographs at the OLPC web site that the mode change occurs with a change in use of the device. The landscape format color display is used in laptop mode, whereas the portrait format monochrome display in ebook mode, so the displayed pages can be “read vertically like a book”. This is the so-called “curl-up-in-bed mode” to enable reading of ebooks for an extended time in bright light such as sunlight. It is also unclear how the pixels in the 1100 by 830 monochrome portrait display map to the color subpixels in the 640 by 480 color (or DVD) landscape display. Negroponte has said at the Technology Review’s Fifth Annual Emerging Technologies Conference that the monochrome display has four times the Resolution of the color display. In current TFT LCD displays, each RGB color pixel is composed of three one-third width subpixels of each color that are one pixel tall. But in this display, it seems likely that a four-pixel square block in monchrome mode becomes a single color pixel in color/DVD mode. The mapping of the four pixels to three colors might use a 2 by 2 square RG-GB sub-pixel arrangement like that of the Bayer Filter used in Digital Cameras to enhance the perceived brightness of the display. Perhaps two different green-hued subpixels are used to expand the display’s Color Gamut . The display dimensions do not quite match up with the display dimensions given by Jepson, though one can see that 1100 is close to twice 640 and 830 is close to twice 480. It is possible that this is the result of the current prototype using a current standard SVGA screen but the production version display may have 1280 by 960 monochrome pixels. The dual-mode display was not operational in the WSIS prototype. The prototypes were shown with conventional transmission TFT LCD displays. Central processing unit The architecture, processor name or model number for the laptop has not been specified. Advanced Micro Devices is a funding partner for the One Laptop Per Child project and is expected to provide the CPU for the laptop. Negroponte has repeatedly mentioned a 500 MHz AMD CPU in his talk and Jepson stated in a video interview that a “special 500 MHz CPU by AMD” with “0.25 W power consumption” would be used as the CPU. Many people have assumed that the CPU architecture must be compatible with the ), accessed December 16 , 2005 .. The 500 MHz AMD Geode LX 800@0.9W™ processor is the lowest power Geode CPU but it has typical power consumption of 1.6 W (and a maximum power of 2.4 W) at 500 MHz. Typical power consumption is six times higher than the target mentioned by Jepson and is close to the total power budget for the whole laptop. This CPU is built with 0.13 micrometre process. Even considering a process change which might bring the power down to 1.1 W for the same chip built on a 90 nm process chip or 0.8 W for a 65 nm process chip the chip seems not to be viable. It seems unlikley that this is the CPU under consideration. A less obvious but perhaps more plausible candidate is the AMD Alchemy™ Processor Family . This processor family uses a MIPS Architecture with a MIPS32™ Instruction Set. For example, the AMD Alchemy™ Au1100™ Processor seems to be a good candidate for this design. Power consumption for this processor is less than 200 mW at 333 MHz rising to 500 mW at 500 MHz. Running at 400 MHz, it matches the power budget of 0.25 W mentioned by Jepson. In addition, this processor has idle and sleep power saving modes and pseudo-static design that enables the clock to be run at any rate down to DC to save power. This flexibility enables other power saving schemes to be implemented. In addition to the MIPS CPU core this System-on-a-chip also includes an on-chip LCD controller, a USB device and host controller, SDRAM and flash memory controller and several other controllers useful in a laptop design. All of these features would keep laptop cost low by both reducing the need for other components and reducing manufacturing costs. The AMD Alchemy™ Au1200™ Processor might be potential candidate providing both USB 2.0 Full Speed controllers and a DDR1/DDR2 RAM controller though these options might be more power intensive. The primary limitation of either of these processors, however, would seem to be the lack of a hardware FPU . The final system-on-a-chip used may well be an addition to AMD's current products and might include the wireless network controller. Wireless networking IEEE 802.11b support will be provided using a Wi-Fi “Extended Range” chipset. Jepson has said the wireless chipset will be run at a low bitrate, 2 Mbps maximum rather than the usual higher speed 5.5 Mbps or 11 Mbps to minimize power consumption. Whenever the laptop is powered on it will participate in a Mobile Ad-hoc Network with each node operating in a Peer-to-peer fashion with other laptops it can hear and forwarding packets across the cloud. If a computer in the cloud has access to the Internet (either directly or indirectly) then all computers in the cloud will be able to access the net. The data rate across this network will not be high but similar networks like the store and forward Motoman project have supported email services to 1000 schoolchildren in Cambodia, according to Negroponte. The data rate should be sufficient for asynchronous network applications such as email to communicate outside the cloud rather than interactive uses, like web browsing, or high-bandwidth applications, such as video streaming. Interactive network communication should be possible inside the cloud. The conventional IEEE 802.11 system only handles traffic within a local cloud of wireless devices in a manner similar to an Ethernet network. Each node transmits and receives its own data but does not route packets between two nodes that cannot communicate directly. Which additional protocols the OLPC laptop will use to form a Wireless Mesh Network is not known. It is unclear if the laptop will join the wireless mesh network if it is in eBook mode. Keyboard and Touchpad Negroponte and Jepson have said the keyboard will be changed to suit local needs to match the standard keyboard for the country in which it is used. Some versions of prototype was shown at WSIS with a detachable keyboard (tethered by a cord). Others had an attached keyboard that could be folded flat onto the back of the display. It is not clear if the detachable keyboard is part of the final design especially as some of the usage techniques described by Negroponte (“accordian-like” key use in eBook mode) seem at odds with a detachable keyboard. Beneath the keyboard is a large dark area that resembles a very wide Touchpad that Jepson refered to as the “mousepad”. Negroponte has said that this device can be used for “ Calligraphy ” presumably to support languages that use Ideograms . This also implies that it will support both fingers and pen-like devices. This extended touchpad might also play a part in the “accordian-like” use in eBook mode for moving to the next and previous pages. The trackpad was not operational in the WSIS prototype. Enclosure The keyboard hinges around the battery/generator compartment to close on the display bezel surrounded by the carrying handle. Negroponte has said in the closed laptop the keyboard and display are Hermetic ally sealed to prevent the ingress of dust and water. Software n school where a pilot laptop program has been in place since 2001]] All of the Software on the $100 Laptop will be Open-source . The projected software As Of November 2005 is:
, 2005 .. Therefore Linux was chosen. Microsoft ’s Bill Gates had attempted to convince Negroponte to use a version of Microsoft Windows on the laptop, but Negroponte turned him down. Some of Negroponte’s friends told him Microsoft might then attempt to craft its own version of the laptop, but he responded such a development would be “great”, as it would speed up the process of delivering cheap laptops. Negroponte has also said he would like to see , 2005 .. A number of Open-source Textbooks need to be written in order for the $100 laptop to achieve its educational goals. Alternately, mainstream publishers may release electronic copyrights to their books at a low enough cost that non-open source textbooks could be used. Thailand deployment The software for the laptop’s deployment in Thailand, one of the first countries to participate in the program, tentatively includes Linux with the GNOME desktop, Abiword for a word processor, either Firefox or Epiphany for browsing the web, GAIM for instant messaging and Totem for the playback of audio and video. The complete list of software can be found here. CRITICISM Though generally well received at early stages, the project has been criticized as unrealistic. At the UN conference in Tunisia, several Africa n officials, most notably Marthe Dansokho of Cameroon and Mohammed Diop of Mali were suspicious of the motives of the project, and claimed that the project was using an overly American mindset that presented solutions not applicable to specifically African problems. Dansokho said the project demonstrated misplaced priorities: “African women who do most of the work in the countryside don't have time to sit with their children and research what crops they should be planting...What is needed is clean water and real schools.” “The $100 laptop — is it a wind-up?” ''CNN'', accessed December 1 , 2005 . Diop specifically attacked the project as an attempt to exploit a new market under the guise of “non-profitability”: :It is a very clever marketing tool. Under the guise of non-profitability hundreds of millions of these laptops will be flogged off to our governments. That’s the only way of achieving the necessary economies of scale to get the price low. They’ve finally found a way of selling to a huge number of poor people. On December 9, 2005, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett offered his criticism of the project: :Mr Negroponte has called it a $100 laptop—I think a more realistic title should be “the $100 gadget”... The problem is that gadgets have not been successful... It turns out what people are looking for is something that has the full functionality of a PC. Reprogrammable to run all the applications of a grown-up PC .... not dependent on servers in the sky to deliver content and capability to them, not dependent for hand cranks for power. “World's poorest don’t want ‘$100 laptop’: Intel” ''Reuters'', accessed February 2 , 2006 Much of this criticism is based on Negroponte’s own rhetoric. He has suggested the laptop for use in extremely poor countries, whereas the most probable users would be in moderately developed places, such as Rural China . On March 15, 2006, after having introduced the , 2006
Environmental impact The project has also received criticism due to the environmental and health impacts of hazardous materials found in computers How Much E-Waste Per Child? , ''WorldChanging'', , 2006 . Market Some people are criticizing the idea of not selling the $100 laptop on the open market. A concerned blogger writes, “Sell the $100 laptop in open market and use royalty to fund free laptops to poor children: I don't understand why OLPC doesn't want to sell in open markets, and why the manufacturing contract has to be exclusive to specific manufacturer(s). By doing this, OLPC is not unleashing the power of the markets. Such a sound concept as $100 laptop, when complemented by the market, will work exponentially well. I suggest a system where the design is made close to open source, and any manufacturer can use the design, and they can make improvements. However, the manufacturers should agree to submit any design or function improvements to the MediaLabs, in return for the original design. The MediaLabs should collect royalty as a percentage of sales, and use it to fund free or subsidized laptops for children of poor countries.” “Sell them! Make them a symbol of global activism” ''OLPC Wiki'', accessed March 17 , 2006 . DESIGNS Various use models are currently being explored by the MIT Media Lab with the help of , theatre, simulation, tote, and tablet architectures. First generation prototype Image:laptop09052.jpg Image:laptop09053.jpg Image:laptop09055.jpg Image:Laptop0956.jpg Second generation prototype Image:Laptop-crank.jpg Image:Laptop-ebook.jpg Image:Laptop-front.jpg Image:Laptop-side.jpg Image:Laptop-theater.jpg Image:Laptop-hands.jpg Image:Laptop-handside.jpg QUOTES
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