Taiwan's Quanta Computer has been selected to produce $100 Linux laptops developed at MIT, for eventual distribution to children in developing countries. Between five and 15 million units are expected to be provided to children in China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria, Thailand, and other countries, the Lab said.

Quanta reportedly outbid three other manufacturers for the project — Compal Computer Inc., Inventec Co., and Wistron Corp.

Nicholas Negroponte, head of the MIT Media Laboratory and chairman of the lab's One Laptop Per Child program, made the announcement Wednesday night via the Lab's website.

The program aims to give children computers for “a window into the world and a tool with which to think. Any previous doubt that a very-low-cost laptop could be made for education in the developing world has just gone away,” the announcement said.

The computers are expected to be available for distribution in the fourth quarter of 2006, the announcement said. Between 5 million and 15 million units are expected to be provided to children in China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria, and Thailand, and other countries.

Three views of the $100 laptop
(Source: MIT Media Laboratory. Click each image to enlarge)

The Lab lists the following key features and specs for the proposed $100 laptop on its website:

• Processor — 500MHz CPU (it appears likely that AMD will be the CPU supplier, since it, and not Intel, is a member of the initiative)
• Memory — 128MB of DRAM
• Storage — no hard drive; instead, the unit will have 500MB of internal nonvolatile “Flash memory,” used for programs and data storage
• Display — described as a “dual-mode display — both a full-color, transmissive DVD mode, and a second display option that is black-and-white reflective and sunlight-readable at 3X the resolution”
• Expansion — four USB ports
• Wireless networking — the device will have built-in wireless broadband that, among other capabilities, will allow it to implement a mesh network. Each laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc WLAN (wireless local area network).
• Operating system — Linux (it appears likely that Red Hat Fedora will be used, since Red Hat is a member of the initiative)

The devices will use innovative power supply technology, including wind-up charging, and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data, according to the Lab.

Apple Computer Inc. reportedly had offered the use of its Mac OS operating system, but MIT rejected the proposal, saying it was only interested in software that could be modified by its own developers.

Intel reportedly skeptical

Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel, the world's largest microprocessor maker, has been one of the harshest critics of the idea.

“Mr. Negroponte has called it a $100 laptop — I think a more realistic title should be 'the $100 gadget,'” Barrett told a news conference in Sri Lanka last week, as reported by Reuters. “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,” Barrett added, according to Reuters. “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. We work in the area of low-cost, affordable PCs, but full-function PCs … not handheld devices and not gadgets.”

Distribution financed by donors

Distribution in the targeted developing countries will be financed by donors or national governments, and channeled through the networks that supply school textbooks, the Lab said.

Additional project donors reportedly include Google and News Corp.

AMD announced in October 2004 its intention to create a low-cost “Personal Internet Computer” aimed at giving half the world's population Internet connectivity and computing capabilities by 2015 — an initiative dubbed 50×15. The MIT project may have benefited from AMD's strategic resolve to become a key player in low-cost computing for the masses.

For more details, visit the MIT Media Lab website.

 
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