Laptop org from PCWorld May '07

Tech lnnovations Fuel Low-Cost Laptop

STURDINESS AND SIMPLICITY ARE KEYS TO $150 NOTEBOOK FOR THE WORLD'S POOREST KIDS.

u o w do you make a laptop that can tolerate sandstorms and monsoons, run on a car battery. and cosl just SI50? That was the challenge facing One Laptop per Child (www.

laptop.org), a nonprofit group founded by MIT Media Lab veterans to get youngsters in dcveloping nations on linę.

OLPCs XO notebook l>C at-lains its ultralow price through

a combination of innovative technology (such as its dual-modę LCD) and old-fashioned streamlining (it doesn t havca bard drive. and it usesa Linux-based operaling system).

OLPC plans to start distrib-uting 5 million XOs in |uly. As production rampsup. the price should approach the original S100 target. OLPC says.

—Ton i Spring

DESIGN: THE XO'Scaseis madę of 0.08-inch*thick pfastic (standard laptops use a less sturdy 0.05* inch-thick plastic). Mesh network antenna "cars" double as covers for USB and audio ports.

DISPLAY: A SWIVELING lid with a 7.5*inch LCD screcn has a latch that can lockit aqainstthe keyboard toturn the XO into an electronie book reader. The display has a high-resolution black* and-white modę for easy rcading in direct sunlight, and a back-lit, lower-resolution color modę.

UNDER THE HOOD: The XO has no movinq parts; it relies on 512MB of flash and 128MB of RAM. Heat from its 366-MHz AMD Geode CPU dissipates via the keyboard and display.

WIRELESS: THE BUILT-IN 802.11b/g Wi-Fi allows X0 units to function as mesh network nodes that can connect and communicate with other laptops cvcn when no link to the Internet is available.

OPERATING SYSTEM THE XO's Unux*based operating system can run only software that isn't hobbled by the notebook‘s storage and memory limitations (see "Under the Hood,” above center). Open-Office, for example, can’t run on the XO-but the XO does come with a version of the Opera Web browser.

Antennas

Audio ports and one US8 port Two USB ports under antenna

Directional pad Back-llght control

INPUTS: THE RUBBER keyboard is scaled to keep out dirt and water. In addition to the keyboard, the XO's inputs consist of a touchpad mouse (below the keyboard), a gamę pad (at lower rkjht of screen), and a directional pad (at lower left of screen).

BATTERY: THE X0 consumes just one-tenth the energy of a standard laptop. Powered by a nickel-metal hydride battery, the X0 can run for 3 to 22 hours on a charge from a car battery, a foot pedał, a puli string, ora conventional wali outlet.

24 WWW.PCWORLD.COM / MAY 2007