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OLPC CTO Edward J. McNierney gives us an overview of the ARM Marvell Armada 610 version of OLPC XO Laptop, XO 1.75, to be released soon, being optimized now in Taiwan, it provides for a sub 2 Watt One Laptop Per Child XO Laptop. One Laptop Per Child created the Netbook market, now they will push the PC/Laptop industry towards ARM support for lower power consumption and lower prices through increased industry competition and optimized SoC designs. The $100 Laptop is nearer. Marvell’s 610 is now one of the ARM SoC platforms that is now powerful enough to power a...

No Laptop Left Behind Malcolm A. Kline, February 26, 2010 Educators and their benefactors might ponder what good computers are when students can’t read what’s on the screen. “Imagine a world where even the poorest of children have access to a computer—the poverty gap that could be reduced, the problems that could be solved and the wealth of knowledge that could be shared!” Jennifer Gracie of Hult International Business School notes. “In March, 2010 One Laptop per Child (OLPC) in partnership with Hult International Business School, TalentCastr.com and the Center for Innovation, Excellence and Leadership (IXL Center) will play host...

It's a threat Microsoft can't let stand: the entire third world learning Linux as children, and growing up to use it. And Microsoft is going to get its way. It comes after a sudden wave of SCO-like problems for the OLPC project. A specious patent lawsuit over keyboards. Board-member Intel thrown out of the project for attempting to convince national governments to drop OLPC purchases and go with its own (Windows) product. First, OLPC is shown what its problems will be if it doesn't cooperate with Microsoft. Then, Microsoft approaches with money and technical help - you just have to...

The software maker wants OLPC to redesign its XO low-cost PC for children in developing nations. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has asked the designers of a low-cost Linux laptop intended for children in developing nations to redesign the system so it can accommodate its Windows XP operating system. In a move sure to provoke controversy, Microsoft wants the designers of the XO laptop, available through a non-profit initiative called One Laptop Per Child, to add a port through which the storage capacity required by Windows XP can be added to the system. The XO currently runs on a Red Hat Linux...

This week, Uruguay became the first-ever real, non-pilot deployment site of OLPC XO laptops. And I was there to hand out the first one. A bit of backstory Early on, when talking to countries interested in OLPC laptops, we heard one serious concern repeatedly: theft. In places where the price of an XO is several times larger than the annual per capita income, the laptop is an obvious target. To mitigate the issue, the Bitfrost security platform features a three-prong theft deterrence system; without going into too much detail (more information is available), one key protection feature deters XO...

A few days ago Red Hat shared with the world the first ISO images of the system that is planned to be installed on the OLPC laptops. I suddenly felt an irresistible urge … I downloaded the 291 MB ISO, burned it on a CD and started testing. Here is what I got. If you are looking for the technical details of OLPC project, take a look at our previous article: One Laptop Per Child: XO Phase 2 Progress which explains the technological progress made recently in the project. Author: Piotr MalińskiA journey to the unknown After booting the CD...