One Laptop per Child ( a portable by child ) is a American association founded in 2005 with an aim of promoting the Laptop with 100 US dollar developed by the MIT Media Lab.

The laptop of the MIT Media Lab is a research project having for goal to develop a Laptop little expensive (with 100 US dollar, is 100 approximately euros of the time), to give each child in the world access to the Connaissance and the modern forms of education.

The computer resulting from project OLPC had initially been baptized " 2B1: The Children' S Machine" (August 2006) before being finally famous XO (October 2006). Its production was entrusted to Quanta. A thousand of prototypes were produced in 2006. The production with large scales began in November 2007. The selling price was revalued first once in spring 2007, 175 dollars (either approximately 130 euros 1 EURO = 1,34 USD), and is currently in November 2007 at 188 dollars (or approximately 128 euros 1 EURO = 1,47 USD).

Participating countries

Nicholas Negroponte provides that the governments wishing that each child lay out of a computer will buy them, via their ministers of education. According to him, the following countries already expressed their interest:

At the end of October 2007, Uruguay was the first country to place a firm control, of 100  000 units.

The India rejected the project. It estimates that it would be impossible to justify an investment of this size, based on a debatable reasoning, whereas there exist well established needs. (" it would impossible Be to justify year expenditure off this scale one has debatable public design when funds continues to Be in inadequate supply for well-established needs listed in different policy documents".)

Negroponte estimated that the OLPC could cooperate with a famous computer maker, for a commercial release. Sold around 225 dollars, it would subsidize the models intended for the Pays in the process of development.

Technology

This project is made possible thanks to the choice of the minimal performances necessary and the equipment, the use of free software such as Linux as well as the absence of costs of marketing. The laptops will be distributed only by the governments.

It consumes sufficiently little energy to be reloaded with a small electric generator offering a report/ratio time of use/time of recharging of 10 out of 1. The Wi-Fi is used to communicate with the surrounding portables and to obtain the access to Internet.

According to Mary Lou Jepsen, it responsible technological for the project, the important points of this computer are:

  • a consumption of energy minimum, between 2 and 3 Watt;

  • production costs of approximately 100 dollars;
  • an attractive appearance, implying an innovating style;
  • Of the functionalities of E-book;
  • the provided software must be free.

Material

Characteristics

  • a Processor, AMD Geode LX-700@0.8W, graphic controller integrated

    • Frequency CPU: 433 Compatible MHz
    • : X86/X87 - MX, 3DNow!
    • Chipset: AMD CS5536 South Bridge
  • a flat panel display SVGA of a diagonal of 7,5" transmissif and reflective:
    • In transmissif mode Couleur/DVD with a resolution of 693 by 520 pixels with retro-lighting (for a usual use).
    • In reflective mode (using the ambient light) monochromic of a resolution of 1200 by 900 pixels (for reading " ebook" (e-books) outside).
  • 256 Mo of Random access memory GDR 266 - 133 MHz DRAM.
  • 1024 Mo of Memory flash.
  • 1024  Kio (1 Me) of read-only memory flash equipped with LinuxBIOS
  • Wireless networking 802.11b and new 802.11g/s (Wi-Fi) provided by a chart functioning at a speed limited (2 Mbit/s) to minimize electricity consumption.
  • Keyboard conventional alphanumeric localized according to the country of use.
  • Paved tactile ( touchpad ) for control of the pointer and like input area of manuscript writing.
  • Two loudspeakers.
  • Microphonous.
  • Entered microphonous and left line.
  • Webcam color with a resolution VGA (640x480)
  • 3 Ports USB.
  • 1 port SD.
  • Sources of food:
    • Electric cable also being used as shoulder-belt.
    • Two rechargeable batteries C (R14) or D (LR20).
    • Four alkaline piles C (LR14) or D (LR20).

Functionalities intentionally absent

  • No moving part:

    • No optical Hard drive
    • No reader (CDROM or DVD for example)
    • No disk drive
    • No ventilator
  • No interface IDE (There are in any event no readers using it)
  • Pas port for chart PCMCIA

Consumption of energy

The portable is designed to be able to be used in places not having sources of electricity. He was initially imagined with a crank integrated for the recharging of the battery, but it from now on is conceived to use an external electric generator of type lighting of lawn mower being able to actuate itself with the hand or the foot.

The objective of consumption of energy is from 2 to 3 W when it is used like computer, 0,3 to 0,8 W of use as e-book.

The acceptable minimum output during a use as computer is 1:10, i.e. the generator provides 10 minutes of autonomy for 1 minute to actuate the generator. In mode E-book , the awaited output is 1:40 with 1:60, i.e. one minute to generate electricity will make it possible to read during 40 minutes with 1 a.m. These figures remain very approximate estimates as long as a prototype complete will not have been tested.

In mode e-book , all the peripheral components with the system are extinct except for posting Monochrome (and possibly a retro-lighting). When the user changes page, the system is reactivated and posts the new page with the screen then it is put again in day before.

Wireless networking with a grid

There will be support of a network Wi-Fi thanks to a chip IEEE 802.11 B. Mary Lou Jepsen, technical manager of the project, informed that it will be attached to 2 Mb/s, instead of 5,5 Mb/s or 11 Mb/s normally, to limit its consumption.

Lit or not, the computer will be integrated in a dynamic ad hoc network where each one transmits the data through the grid for the computers which it collects, into the image of a network Peer-to-peer. If a computer has access to Internet (directly or indirectly), all the computers of the grid will have it. The flow will not be high but a similar network said Store and forward was deployed by the Motoman project near 1000 Kampuchean pupils who thus could profit from a service of email, according to Nicholas Negroponte. The flow should however be sufficient for asynchronous network applications such as the email, to communicate out of the grid. On the other hand, for the interactive network applications such as navigation Web or with great flow such as the video streaming, this system can show its limits. Such applications will be possible all the same within the grid. The attribution of IP addresses in the grid will be automatic so that no administration of those is necessary.

The ordinary standard IEEE 802.11b manages only one static grid of elements connected to the image of a network Ethernet. Each one sends and receives its own data and does not transmit any between two equipment not being able to communicate directly. The OLPC will use the standard IEEE 802.11s to implement this mesh network.

The sources are always closed by it in spite of the will of the project to use code Open source. Moreover, in spite of the existence of Open alternatives source such as OLSR or B.A.T.M.A.N, the design of a dynamic mesh network said MANET containing free was still not considered as well at the material level as software. The possibility that Marvell, manufacturing chip without wire and owner of the dynamic protocol of grid, releases the aforementioned microsoftware is still not considered.

Software

All the Logiciels of the portable with 100 dollars will be free.

  • an operating system Linux provided by Red Hat: Project Fedora;
  • a navigator Web based on the Gecko engine used by Firefox;
  • a simplified version of the Word processing Abiword;
  • a software of email;
  • a software of discussion on line with voice on IP and Videoconference using the standard protocol XMPP and Jingle;
  • the document reader multi-formats Evince;
  • TamTam : a software of musical sequencing;
  • Squeak a graphic environment of programming.

The graphical interface used is Sugar. It is different from interfaces Windows, Mac OS, GNOME or existing KDE, by proposing another metaphor that of the office. It presents a view by icon of the launched applications (called activities), and a user view present at the neighborhoods in the form of chart. It makes it possible to undertake collective activities easily, like publishing a text with several.

Steve Jobs offered Mac OS X free for this portable, but according to Seymour Papert, a professor with MIT which is one of the founders of the project, the originators want an operating system which must be in agreement with this: “We refuse because it is not open source”. Consequently, Linux was selected.

Nicholas Negroponte as affirmed as he wanted to see Wikipédia on the portable with 100 dollars. Jimmy Wales, one of the cofounders of Wikipédia, had a presentiment of that Wikipédia is one of the “Killer app S” for this peripheral.

Criticisms

The computers are not a priority

According to the English wiki of the OLPC:

“It must be mentioned that a common criticism of the project is to say: " Poor people need food and residences, not of computers portables." This comment, often, is ignorant conditions under which the countries in the process of development are all over the world. Although it is true that there are many people in the world who obviously need food and residences, there are of them also multitudes which live in the countryside or in the urban suburbs and which they, has to eat in abundance and can shelter reasonably. What these people do not have, it is a decent means to reach a good education. ”

Environmental impact

The project also received criticisms concerning the impact on health and the environment in particular because of the components used during the manufacture of these computers. Taking into account the fact that the project would have a considerable ecological impact, the OLPC made the point that they will use as many ecological materials they will be able; and that the portables and all the accessories will be compatible with the RoHS. The laptops will compared use also less energy to the portables available today (2006), consequently reducing their destroying impact on the environment.

Military potential

The computer of the project having characteristic approaching the military standards, it could be diverted of its initial use in order to coordinate an action of Guérilla.

Designs

Prototype of first generation

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