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September 30, 2005
MIT Develops $100 Laptop for Developing Countries
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MIT's Media Laboratory has announced the development of a $100 laptop prototype, to be launched in November. The lab has been working with the computing industry to develop a low-cost notebook computer for use in education for developing countries. The laptop, sporting a 500MHz processor, will run a scaled-down version of Linux. It will have a two-mode screen, an interesting feature which allows the display to be viewed in color normally, but with the push of a button will switch to a black and white display which can be viewed in bright sunlight. |
The laptop can be powered either with an AC adapter or via a wind-up crank, which is stored in the housing of the laptop where the hinge is located. The laptops will have a 10:1 crank rate, so that a child will crank the handle for one minute to get 10 minutes of power and use. When closed, the hinge forms a handle and the AC cord can function as a carrying strap. The laptops will be ruggedized and probably made of rubber, and will feature four USB ports, be Wi-Fi- and cell phone enabled and come with 1GB of memory. "In emerging nations, the issue isn't connectivity," Nicholas Negroponte, the lab's chairman said at the Emerging Technologies Conference. "That's not solved, but lots of people are working on it in Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G, etc. For education, the roadblock is laptops." [co-published with friend site GeekCoffee] |
Posted by geekblue at September 30, 2005 9:43 AM