OLPC XO-1
Encyclopedia
The XO-1, previously known as the $100 Laptop, Children's Machine, and 2B1, is an inexpensive subnotebook
computer
intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world, to provide them with access to knowledge, and opportunities to "explore, experiment and express themselves" (constructionist learning). The laptop is developed by the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization and manufactured by Quanta Computer.
The subnotebooks are designed for sale to government-education systems which then give each primary school child their own laptop. Pricing was set to start at $188 in 2006, with a stated goal to reach the $100 mark in 2008 and the 50-dollar mark by 2010. When offered for sale in the Give One, Get One
campaigns of Q4 2006 and Q4 2007, the laptop was sold at $199.
These rugged
, low-power
computers use flash memory
instead of a hard drive, and come with a distribution of Linux
derived from Red Hat
's Fedora as their pre-installed operating system. Mobile ad-hoc networking via 802.11s WiFi
mesh networking
protocol is used to allow many machines to share Internet access as long as at least one of them can see and connect to a router or other access point.
The XO-1 is also nicknamed ceibalita in Uruguay after the Ceibal project
.
The first early prototype was unveiled by the project's founder Nicholas Negroponte
and then-United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
on November 16, 2005, at the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS) in Tunis
, Tunisia. The device shown was a rough prototype using a standard development board. Negroponte estimated that the screen alone required three more months of development. The first working prototype was demonstrated at the project's Country Task Force Meeting on May 23, 2006.
In 2006 there was a major controversy because Microsoft had suddenly developed an interest in the XO project and wanted the formerly open source effort to run Windows. Negroponte agreed to provide engineer assistance to Microsoft to facilitate their efforts. During this time, the project mission statement changed to remove mentions of "open source". A number of developers, such as Ivan Krstić
and Walter Bender
, resigned because of these changes in strategy. , however, no laptops have ever shipped by OLPC with Windows installed.
Approximately 400 developer boards (Alpha-1) were distributed in mid-2006; 875 working prototypes (Beta 1) were delivered in late 2006; 2400 Beta-2 machines were distributed at the end of February 2007; full-scale production started November 6, 2007. Quanta Computer, the project's contract manufacturer, said in February 2007 that it had confirmed orders for one million units. Quanta indicated that it could ship five million to ten million units that year because seven nations had committed to buy the XO-1 for their schoolchildren: Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand, and Uruguay. Quanta plans to offer machines very similar to the XO-1 on the open market.
The OLPC project originally stated that a consumer version of the XO laptop was not planned. The project later established, in 2007 the laptopgiving.org website for outright donations and for a "Give 1 Get 1" offer valid (but only to the United States, its territories, and Canadian addresses) from November 12, 2007 until December 31, 2007. For each computer purchased at a cost of $399, an XO is also sent to a child in a developing nation. OLPC again restarted the G1G1 program through Amazon.com
in November 2008, but has since stopped as of December 31 (2008 or 2009).
On May 20, 2008, OLPC announced the next generation of XO, OLPC XO-2 which was thereafter cancelled in favor of the tablet-like
designed XO-3
. In late 2008, the NYC Department of Education began a project to purchase large numbers of XO computers for use by New York schoolchildren.
The design received the Community category award of the 2007 Index: Award.
According to Computer Aid International
, in a test conducted in April 2009, the device was ranked as the most power saving among other information and communication technologies in education solutions.
The XO-1 is designed to be low-cost, small, durable, and efficient. It is shipped with a slimmed-down version of Fedora Linux
and a GUI
called Sugar
that is intended to help young children collaborate. The XO-1 includes a video camera, a microphone, long-range Wi-Fi
, and a hybrid stylus
/touch pad. In addition to a standard plug-in power supply, human power and solar power sources are available, allowing operation far from a commercial power grid. Mary Lou Jepsen
has listed the design goals of the device as follows:
Various use models had been explored by OLPC with the help of Design Continuum
and Fuseproject
, including: laptop, e-book
, theatre, simulation, tote, and tablet architectures. The current design, by Fuseproject
, uses a transformer hinge to morph between laptop, e-book, and router modes.
) are documented in other articles.
The hardware
specifications that were different in older versions of the XO-1 are listed below.
drives and no fans (the device is passively cooled). An ATA
interface is unnecessary due to the lack of hard drive. There is also no PC card
slot, although an SD
slot is available, as well as USB port
s.
A built-in hand-crank
generator was part of the notebook in the original design, however it is now an optional clamp-on peripheral (See a photo in the Gallery, below).
The laptop design specification goals are consumption of about 2 W
of power during normal use, far less than the 10 W to 45 W of conventional laptops. With build 656, power consumption is between 5 and 8 watts measured on G1G1 laptop. Future software builds are expected to meet the 2-watt target.
In e-book mode (XO 1.5), all hardware sub-systems except the monochrome dual-touch display are powered down. When the user moves to a different page, the other systems wake up, render the new page on the display, and then go back to sleep. Power consumption in this e-book mode is estimated to be 0.3 to 0.8 W. The XO 2.0 is planned to consume even less power than earlier versions, less than 1.0 W in full color mode.
Power options include batteries, solar power panels, and human-powered generators, which make the XO self-powered equipment
. 10 batteries at once can be charged from the school building power in the XO multi-battery charger (see photo). The low power consumption combined with these power options are useful in many countries that lack a power infrastructure where students would use it.
. Later generations of the OLPC laptop are expected to use low-cost, low-power and high-resolution color displays with an appearance similar to electronic paper
.
The display is the most expensive component in most laptops. In April 2005, Negroponte hired Mary Lou Jepsen
—who was interviewing to join the Media Arts and Sciences faculty at the MIT Media Lab
in September 2008—as OLPC Chief Technology Officer. Jepsen developed a new display for the first-generation OLPC laptop, inspired by the design of small LCDs used in portable DVD players, which she estimated would cost about $35. In the OLPC XO-1, the screen is estimated to be the second most expensive component (after the CPU and chipset).
Jepsen has described the removal of the filters that color the RGB subpixels as the critical design innovation in the new LCD
. Instead of using subtractive color filters, the display uses a plastic diffraction grating
and lenses on the rear of the LCD to illuminate each pixel
. This grating pattern is stamped using the same technology used to make DVD
s. The grating splits the light from the white backlight into a spectrum. The red, green and blue components are diffracted into the correct positions to illuminate the corresponding pixel with R, G or B
. This innovation results in a much brighter display for a given amount of backlight illumination: while the color filters in a regular display typically absorb 85% of the light that hits them, this display absorbs little of that light. Most LCD screens use cold cathode
fluorescent lamp
backlights which are fragile, difficult or impossible to repair, require a high voltage power supply, are relatively power-hungry, and account for 50% of the screens' cost (sometimes 60%). The LED
backlight in the XO-1 is easily replaceable, rugged, and inexpensive.
The remainder of the LCD uses existing display technology and can be made using existing manufacturing equipment. Even the masks can be made using combinations of existing materials and processes.
When lit primarily from the rear with the white LED
backlight, the display shows a color image composed of both RGB and grayscale information. When lit primarily from the front by ambient light, for example from the sun, the display shows a monochromatic (black and white) image composed of just the grayscale information.
"Mode" change occurs by varying the relative amounts backlight and ambient light. With more backlight, a higher chrominance is available and a color image display is seen. As ambient light levels, such as sunlight, exceed the backlight, a grayscale display is seen; this can be useful when reading e-books for an extended time in bright light such as sunlight. The backlight brightness can also be adjusted to vary the level of color seen in the display and to conserve battery power.
In color mode (when lit primarily from the rear), the display does not use the common RGB pixel geometry
for liquid crystal computer displays, in which each pixel contains three tall thin rectangles of the primary colors. Instead, the XO-1 display provides one color for each pixel. The colors align along diagonals that run from upper-right to lower left (see diagram on the right). To reduce the color artifacts caused by this pixel geometry, the color component of the image is blurred by the display controller as the image is sent to the screen. Despite the color blurring, the display still has high resolution for its physical size; normal displays put about 588(H)×441(V) to 882(H)×662(V) pixels in this amount of physical area and support subpixel rendering
for slightly higher perceived resolution. A Philips Research study measured the XO-1 display's perceived color resolution as effectively 984(H)×738(V). A conventional liquid crystal display with the same number of green pixels (green carries most brightness or luminance information for human eyes) as the OLPC XO-1 would be 693×520. Unlike a standard RGB LCD, resolution of the XO-1 display varies with angle. Resolution is greatest from upper-right to lower left, and lowest from upper-left to lower-right. Images which approach or exceed this resolution will lose detail and gain color artifacts. The display gains resolution when in bright light; this comes at the expense of color (as the backlight is overpowered) and color resolution can never reach the full 200 dpi sharpness of grayscale mode because of the blur which is applied to images in color mode.
IEEE 802.11b support will be provided using a Wi-Fi
“Extended Range” chip set. Jepsen has said the wireless chip set will be run at a low bit rate, 2 Mbit/s maximum rather than the usual higher speed 5.5 Mbit/s or 11 Mbit/s to minimize power consumption. The conventional IEEE 802.11b system only handles traffic within a local cloud of wireless devices in a manner similar to an Ethernet
network. Each node transmits and receives its own data, but does not route packets between two nodes that cannot communicate directly. The OLPC laptop will use IEEE 802.11s
to form the wireless mesh network
.
Whenever the laptop is powered on it can participate in a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) with each node operating in a peer-to-peer
fashion with other laptops it can hear, forwarding packets across the cloud. If a computer in the cloud has access to the Internet
—either directly or indirectly—then all computers in the cloud are able to share that access. The data rate across this network will not be high; however, similar networks, such as the store and forward
Motoman project have supported email services to 1000 schoolchildren in Cambodia
, according to Negroponte. The data rate should be sufficient for asynchronous network applications (such as email) to communicate outside the cloud; interactive uses, such as web browsing, or high-bandwidth applications, such as video streaming should be possible inside the cloud. The IP assignment for the meshed network is intended to be automatically configured, so no server administrator or an administration of IP addresses is needed.
Building a MANET
is still untested under the OLPC's current configuration and hardware environment. Although one goal of the laptop is that all of its software be open source
, the source code for this routing protocol is currently closed source. While there are open-source alternatives such as OLSR or B.A.T.M.A.N.
, none of these options is yet available running at the data-link layer (Layer 2) on the Wi-Fi subsystem's co-processor; this is critical to OLPC's power efficiency scheme. Whether Marvell Technology Group
, the producer of the wireless chip set and owner of the current meshing protocol software, will make the firmware open source is still an unanswered question. As of 2011, it has not done so.
is the chief designer of the present XO shell. The shell of the laptop is resistant to dirt and moisture, and is constructed with 2 mm thick plastic (50% thicker than typical laptops). It contains a pivoting, reversible display, movable rubber WiFi
antennas, and a sealed rubber-membrane keyboard.
More than twenty different keyboards have been laid out, to suit local needs to match the standard keyboard for the country in which a laptop is intended. Around half of these have been manufactured for prototype machines. There are parts of the world which do not have a standard keyboard representing their language. As Negroponte states this is “because there's no real commercial interest in making a keyboard”. One example of where the OLPC has bridged this gap is in creating an Amharic keyboard for Ethiopia
.
Negroponte has demanded that the keyboard not contain a caps lock
key, which frees up keyboard space for new keys such as a future "view source" key.
Beneath the keyboard was a large area that resembled a very wide touchpad
that Jepsen referred to as the "mousepad". The capacitive portion of the mousepad was an Alps
GlidePoint trackpad, which was in the central third of the sensor and could be used with a finger. The full width was a resistive sensor which, though never supported by software, was intended to be used with a stylus. This unusual feature was eliminated in the CL1A hardware revision because it suffered from erratic pointer motion. Alps Electronics provided both the capacitive and resistive components of the mousepad.
on the laptop will be free
and open source. All core software is intended to be localized to the languages of the target countries. The projected software as of November 2006 are:
The laptop will use the Sugar
graphical user interface, written in Python
, on top of the X Window System
and the Matchbox
window manager
. This interface is not based on the typical desktop metaphor but presents an iconic view of programs and documents and a map-like view of nearby connected users. The current active program is displayed in full-screen mode. Much of the core Sugar interface uses icons, bypassing localization issues. Sugar is also defined as having no folders present in the UI.
Steve Jobs
had offered Mac OS X
free of charge for use in the laptop, but according to Seymour Papert
, a professor emeritus at MIT who is one of the initiative's founders, the designers wanted an operating system that can be tinkered with: “We declined because it’s not open source.” Therefore Linux was chosen. However, after a deal with Microsoft
, the laptop will now be offered with Windows XP
along with an open source alternative.
Jim Gettys
, responsible for the laptops' system software, has called for a re-education of programmers, saying that many applications use too much memory or even leak memory
. “There seems to be a common fallacy among programmers that using memory is good: on current hardware it is often much faster to recompute values than to have to reference memory to get a precomputed value. A full cache miss can be hundreds of cycles, and hundreds of times the power consumption of an instruction that hits in the first level cache.”
On August 4, 2006, the Wikimedia Foundation
announced that static copies of selected Wikipedia articles would be included on the laptops. Jimmy Wales
, chair of the Wikimedia Foundation, said that "OLPC's mission goes hand in hand with our goal of distributing encyclopedic knowledge, free of charge, to every person in the world. Not everybody in the world has access to a broadband connection." Negroponte had earlier suggested he would like to see Wikipedia
on the laptop. Wales feels that Wikipedia is one of the "killer apps" for this device.
Don Hopkins
announced that he is creating a free and open source port of the game SimCity
to the OLPC with the blessing of Will Wright and Electronic Arts
, and demonstrated SimCity running on the OLPC at the Game Developer's Conference in March 2007. The free and open source SimCity plans were confirmed at the same conference by SJ Klein, director of content for the OLPC, who also asked game developers to create “frameworks and scripting environments—tools with which children themselves could create their own content.”
The laptop's security architecture, known as Bitfrost
, was publicly introduced in February 2007. No passwords will be required for ordinary use of the machine. Programs are assigned certain bundles of rights at install time which govern their access to resources; users can later add more rights. Optionally, the laptops can be configured to request leases from a central server
and to stop functioning when these leases expire; this is designed as a theft-prevention mechanism.
The pre-8.20 software versions were criticized for bad wireless connectivity and other minor issues.
is a lightweight alternative GUI
to Sugar. Being only 33 MB (using yum
) it does not take up much of an XO's storage space — less than GNOME
or KDE
. According to the OLPC Wiki: "Xfce is a lightweight but powerful desktop environment that will work well on the XO" Information on installation is available at: OLPC Wiki: Xfce.The XO is also now available dual boot
and can run a version of MS Windows.
Subnotebook
A subnotebook is a class of laptop computers that are smaller and lighter than a typical laptop....
computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world, to provide them with access to knowledge, and opportunities to "explore, experiment and express themselves" (constructionist learning). The laptop is developed by the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization and manufactured by Quanta Computer.
The subnotebooks are designed for sale to government-education systems which then give each primary school child their own laptop. Pricing was set to start at $188 in 2006, with a stated goal to reach the $100 mark in 2008 and the 50-dollar mark by 2010. When offered for sale in the Give One, Get One
Give One Get One
Give One Get One is an initiative of the One Laptop per Child to increase the distribution of its XO-1 laptop to developing nations by allowing a person to obtain an XO-1 by buying two devices: one for the purchaser and the other being sent to a developing nation. The first program ran from...
campaigns of Q4 2006 and Q4 2007, the laptop was sold at $199.
These rugged
Rugged computer
A rugged computer is a computer specifically designed to reliably operate in harsh usage environments and conditions, such as strong vibrations, extreme temperatures and wet or dusty conditions...
, low-power
Low-power electronics
Low-power electronics means that the consumption of electric power is deliberately low, e.g. notebook processors.- Computing elements :The density and speed of integrated-circuit computing elements have increased exponentially for several decades, following a trend described by Moore's Law...
computers use flash memory
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
instead of a hard drive, and come with a distribution of Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
derived from Red Hat
Red Hat
Red Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....
's Fedora as their pre-installed operating system. Mobile ad-hoc networking via 802.11s WiFi
WIFI
WIFI is a radio station broadcasting a brokered format. Licensed to Florence, New Jersey, USA, the station is currently operated by Florence Broadcasting Partners, LLC.This station was previously owned by Real Life Broadcasting...
mesh networking
Mesh networking
Mesh networking is a type of networking where each node must not only capture and disseminate its own data, but also serve as a relay for other nodes, that is, it must collaborate to propagate the data in the network....
protocol is used to allow many machines to share Internet access as long as at least one of them can see and connect to a router or other access point.
The XO-1 is also nicknamed ceibalita in Uruguay after the Ceibal project
Ceibal project
The Plan Ceibal is a Uruguayan initiative to implement the “1 to 1” model to introduce Information and Communication Technologies in primary public education and is beginning with the expansion into secondary schools....
.
History
Nicholas Negroponte
Nicholas Negroponte is an American architect best known as the founder and Chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, and also known as the founder of the One Laptop per Child Association ....
and then-United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
on November 16, 2005, at the World Summit on the Information Society
World Summit on the Information Society
The World Summit on the Information Society was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis...
(WSIS) in Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
, Tunisia. The device shown was a rough prototype using a standard development board. Negroponte estimated that the screen alone required three more months of development. The first working prototype was demonstrated at the project's Country Task Force Meeting on May 23, 2006.
In 2006 there was a major controversy because Microsoft had suddenly developed an interest in the XO project and wanted the formerly open source effort to run Windows. Negroponte agreed to provide engineer assistance to Microsoft to facilitate their efforts. During this time, the project mission statement changed to remove mentions of "open source". A number of developers, such as Ivan Krstić
Ivan Krstić
Ivan Krstić is a Croatian computer security expert, currently working on core security at Apple Inc. Krstić was previously the director of security architecture at One Laptop per Child. He is a co-author of The Official Ubuntu Book ....
and Walter Bender
Walter Bender
Walter Bender is technologist and researcher who has made important contributions in the field of electronic publishing, media, and technology for learning. Bender is on leave as a Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab which he led as executive director between 2000 and 2006...
, resigned because of these changes in strategy. , however, no laptops have ever shipped by OLPC with Windows installed.
Approximately 400 developer boards (Alpha-1) were distributed in mid-2006; 875 working prototypes (Beta 1) were delivered in late 2006; 2400 Beta-2 machines were distributed at the end of February 2007; full-scale production started November 6, 2007. Quanta Computer, the project's contract manufacturer, said in February 2007 that it had confirmed orders for one million units. Quanta indicated that it could ship five million to ten million units that year because seven nations had committed to buy the XO-1 for their schoolchildren: Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand, and Uruguay. Quanta plans to offer machines very similar to the XO-1 on the open market.
The OLPC project originally stated that a consumer version of the XO laptop was not planned. The project later established, in 2007 the laptopgiving.org website for outright donations and for a "Give 1 Get 1" offer valid (but only to the United States, its territories, and Canadian addresses) from November 12, 2007 until December 31, 2007. For each computer purchased at a cost of $399, an XO is also sent to a child in a developing nation. OLPC again restarted the G1G1 program through Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
in November 2008, but has since stopped as of December 31 (2008 or 2009).
On May 20, 2008, OLPC announced the next generation of XO, OLPC XO-2 which was thereafter cancelled in favor of the tablet-like
Tablet computer
A tablet computer, or simply tablet, is a complete mobile computer, larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen...
designed XO-3
OLPC XO-3
XO-3 is the upcoming planned tablet/laptop/e-book reader that is intended to be developed under One Laptop per Child initiative. The shaping is that of a tablet computer, replacing the canceled two sheet design concept of the XO-2. The inner workings are those of the XO 1.75 that will use an ARM...
. In late 2008, the NYC Department of Education began a project to purchase large numbers of XO computers for use by New York schoolchildren.
The design received the Community category award of the 2007 Index: Award.
According to Computer Aid International
Computer Aid International
Computer Aid International is a not-for-profit organisation active in the field of Information and Communication Technologies for Development. A registered charity, Computer Aid was founded in 1998 to bridge the digital divide by providing refurbished PCs from the UK to educational and non-profit...
, in a test conducted in April 2009, the device was ranked as the most power saving among other information and communication technologies in education solutions.
Design
Fedora (operating system)
Fedora is a RPM-based, general purpose collection of software, including an operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat...
and a GUI
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
called Sugar
Sugar (GUI)
Sugar is an open source desktop environment designed with the goal of being used by children for learning.Developed as part of the One Laptop per Child project, it is the default interface on OLPC XO-1 family of laptop computers....
that is intended to help young children collaborate. The XO-1 includes a video camera, a microphone, long-range Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
, and a hybrid stylus
Stylus (computing)
In computing, a stylus is a small pen-shaped instrument that is used to input commands to a computer screen, mobile device or graphics tablet...
/touch pad. In addition to a standard plug-in power supply, human power and solar power sources are available, allowing operation far from a commercial power grid. Mary Lou Jepsen
Mary Lou Jepsen
Mary Lou Jepsen is founder and CEO of Pixel Qi, a manufacturer of low-cost, low-power LCD screens for laptops. She was the first chief technology officer of One Laptop per Child .- Early life and education :...
has listed the design goals of the device as follows:
- minimal power consumption, with a design target of 2–3 WWattThe watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
total power consumption - minimal production cost, with a target of US$100 per laptop for production runs of millions of units
- a "cool" look, implying innovative styling in its physical appearance
- e-bookE-bookAn electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
functionality with extremely low power consumption - open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
and free softwareFree softwareFree software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
provided with the laptop
Various use models had been explored by OLPC with the help of Design Continuum
Design Continuum
Continuum is a design and innovation consultancy based in Newton, Massachusetts, with other offices in Los Angeles, Milan, Shanghai and Seoul. The company’s core disciplines include Industrial Design, Design strategy, Service Design, Human Factors, Interaction Design, Sustainable Design,...
and Fuseproject
Fuseproject
Founded in 1999 by Yves Béhar, Fuseproject is a San Francisco-based industrial design and branding firm. It works across a wide array of industries including beauty and fashion, furniture and technology....
, including: laptop, e-book
E-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
, theatre, simulation, tote, and tablet architectures. The current design, by Fuseproject
Fuseproject
Founded in 1999 by Yves Béhar, Fuseproject is a San Francisco-based industrial design and branding firm. It works across a wide array of industries including beauty and fashion, furniture and technology....
, uses a transformer hinge to morph between laptop, e-book, and router modes.
Hardware
The latest GA version of the XO-1 is XO 1.5. The specs for older builds are documented in the Major Builds section, below. Data about the XO-1 comes from the hardware specification.- XO 1
- CPU: 433 MHz AMD GeodeGeode (processor)Geode is a series of x86-compatible system-on-a-chip microprocessors and I/O companions produced by AMD, targeted at the embedded computing market....
LX-700 at 0.8 wattWattThe watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
s, with integrated graphics controller - 256 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
of Dual (DDR266) 133 MHz DRAMDramDram or DRAM may refer to:As a unit of measure:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dirham, a unit of currency in several Arab nationsOther uses:...
(in 2006 the specification called for 128 MB of RAM) - 1024 kBKilobyteThe kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
(1 MB) flash ROM with open-source Open FirmwareOpen FirmwareOpen Firmware, or OpenBoot in Sun Microsystems parlance, is a standard defining the interfaces of a computer firmware system, formerly endorsed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers . It originated at Sun, and has been used by Sun, Apple, IBM, and most other non-x86 PCI chipset... - 1024 MB of SLC NAND flash memoryFlash memoryFlash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
(in 2006 the specifications called for 512 MB of flash memory) - Average battery life 3 hrs
- CPU: 433 MHz AMD Geode
- XO 1.5
- Release Date early 2010
- CPU: 400 MHz to 1000 MHz VIA C7 at 0.8 wattWattThe watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
s, with integrated graphics controller in ebook mode - 512 to 1024 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
of Dual (DDR266) 133 MHz DRAMDramDram or DRAM may refer to:As a unit of measure:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dirham, a unit of currency in several Arab nationsOther uses:... - 1024 kBKilobyteThe kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
(1 MB) flash ROM with open-source Open FirmwareOpen FirmwareOpen Firmware, or OpenBoot in Sun Microsystems parlance, is a standard defining the interfaces of a computer firmware system, formerly endorsed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers . It originated at Sun, and has been used by Sun, Apple, IBM, and most other non-x86 PCI chipset... - 4 GB of SLC NAND flash memoryFlash memoryFlash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
(upgradable, microSD) - Average battery life 3-5 hrs (varies w/ active suspend)
- XO 1.75
- Release Date TBD late 2011 ?
- CPU: 400 MHz to 1000 MHz ARM architectureARM architectureARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
Marvell 1GHz Armada 610 ARM chip at 0.8 wattWattThe watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
s, with integrated graphics controller in ebook mode - 1024 to 2048 TBD MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
of DDR3 - 1024 TBD kBKilobyteThe kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
(1 MB) flash ROM with open-source Open FirmwareOpen FirmwareOpen Firmware, or OpenBoot in Sun Microsystems parlance, is a standard defining the interfaces of a computer firmware system, formerly endorsed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers . It originated at Sun, and has been used by Sun, Apple, IBM, and most other non-x86 PCI chipset... - 4-8 GB of SLC NAND flash memoryFlash memoryFlash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
(upgradable, microSD) - Accelerometer
- Average battery life 5-10 hrs
- Screen
- 1200×900 7.5 inch (19 cm) diagonal LCDLiquid crystal displayA liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....
(200 dpiDots per inchDots per inch is a measure of spatial printing or video dot density, in particular the number of individual dots that can be placed in a line within the span of 1 inch . The DPI value tends to correlate with image resolution, but is related only indirectly.- DPI measurement in monitor...
) that uses 0.1 to 1.0 W depending on mode. The two modes are:- Reflective (backlight off) monochrome mode for low-power use in sunlight. This mode provides very sharp images for high-quality text.
- BacklitBacklightA backlight is a form of illumination used in liquid crystal displays . As LCDs do not produce light themselves , they need illumination to produce a visible image...
color mode, with an alternance of red,green and blue pixels. See below for details. - XO 1.75 developmental version for XO-3 has an optional touch screen
- 1200×900 7.5 inch (19 cm) diagonal LCD
- Storage
- Internal SD card slot
- Wireless
- Wireless networking using an “Extended Range” 802.11b/g and 802.11s (mesh) MarvellMarvell Technology GroupMarvell is an American producer of storage, communications and consumer semiconductor products.Founded in 1995, Marvell Technology Group Ltd. has operations worldwide and approximately 5,700 employees. Marvell’s U.S. operating subsidiary is based in Santa Clara, California and Marvell has...
8388 wireless chip, chosen due to its ability to autonomously forward packets in the mesh even if the CPU is powered off. When connected in a mesh, it is run at a low bitrate (2 Mbit/s) to minimize power consumption. Despite the wireless chip's minimalism, it supports WPAWi-Fi Protected AccessWi-Fi Protected Access and Wi-Fi Protected Access II are two security protocols and security certification programs developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to secure wireless computer networks...
. An ARMARM architectureARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
processor is included. - Dual adjustable antennas for diversity receptionAntenna diversityAntenna diversity, also known as space diversity, is any one of several wireless diversity schemes that uses two or more antennas to improve the quality and reliability of a wireless link. Often, especially in urban and indoor environments, there is no clear line-of-sight between transmitter and...
.
- Wireless networking using an “Extended Range” 802.11b/g and 802.11s (mesh) Marvell
- Inputs/Ports
- Water-resistant membrane keyboard, customized to the locale in which it will be distributed. The multiplication and division symbols are included. The keyboard is designed for the small hands of children.
- Five-key cursorCursor (computers)In computing, a cursor is an indicator used to show the position on a computer monitor or other display device that will respond to input from a text input or pointing device. The flashing text cursor may be referred to as a caret in some cases...
-control pad; four directional keys plus Enter - Four "Game Buttons" (functionally PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End) modeled after the PlayStation controller layout (
, 
, 
, and 
). - TouchpadTouchpadA touchpad is a pointing device featuring a tactile sensor, a specialized surface that can translate the motion and position of a user's fingers to a relative position on screen. Touch pads are a common feature of laptop computers, and they are also used as a substitute for a mouse where desk...
for mouse control and handwriting input - Built-in color camera, to the right of the display, VGA resolution (640×480)
- Built-in stereoSTEREOSTEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth...
speakers - Built-in microphoneMicrophoneA microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
- Audio based on the AC'97 codec, with jacks for external stereo speakers and microphones, Line-out, and Mic-in
- 3 external USB 2.0 ports.
- Power sources:
- DCDirect currentDirect current is the unidirectional flow of electric charge. Direct current is produced by such sources as batteries, thermocouples, solar cells, and commutator-type electric machines of the dynamo type. Direct current may flow in a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through...
input, ±11–18 VVoltThe volt is the SI derived unit for electric potential, electric potential difference, and electromotive force. The volt is named in honor of the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta , who invented the voltaic pile, possibly the first chemical battery.- Definition :A single volt is defined as the...
, maximum 15 WWattThe watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
power draw - 5-cell rechargeable NiMH battery pack, 3000 mAh minimum 3050 mAh typical 80% usable, charge at 0…45°C (deprecated in 2009)
- 2-cell rechargeable LiFePO4 battery pack, 2800 mAh minimum 2900 mAh typical 100% usable, charge at 0…60°C
- 4-cell rechargeable LiFePO4 battery pack, 3100 mAh minimum 3150 mAh typical 100% usable, charge at −10…50°C
- External manual power options included a clamp-on crank generator similar to the original built-in one (see photo in the Gallery, below), but they generated 1/4 the power initially hoped, and less than a thousand were produced. A pull-string generator was also designed by Potenco but never mass produced.
- External power options include 110–240 Volt AC as well as input from an external solar panel. Solar is the predominant alternate power source for schools using XOs.
- DC
Major builds
XO 1 has major builds indicated by build numbers or less-than-one increments of the version number. The changes made in each build are to be documented in this section. Other versions (OLPC XO-3OLPC XO-3
XO-3 is the upcoming planned tablet/laptop/e-book reader that is intended to be developed under One Laptop per Child initiative. The shaping is that of a tablet computer, replacing the canceled two sheet design concept of the XO-2. The inner workings are those of the XO 1.75 that will use an ARM...
) are documented in other articles.
The hardware
Computer hardware
Personal computer hardware are component devices which are typically installed into or peripheral to a computer case to create a personal computer upon which system software is installed including a firmware interface such as a BIOS and an operating system which supports application software that...
specifications that were different in older versions of the XO-1 are listed below.
- XO prototype, displayed in 2005.
- Power option: built-in hand-crank generator.
- XO-1 beta. Released in early 2007.
- Power option: separate hand-crank generator.
- XO-1. Released in late 2007. are:
- Power option: solar panel.
- XO 1.5. Released in early 2010.
- Via/x86 CPU 4.5 W
- Fewer physical parts
- Lower power consumption
- Power option: solar panel.
- XO 1.75. Released in TBD late 2011. Slated to have:
- 2 Watt ARM CPU
- Fewer physical parts, 40% lower power consumption.
- Power option: solar panel.
- XO 2. Previously scheduled for release in 2010, canceled in favor of XO 3. Price target $75. Elegant, lighter, folding dual touch-screen design (See photo in the Gallery section, below). Hardware would have been open-source and sold by various manufacturers. Choice of OS (Windows XP or Linux) outside of the US. $150 price target in the USA includes 2 computers, one donated.
- XO 3. Scheduled for release in late 2012. One solid color multi-touch screen design. For details see OLPC XO-3OLPC XO-3XO-3 is the upcoming planned tablet/laptop/e-book reader that is intended to be developed under One Laptop per Child initiative. The shaping is that of a tablet computer, replacing the canceled two sheet design concept of the XO-2. The inner workings are those of the XO 1.75 that will use an ARM...
.- Power option: solar panel in cover or carrying case.
Intentionally omitted features
In keeping with its goals of robustness and low power consumption, the design of the laptop intentionally omits all motor-driven moving parts; it has no hard drive, no optical (CD/DVD) media, no floppyFloppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
drives and no fans (the device is passively cooled). An ATA
Serial ATA
Serial ATA is a computer bus interface for connecting host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives...
interface is unnecessary due to the lack of hard drive. There is also no PC card
PC card
In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States...
slot, although an SD
Secure Digital card
Secure Digital is a non-volatile memory card format developed by the SD Card Association for use in portable devices. The SD technology is used by more than 400 brands across dozens of product categories and more than 8,000 models, and is considered the de-facto industry standard.Secure Digital...
slot is available, as well as USB port
Universal Serial Bus
USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....
s.
A built-in hand-crank
Crank (mechanism)
A crank is an arm attached at right angles to a rotating shaft by which reciprocating motion is imparted to or received from the shaft. It is used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion. The arm may be a bent portion of the shaft, or a separate arm...
generator was part of the notebook in the original design, however it is now an optional clamp-on peripheral (See a photo in the Gallery, below).
Power consumption
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
of power during normal use, far less than the 10 W to 45 W of conventional laptops. With build 656, power consumption is between 5 and 8 watts measured on G1G1 laptop. Future software builds are expected to meet the 2-watt target.
In e-book mode (XO 1.5), all hardware sub-systems except the monochrome dual-touch display are powered down. When the user moves to a different page, the other systems wake up, render the new page on the display, and then go back to sleep. Power consumption in this e-book mode is estimated to be 0.3 to 0.8 W. The XO 2.0 is planned to consume even less power than earlier versions, less than 1.0 W in full color mode.
Power options include batteries, solar power panels, and human-powered generators, which make the XO self-powered equipment
Self-powered equipment
Human-powered equipment describes electrical appliances which can be powered by electricity generated by human muscle power as an alternative to conventional sources of electricity such as primary batteries and the power grid....
. 10 batteries at once can be charged from the school building power in the XO multi-battery charger (see photo). The low power consumption combined with these power options are useful in many countries that lack a power infrastructure where students would use it.
Display
The first-generation OLPC laptops have a novel low-cost LCDLiquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....
. Later generations of the OLPC laptop are expected to use low-cost, low-power and high-resolution color displays with an appearance similar to electronic paper
Electronic paper
Electronic paper, e-paper and electronic ink are a range of display technology which are designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Unlike conventional backlit flat panel displays, electronic paper displays reflect light like ordinary paper...
.
The display is the most expensive component in most laptops. In April 2005, Negroponte hired Mary Lou Jepsen
Mary Lou Jepsen
Mary Lou Jepsen is founder and CEO of Pixel Qi, a manufacturer of low-cost, low-power LCD screens for laptops. She was the first chief technology officer of One Laptop per Child .- Early life and education :...
—who was interviewing to join the Media Arts and Sciences faculty at the MIT Media Lab
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
in September 2008—as OLPC Chief Technology Officer. Jepsen developed a new display for the first-generation OLPC laptop, inspired by the design of small LCDs used in portable DVD players, which she estimated would cost about $35. In the OLPC XO-1, the screen is estimated to be the second most expensive component (after the CPU and chipset).
Jepsen has described the removal of the filters that color the RGB subpixels as the critical design innovation in the new LCD
Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....
. Instead of using subtractive color filters, the display uses a plastic diffraction grating
Diffraction grating
In optics, a diffraction grating is an optical component with a periodic structure, which splits and diffracts light into several beams travelling in different directions. The directions of these beams depend on the spacing of the grating and the wavelength of the light so that the grating acts as...
and lenses on the rear of the LCD to illuminate each pixel
Pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
. This grating pattern is stamped using the same technology used to make DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s. The grating splits the light from the white backlight into a spectrum. The red, green and blue components are diffracted into the correct positions to illuminate the corresponding pixel with R, G or B
RGB color model
The RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light is added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors...
. This innovation results in a much brighter display for a given amount of backlight illumination: while the color filters in a regular display typically absorb 85% of the light that hits them, this display absorbs little of that light. Most LCD screens use cold cathode
Cold cathode
A cold cathode is a cathode used within nixie tubes, gas discharge lamps, discharge tubes, and some types of vacuum tube which is not electrically heated by the circuit to which it is connected...
fluorescent lamp
Fluorescent lamp
A fluorescent lamp or fluorescent tube is a gas-discharge lamp that uses electricity to excite mercury vapor. The excited mercury atoms produce short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor to fluoresce, producing visible light. A fluorescent lamp converts electrical power into useful...
backlights which are fragile, difficult or impossible to repair, require a high voltage power supply, are relatively power-hungry, and account for 50% of the screens' cost (sometimes 60%). The LED
Light-emitting diode
A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting...
backlight in the XO-1 is easily replaceable, rugged, and inexpensive.
The remainder of the LCD uses existing display technology and can be made using existing manufacturing equipment. Even the masks can be made using combinations of existing materials and processes.
Display resolution
When lit primarily from the rear with the white LED
Light-emitting diode
A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting...
backlight, the display shows a color image composed of both RGB and grayscale information. When lit primarily from the front by ambient light, for example from the sun, the display shows a monochromatic (black and white) image composed of just the grayscale information.
"Mode" change occurs by varying the relative amounts backlight and ambient light. With more backlight, a higher chrominance is available and a color image display is seen. As ambient light levels, such as sunlight, exceed the backlight, a grayscale display is seen; this can be useful when reading e-books for an extended time in bright light such as sunlight. The backlight brightness can also be adjusted to vary the level of color seen in the display and to conserve battery power.
In color mode (when lit primarily from the rear), the display does not use the common RGB pixel geometry
Pixel geometry
The components of the pixels in an image sensor or display can be ordered in different patterns, called pixel geometry....
for liquid crystal computer displays, in which each pixel contains three tall thin rectangles of the primary colors. Instead, the XO-1 display provides one color for each pixel. The colors align along diagonals that run from upper-right to lower left (see diagram on the right). To reduce the color artifacts caused by this pixel geometry, the color component of the image is blurred by the display controller as the image is sent to the screen. Despite the color blurring, the display still has high resolution for its physical size; normal displays put about 588(H)×441(V) to 882(H)×662(V) pixels in this amount of physical area and support subpixel rendering
Subpixel rendering
Subpixel rendering is a way to increase the apparent resolution of a computer's liquid crystal display or Organic Light Emitting Diode display by rendering pixels to take into account the screen type's physical properties...
for slightly higher perceived resolution. A Philips Research study measured the XO-1 display's perceived color resolution as effectively 984(H)×738(V). A conventional liquid crystal display with the same number of green pixels (green carries most brightness or luminance information for human eyes) as the OLPC XO-1 would be 693×520. Unlike a standard RGB LCD, resolution of the XO-1 display varies with angle. Resolution is greatest from upper-right to lower left, and lowest from upper-left to lower-right. Images which approach or exceed this resolution will lose detail and gain color artifacts. The display gains resolution when in bright light; this comes at the expense of color (as the backlight is overpowered) and color resolution can never reach the full 200 dpi sharpness of grayscale mode because of the blur which is applied to images in color mode.
Wireless mesh networking
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
“Extended Range” chip set. Jepsen has said the wireless chip set will be run at a low bit rate, 2 Mbit/s maximum rather than the usual higher speed 5.5 Mbit/s or 11 Mbit/s to minimize power consumption. The conventional IEEE 802.11b system only handles traffic within a local cloud of wireless devices in a manner similar to an Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
network. Each node transmits and receives its own data, but does not route packets between two nodes that cannot communicate directly. The OLPC laptop will use IEEE 802.11s
IEEE 802.11s
IEEE 802.11s is an IEEE 802.11 amendment for mesh networking, defining how wireless devices can interconnect to create a WLAN mesh network, which may be used for static topologies and ad-hoc networks....
to form the wireless mesh network
Wireless mesh network
A wireless mesh network is a communications network made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology. Wireless mesh networks often consist of mesh clients, mesh routers and gateways.The mesh clients are often laptops, cell phones and other wireless devices while the mesh routers forward traffic...
.
Whenever the laptop is powered on it can participate in a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) with each node operating in a peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
fashion with other laptops it can hear, forwarding packets across the cloud. If a computer in the cloud has access to the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
—either directly or indirectly—then all computers in the cloud are able to share that access. The data rate across this network will not be high; however, similar networks, such as the store and forward
Store and forward
Store and forward is a telecommunications technique in which information is sent to an intermediate station where it is kept and sent at a later time to the final destination or to another intermediate station. The intermediate station, or node in a networking context, verifies the integrity of...
Motoman project have supported email services to 1000 schoolchildren in Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, according to Negroponte. The data rate should be sufficient for asynchronous network applications (such as email) to communicate outside the cloud; interactive uses, such as web browsing, or high-bandwidth applications, such as video streaming should be possible inside the cloud. The IP assignment for the meshed network is intended to be automatically configured, so no server administrator or an administration of IP addresses is needed.
Building a MANET
Manet
-MANET as an abbreviation:*MANET is a mobile ad hoc network, a self-configuring mobile wireless network.*MANET database or Molecular Ancestry Network, bioinformatics database-People with the surname Manet:*Édouard Manet, a 19th-century French painter....
is still untested under the OLPC's current configuration and hardware environment. Although one goal of the laptop is that all of its software be open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
, the source code for this routing protocol is currently closed source. While there are open-source alternatives such as OLSR or B.A.T.M.A.N.
B.A.T.M.A.N.
The Better Approach To Mobile Adhoc Networking, or B.A.T.M.A.N., is a routing protocol which is currently under development by the “Freifunk”-Community and intended to replace OLSR....
, none of these options is yet available running at the data-link layer (Layer 2) on the Wi-Fi subsystem's co-processor; this is critical to OLPC's power efficiency scheme. Whether Marvell Technology Group
Marvell Technology Group
Marvell is an American producer of storage, communications and consumer semiconductor products.Founded in 1995, Marvell Technology Group Ltd. has operations worldwide and approximately 5,700 employees. Marvell’s U.S. operating subsidiary is based in Santa Clara, California and Marvell has...
, the producer of the wireless chip set and owner of the current meshing protocol software, will make the firmware open source is still an unanswered question. As of 2011, it has not done so.
Shell
Yves BeharYves Behar
Yves Béhar is a designer, entrepreneur, and sustainability advocate. He is the founder of fuseproject, the San Francisco and New York based design and branding firm he established in 1999...
is the chief designer of the present XO shell. The shell of the laptop is resistant to dirt and moisture, and is constructed with 2 mm thick plastic (50% thicker than typical laptops). It contains a pivoting, reversible display, movable rubber WiFi
WIFI
WIFI is a radio station broadcasting a brokered format. Licensed to Florence, New Jersey, USA, the station is currently operated by Florence Broadcasting Partners, LLC.This station was previously owned by Real Life Broadcasting...
antennas, and a sealed rubber-membrane keyboard.
Keyboard and touchpad
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
.
Negroponte has demanded that the keyboard not contain a caps lock
Caps lock
Caps lock is a key on many computer keyboards. Pressing it sets an input mode in which typed letters are uppercase by default. The keyboard remains in caps lock mode until the key is pressed again...
key, which frees up keyboard space for new keys such as a future "view source" key.
Beneath the keyboard was a large area that resembled a very wide touchpad
Touchpad
A touchpad is a pointing device featuring a tactile sensor, a specialized surface that can translate the motion and position of a user's fingers to a relative position on screen. Touch pads are a common feature of laptop computers, and they are also used as a substitute for a mouse where desk...
that Jepsen referred to as the "mousepad". The capacitive portion of the mousepad was an Alps
Alps Electric Co.
produces electronic devices, including potentiometers and touchpads. Alps is a multinational corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1948. As of August of 2010, the CEO is Masataka Kataoka...
GlidePoint trackpad, which was in the central third of the sensor and could be used with a finger. The full width was a resistive sensor which, though never supported by software, was intended to be used with a stylus. This unusual feature was eliminated in the CL1A hardware revision because it suffered from erratic pointer motion. Alps Electronics provided both the capacitive and resistive components of the mousepad.
Software
Countries are expected to remove and add software to best adapt the laptop to the local laws and educational needs. As supplied by OLPC, all of the softwareComputer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
on the laptop will be free
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
and open source. All core software is intended to be localized to the languages of the target countries. The projected software as of November 2006 are:
- A pared-down version of Fedora LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
as the operating systemOperating systemAn operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
, with students receiving root access (although not normally operating in that mode). - The firmware is Open FirmwareOpen FirmwareOpen Firmware, or OpenBoot in Sun Microsystems parlance, is a standard defining the interfaces of a computer firmware system, formerly endorsed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers . It originated at Sun, and has been used by Sun, Apple, IBM, and most other non-x86 PCI chipset...
, a variant of Forth - A simple custom web browserWeb browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
based upon the Gecko engineGecko (layout engine)Gecko is a free and open source layout engine used in many applications developed by Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation , as well as in many other open source software projects....
used by Mozilla FirefoxMozilla FirefoxMozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
. - A word processorWord processorA word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
based on AbiWordAbiWordAbiWord is a free and open source software word processor. It was originally started by SourceGear Corporation as the first part of a proposed AbiSuite. Development stopped when SourceGear changed their focus to Internet appliances. AbiWord was adopted by some open source developers and AbiWord...
. - Email through the web-based GmailGmailGmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
service. - Online chatOnline chatOnline chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions...
and VoIP programs. - PythonPython (programming language)Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
2.5 is the primary programming languageProgramming languageA programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
used to develop Sugar "Activities". Several other interpreted programming languages are included, such as JavaScriptJavaScriptJavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
, CsoundCsoundCsound is a computer programming language for dealing with sound, also known as a sound compiler or an audio programming language, or more precisely, a C-based audio DSL. It is called Csound because it is written in C, as opposed to some of its predecessors...
, the eToysEToys (Programming Language)Etoys is a child-friendly computer environment and object-oriented prototype-based programming language for use in education.Etoys is a media-rich authoring environment with a scripted object model for many different objects that runs on different platforms and is free and open source.- Brief...
version of SqueakSqueakThe Squeak programming language is a Smalltalk implementation. It is object-oriented, class-based and reflective.It was derived directly from Smalltalk-80 by a group at Apple Computer that included some of the original Smalltalk-80 developers...
, and Turtle Art - A music sequencerMusic sequencerThe music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
with digital instruments: Jean PichéJean PichéJean Piché is a Canadian composer and video artist.Piché studied electroacoustic and computer music at Simon Fraser University with Barry Truax, and at the Institute of Sonology in the Netherlands. He has taught electroacoustic composition in the Faculty of Music at the University of Montreal...
's TamTam - Audio and video player softwareVideo player (software)A video player is a kind of media player for playing back digital video data from media such as optical discs , as well as from files of appropriate formats such as MPEG, AVI, RealVideo, and QuickTime....
: TotemTotem (media player)Totem is a media player for the GNOME computer desktop environment which runs on GNU/Linux, Solaris, BSD and other Unix and Unix-like systems. It is officially included in GNOME starting from version 2.10 , but de facto it was already included in most GNOME environments...
or HelixHelix (project)Helix DNA is a project to produce software that can play audio and video media in various formats, aid in producing such media, and serve them over a network. It is intended as a largely free and open source digital media framework that runs on numerous operating systems and processors and was...
.
The laptop will use the Sugar
Sugar (GUI)
Sugar is an open source desktop environment designed with the goal of being used by children for learning.Developed as part of the One Laptop per Child project, it is the default interface on OLPC XO-1 family of laptop computers....
graphical user interface, written in Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
, on top of the X Window System
X Window System
The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
and the Matchbox
Matchbox (window manager)
Matchbox is a free and open source window manager for the X Window System. It is mainly intended for embedded systems and differs from most other window managers in that it only shows one window at a time...
window manager
X window manager
An X window manager is a window manager which runs on top of the X Window System, a windowing system mainly used on Unix-like systems.Unlike the Mac OS and Microsoft Windows platforms which have historically provided a vendor-controlled, fixed set of ways to control how windows and panes display...
. This interface is not based on the typical desktop metaphor but presents an iconic view of programs and documents and a map-like view of nearby connected users. The current active program is displayed in full-screen mode. Much of the core Sugar interface uses icons, bypassing localization issues. Sugar is also defined as having no folders present in the UI.
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
had offered Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
free of charge for use in the laptop, but according to Seymour Papert
Seymour Papert
Seymour Papert is an MIT mathematician, computer scientist, and educator. He is one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence, as well as an inventor of the Logo programming language....
, a professor emeritus at MIT who is one of the initiative's founders, the designers wanted an operating system that can be tinkered with: “We declined because it’s not open source.” Therefore Linux was chosen. However, after a deal with Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, the laptop will now be offered with Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
along with an open source alternative.
Jim Gettys
Jim Gettys is an American computer programmer at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, USA. Until January 2009, he was the Vice President of Software at the One Laptop per Child project, working on the software for the OLPC XO-1. He is one of the original developers of the X Window System at MIT and worked on...
, responsible for the laptops' system software, has called for a re-education of programmers, saying that many applications use too much memory or even leak memory
Memory leak
A memory leak, in computer science , occurs when a computer program consumes memory but is unable to release it back to the operating system. In object-oriented programming, a memory leak happens when an object is stored in memory but cannot be accessed by the running code...
. “There seems to be a common fallacy among programmers that using memory is good: on current hardware it is often much faster to recompute values than to have to reference memory to get a precomputed value. A full cache miss can be hundreds of cycles, and hundreds of times the power consumption of an instruction that hits in the first level cache.”
On August 4, 2006, the Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is an American non-profit charitable organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida, where it was initially based...
announced that static copies of selected Wikipedia articles would be included on the laptops. Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
, chair of the Wikimedia Foundation, said that "OLPC's mission goes hand in hand with our goal of distributing encyclopedic knowledge, free of charge, to every person in the world. Not everybody in the world has access to a broadband connection." Negroponte had earlier suggested he would like to see Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
on the laptop. Wales feels that Wikipedia is one of the "killer apps" for this device.
Don Hopkins
Don Hopkins
Don Hopkins is an artist and programmer specializing in human computer interaction and computer graphics.He inspired Richard Stallman, who described him as a "very imaginative fellow", to use the term copyleft. He coined Deep Crack as the name of the EFF DES cracker, and built "AJAXian"...
announced that he is creating a free and open source port of the game SimCity
SimCity
SimCity is a critically acclaimed city-building simulation video game, first released in 1989, and designed by Will Wright. SimCity was Maxis' first product, which has since been ported into various personal computers and game consoles, and spawned several sequels including SimCity 2000 in 1994,...
to the OLPC with the blessing of Will Wright and Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
, and demonstrated SimCity running on the OLPC at the Game Developer's Conference in March 2007. The free and open source SimCity plans were confirmed at the same conference by SJ Klein, director of content for the OLPC, who also asked game developers to create “frameworks and scripting environments—tools with which children themselves could create their own content.”
The laptop's security architecture, known as Bitfrost
Bitfrost
Bitfrost is the security design specification for the OLPC XO, a low cost laptop intended for children in developing countries and developed by the One Laptop Per Child project. Bitfrost's main architect is Ivan Krstić...
, was publicly introduced in February 2007. No passwords will be required for ordinary use of the machine. Programs are assigned certain bundles of rights at install time which govern their access to resources; users can later add more rights. Optionally, the laptops can be configured to request leases from a central server
OLPC XS
The OLPC XS is a Linux-based OS designed to be installed on generic low-to-midrange mildly ruggedized servers. Initial plans of building a custom server geared for the role have been postponed, OLPC however offers hardware recommendations for the system, and plans to support the XO hardware...
and to stop functioning when these leases expire; this is designed as a theft-prevention mechanism.
The pre-8.20 software versions were criticized for bad wireless connectivity and other minor issues.
Desktop environments
XfceXfce
Xfce is a free software desktop environment for Unix and other Unix-like platforms, such as Linux, Solaris, and BSD – though recent compatibility issues have arisen with regard to BSD Unix platforms...
is a lightweight alternative GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
to Sugar. Being only 33 MB (using yum
Yellow dog Updater, Modified
The Yellowdog Updater, Modified is an open-source command-line package-management utility for RPM-compatible Linux operating systems and has been released under the GNU General Public License. It was developed by Seth Vidal and a group of volunteer programmers...
) it does not take up much of an XO's storage space — less than GNOME
GNOME
GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
or KDE
KDE
KDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...
. According to the OLPC Wiki: "Xfce is a lightweight but powerful desktop environment that will work well on the XO" Information on installation is available at: OLPC Wiki: Xfce.The XO is also now available dual boot
Dual boot
Multi-boot or Multi-booting is the act of installing multiple operating systems on a computer, and being able to choose which one to boot when starting the computer. The term dual-booting refers to the common configuration of exactly two operating systems...
and can run a version of MS Windows.
See also
- Classmate PCClassmate PCThe Classmate PC, formerly known as Eduwise, is Intel's entry into the market for low-cost personal computers for children in the developing world. It is in some respects similar to the One Laptop Per Child trade association's Children's Machine , which has a similar target market...
- Comparison of netbooksComparison of netbooksThese tables provide a comparison of netbooks. See also the comparison of subnotebooks, as there is significant overlap between these categories.Aspects of netbooks that should be considered:...
- Computer technology for developing areasComputer technology for developing areasComputer technology for developing areas is the donation of technology to developing areas by individuals and organizations . However, donating technology without first coordinating its use, maintenance and final disposal can lead to misuse and potential problems.-Opportunity:Developing countries...
- eMate 300EMate 300The eMate 300 was a personal digital assistant designed, manufactured and sold by Apple to the education market as a low-cost laptop running the Newton operating system...
- Lemote
- LinutopLinutopThe Linutop is a small, light, environment friendly nettop computer with a metal case, no moving parts, and running the Linutop OS , a customized version of Linux based on the Xubuntu then Ubuntu/GNOME distribution....
- NetbookNetbookNetbooks are a category of small, lightweight, legacy-free, and inexpensive laptop computers.At their inception in late 2007 as smaller notebooks optimized for low weight and low cost — netbooks omitted certain features , featured smaller screens and keyboards, and offered reduced computing...
- One Laptop Per Child
- PlayPowerPlayPowerPLAYPOWER is a non-profit organization designed to create free educational computer software for low income families in India and other developing countries. The games are designed to run on 8-bit systems, using a processor that is in the public domain, which allows the games to be run on very low...
- SakshatSakshatThe Aakash is an Android tablet computer jointly developed by the London-based company DataWind with the Indian Institute of Technology Rajasthan and manufactured by the India-based company Quad, at a new production centre in Hyderabad — under a trial run of 100,000 units. The tablet was...
- Sinomanic
- VIA pc-1 InitiativeVIA pc-1 InitiativeThe VIA pc-1 Initiative is a project of VIA Technologies, established in January 2005, to help bridge the digital divide by developing information and communication technology systems to benefit those who currently do not have computers or Internet access.-Aims:The initiative sought to enable the...
- XO 3.0OLPC XO-3XO-3 is the upcoming planned tablet/laptop/e-book reader that is intended to be developed under One Laptop per Child initiative. The shaping is that of a tablet computer, replacing the canceled two sheet design concept of the XO-2. The inner workings are those of the XO 1.75 that will use an ARM...
- ZonbuZonbuZonbu is a technology company that sells a computing platform which combines a web-centric service, a small form factor PC, and an open source based software architecture...
External links
- Annan presents prototype $100 laptop at World Summit on Information Society (MIT press release)
- Lecture describing the history and practice of the OLPC project Given by N. Negroponte for the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
, in Boston, March 2007. Recorded and published by the Australian Broadcasting CorporationAustralian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
's Science Show. - Live-CD
- Negroponte video on dual boot XO
- OLPC Home Page
- OLPC Sugar video 1 – interface emulation demo hosted on YouTube
- OLPC Sugar video 2 – social features demo hosted on YouTube
- OLPC Sugar video 3 – mini Tam Tam demo hosted on YouTube
- OLPC Sugar video 4 – synthLab demo hosted on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
- OLPC.TV videos of the OLPC
- Kirk, Jeremy, "XO laptop to go on sale in 30 countries on Monday", IDG News Service, November 14, 2008