Finally, Intel joins the One Laptop Per Child project.
XO-1 will start mass production as planned this September or October and will use AMD Geode LX-700 chips as planned.
The first generation school servers that will be shipped to schools using the XO-1 will use Intel chips.
This is what I think we can expect Intel could provide to the OLPC project:
- Contribute large amounts of R&D to make the successor to the LX-700, it should consume even less power while providing as reliable or more reliable x86 processing.
- XO-2 should integrate DCON better (the technology that can refresh the image on the screen while suspending the main processor most of the time when it’s not needded)
- XO-2 should add low power Mobile WiMax 802.16e as a second wireless technology in the laptop with the WiFi Mesh 802.11s. Unless Mobile WiMax can be made to work in ad-hoc mode as a Mesh thus it could replace WiFi. Intel is said to be very much invested in Mobile WiMax technology. Mobile WiMax in the 700mhz UHF band might be the best solution, and a deployment using the FON flowerbox model would provide free wireless broadband blanketing very quickly and very cheaply for whole countries.
- XO-2 should optimize suspend and resume even more, make it faster, better and more reliable.
- Find a way to add E-Ink technology to the laptop for better readabillity and lower power consumption in e-book mode, possibly as a second rollable screen that can be pulled over the LCD.
- Work towards commercializing OLPC technology in the whole world. Profit made by commercializing OLPC technologies should be used by the OLPC foundation towards lowering the price of the XO-1, XO-2 and XO-3. A result of this might be that we will all be able to buy $200 laptops soon running Linux, lasting 20 hours on a battery, being sunlight readable, integrating Mobile WiMax and WiFi Mesh, providing instant-resume and running the main processor without a fan. It is everyone in the world who needs to use the OLPC technology for lower power computing in terms of protecting the environment.