XO+OLPC

= XO OLPC   = == = The XO-1, previously known as the $100 Laptop or Children's Machine, is an inexpensive laptop 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) social welfare organization, and manufactured by the Taiwanese computer company, Quanta Computer. = = The laptops can be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. Pricing is currently set to start at US$188 and the goal is to reach the $100 mark in 2008. Approximately 500 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. It indicated it could ship five million to ten million units that year because seven nations have 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 machine on the open market. = = The rugged, low-power computers contain flash memory instead of a hard drive and use Linux as their operating system. Mobile ad-hoc networking is used to allow many machines to share Internet access from one connection. = = The OLPC project had stated that a consumer version of the XO laptop is not planned.However, the project 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.It has been rumored that it is planning to put a modified version of Windows XP into their newer laptops. = = The laptop falls into the newly-defined category of Netbooks. = ** Production version (4th generation) - functional survey The [|hardware] specifications [|as of November 2007] are:
 * HARDWARE:
 * CPU: 433 [|MHz] [|AMD Geode] LX-700 at 0.8 [|watts], with integrated graphics controller
 * 1200×900 7.5 inch diagonal [|LCD] (200 [|dpi]) 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.
 * [|Backlit] color mode, with an effective 800×600 resolution that is asymmetrically reduced in complicated ways. See below for details.
 * 256 [|MB] of Dual (DDR266) 133 MHz [|DRAM] (in 2006 the specification called for only 128 MB of RAM)
 * 1024 [|kB] (1 MB) flash ROM with open-source [|Open Firmware]
 * 1024 MB of SLC NAND [|flash memory] (in 2006 the specifications called for only 512 MB of flash memory)
 * Internal [|SD card] slot.
 * Wireless networking using an “Extended Range” [|802.11b/g] and [|802.11s] (mesh) [|Marvell] 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 [|WPA]. An [|ARM] processor is included.
 * Dual adjustable antennas for [|diversity reception].
 * 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 [|cursor]-control pad; four directional keys plus Enter
 * Four "Game Buttons" (functionally PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End)
 * [|Touchpad] for mouse control and handwriting input
 * Built-in color camera, to the right of the display, VGA resolution (640×480)
 * Built-in [|stereo] speakers
 * Built-in [|microphone]
 * Audio based on the [|AC97] codec, with jacks for external stereo speakers and microphones, Line-out, and Mic-in
 * 3 external [|USB] 2.0 ports.
 * Power sources:
 * [|DC] input, ±11–18 [|V], maximum 15 [|W] power draw
 * 5-cell rechargeable [|NiMH battery] pack, 3000 mAh minimum 3050 mAh typical 80% usable, charge at 0…45°C
 * 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 include a pull-string generator designed by Potenco.

**Intentionally omitted features** One of the first beta test 1 units.
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 [|floppy] drives and no fans. 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 ports]. A built-in hand-[|crank] generator, making it [|self-powered equipment], was part of the original design, but Negroponte stated at a 2006 [|LinuxWorld] talk that it was no longer integrated into the laptop itself, but that a similar device could someday be optionally available as a hand- or foot-operated generator built into a separate power unit.

**Power consumption**
The laptop will consume 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 should meet the target of 2 watts. In e-book mode, which is still under development and has not yet been released, all hardware sub-systems are intended to be powered down except the monochrome display. When the user moves to a different page the system will wake up, draw the new page on the display and then go back to sleep. Power consumption in this future "e-book mode" is estimated to be 0.3 W to 0.8 W.

** Wireless mesh networking  **
[|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 [|Mb/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 will 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. But this matter will become clearer once the production is in full swing.

** Keyboard and touchpad  **
More than ten 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.[|[27]][|[17]] 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 is a large area that resembles a very wide [|touchpad] that Jepsen referred to as the “mousepad”. The central third is a capacitive sensor that can be used with a finger; the full width is a resistive sensor which, while not yet operational, may someday be used with a [|stylus]. === Software   Mock-up of the “neighborhood view” showing children collaborating on various tasks, within the [|mesh network]. By clicking on the icon, communication by [|Wi-Fi] is activated. === Countries are expected to add and remove software to best adapt the laptop to the local laws and educational needs. As supplied by OLPC, //all// of the [|software] 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 want 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 [|4 August] [|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. 
 * A pared-down version of [|Fedora] [|Linux] as the [|operating system], with students receiving [|root access] (although not normally operating in that mode).
 * The firmware is [|Open Firmware], a variant of [|Forth].
 * A simple custom [|web browser] based upon the [|Gecko engine] used by [|Mozilla Firefox].
 * A [|word processor] based on [|AbiWord].
 * Email through the web-based [|Gmail] service.
 * [|Online chat] and [|VoIP] programs.
 * [|Python] 2.5 is the primary [|programming language] used to develop Sugar "Activities". Several other [|interpreted programming languages] are included, such as [|JavaScript], [|Csound], the [|eToys] version of [|Squeak], and Turtle Art.
 * A [|music sequencer] with digital instruments: Jean Piché's [|TamTam]
 * [|Audio and video player software]: [|Totem] or [|Helix].