OLPC Announced Final Beta Version of XO Laptop

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization today announced it has authorized mass production of the XO laptop, based on the release of the final Beta-4 (B4) engineering model.

“This triggers the supply chains of 800 parts that come together and rollout off the assembly line in October,” the OLPC’s press release says.

OLPC’s XO B4 laptops, aimed to help education of poor children around the world, are claimed to be “among the most durable and innovative laptop computers ever designed”. It features a sunlight-readable display and is water and dust resistant.

In addition, XO B4 notebook is able to operate in areas without access to electricity. This computer can be powered by various alternative sources, including a pull cord, a solar panel, or a solar-powered multi-battery charger at the school. The B4 machines use less than one watt of power when being used as an e-book and can operate for more than 12 hours on its battery accordingly.

The internal enhancements of the B4, when compared to previous XO version, include a faster AMD Geode processor with larger cache size, a larger system memory and faster memory clock speed, an improved graphics processor, and larger NAND Flash memory capacity for data storage.

The OLPC XO laptop uses Linux-based user interface called Sugar.

Source

[…] Its entry to the commercial market would be a challenge to traditional PC industry companies, Reuter’s report says. However, Asustek has also announced the low-cost notebook for commercial market. Its Asus EEE PC is expected to cost $200 with much better hardware specifications than of current OLPC XO laptop. On the other side, XO’s advantage may be its dust and water resistant chassis, as well as outdoor viewable display. […]

[…] One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) announced today that its XO laptop, aimed at education of children in developing countries, will cost $188 when mass production begins this fall. The initially announced price of $100 is described as a long-term goal, according to the nonprofit organization. […]

[…] The XO notebook features a 7.5-inch display, the AMD Geode LX-700 processor at 433MHz, 256 MB of system memory, and 1GB of data storage capacity. It has a water and dust resistant chassis and runs Linux-based user interface called Sugar. […]

[…] The OLPC XO laptop currently runs on AMD’s 433MHz Geode LX-700, an affordable and power-saving chip. Intel executives initially talked about using existing mobile processors for the OLPC’s notebook, such as modified versions of the Celeron M or upcoming Silverthorne processor, but the XO’s small form factor, low price, and low power consumption require a new architecture, according to Eden. […]

[…] The OLPC’s XO noteobok, aimed at education of children in developing countries, will be available soon in the United States through “Give 1 Get 1” program. […]