RESEARCHERS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are developing cheap portable laptops for 150 million schoolchildren in developing countries to enhance their learning experience.
“Kids in the developing world need the newest technology, especially rugged hardware and innovative software. Recent work with schools in Maine (USA) has shown the huge value of using a laptop across all of one’s studies,” said Nicholas Negroponte, laboratory chairman and MIT co-founder.
The $100 Linux-based computers are in full-color—dual Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) that switches to black and white for outdoor reading—and with Super Video Graphics Array (SVGA) 7” full-screen diagonal display and will use biomass energy, wind energy, or solar energy. In addition, it will use wireless Internet connection through built-in “mesh networking” where the computers will share a single Internet connection.
To keep the laptops inexpensive, MIT will use flash memory chips in place of a mechanical hard drive, and a low-powered 500 megahertz processor for basic computing tasks and Internet. It will also have four Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports, and Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) and cellphone capabilities.
The laptops were inspired by a previous successful project in a Cambodian village where school children were given notebook computers.
However, the laptops will not be available for sale as they will be sent to schools through government initiatives. MIT targets to deliver at least five million to 15 million computers in one year and 100 to 150 million computers in the next year.
Prototypes of the laptop will be ready by early 2006, and will be mass produced by October 2006, Negroponte said. Marie Ghiselle V. Villorente
