From:
http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php/Hardware_specification
What makes this system unique (relative to other systems called
"laptops")?
The machine is designed for young children, primarily ages 6-12. A large
fraction of such children are in parts of the developing world where
electricity is not available at home, or often even at school, so for
many children, a low power consumption, potentially human powered
computer is a necessity, not a convenience. Teaching may not even be
inside, and certainly when children are at home, they often will not be
inside where conventional LCD screens are usable. Children usually walk
to and from school every day; weather is unpredictable, rain, dirt and
dust are commonplace. And cost is a major consideration, if we are to
bring computers and their great power to help children learn to children
everywhere.
The design reflects these realities, and the work of our design team,
which includes OLPC staff, Quanta Computer, the Fuse Project, Design
Continuum, members of the MIT Media Labs and other colleagues and
friends. It also reflects a great focus on what can and should be done
to help bring the children the best possible learning tool, and reflects
decades of field experience of children using computers in the
developing world. Our thanks to them all.
* It is sized for a child, who, due to their size, will be closer to
the screen than an adult with a conventional laptop. The system is much
lighter than a conventional machine, (somewhere less than 1.5KG), and
its industrial design is quite different than a commercial
"black/grey/white" laptop.
* Friendly, colorful design; Visually distinctive: itâs for
kids! Immediately recognizable as a "kid's machine".
* Safety First: Soft, rounded edges.
* It has a rugged handle for carrying easily, sized for chidren.
This reflects the needs of children walking to and from school or other
activities.
* "Transformer" screen hinge: E-Book Mode for convenient reading and
a conventional laptop mode. It folds over into a "ebook", about the size
of a conventional book, with buttons exposed for controlling viewer
applications (or for use with games).
* The screen can be "on" while the CPU and most of the motherboard
is suspended and powered down, while the screen is read or the machine
otherwise idle, allowing for major power savings in most common usage
modes, such as reading a book.
* The screen refresh rate can be varied. When applications are not
changing the screen, we can reduce the refresh rate of the LCD to
conserve power.
* Wireless mesh: Child-child sharing! OLPC Laptops are full-time
wireless routers. Mesh networking reduces the need for dedicated
infrastructure (e.g. access points and/or cabling), and extends greatly
the areas in which machines may be connected to each other and/or to the
internet.
* The wireless antennae are diversity antennae, and rotate upward
using a rugged dual moulded nylon plastic design. When used rotated
above the LCD, the antennae work significantly better than conventional
built in antennae in existing systems or in Cardbus cards. This
significantly increases the area each machine can cover in the mesh, and
generally increases network performance. When closed, the antennae cover
the audio and USB connectors to help keep dirt out of the connectors (as
mentioned above, the case carefully moulds around the connectors, both
to increase ruggedness and to help keep dirt and water out). Great care
has been taken in the RF design, and early measurements show a lower
noise level than seen by Marvell on any other design of theirs. We
expect that the 802.11 networking in this system will be substantially
better than a conventional system.
* The Marvell wireless chip can forward packets in the mesh network,
with the CPU suspended, and the CPU may resume if explicitly addressed.
Since the mesh network is so important, we want laptops to be able to
participate in the mesh to keep forwarding packets when need be as
efficiently as possible, and by suspending the processor we can increase
the running time of the wireless a factor of 3-4. If this were not
possible, children might need to disable wireless to preserve battery
charge; by doing so, the mesh would be much less effective.
* The machine is rugged. The most common failures of laptops are
disk drives, fans, florescent back lights, power connectors, other
connectors, and contamination of keyboards. Our machine uses flash,
eliminating a disk, has no need for a fan, uses a rugged LED backlight
rather than a florescent light, and uses a sealed rubber keyboard. It
uses 2mm thick plastic, where a typical system might use 1.3mm. External
connectors are carefully molded into the plastic for greater strength.
The power connector is carefully chosen to be much more durable than
usual, and again, the case is moulded carefully around it for greater
strength. There are extremely few connectors in the machine, primarily
just connecting the keyboard assembly to the motherboard (which is
behind the LCD display). This eliminates most of the cables and
connectors you will find in most laptops. We will be testing 500 systems
to destruction this fall to identify anything we can do to increase
further its ruggedness. There are internal bumpers to protect the
display, and we are investigating external bumpers on the outside of the
case for additional shock protection.
* Additionally, the design allows us to directly connect the video
output of the DCON chip to the LCD, enabling lower power drive of the
screen.
* With these special power savings features, average power
consumption, is expected to be low enough (in the neighborhood of 1-1.5
watts in many usage scenarios) that if a child needs to generate power
for their laptop, they will get a good ratio of "work" to "learn". A
small child can generate at best 5-10 watts; a larger child somewhat
more. In contrast, conventional laptops often consume 20 watts or more,
even when idle.
* The industrial design includes a small lip to help seal the edge
of the machine when closed. While not water-proof, we expect a machine
in a child's backpack or hands in a rainstorm should not have problems
with water.
* The keyboard is a rubber membrane keyboard, with quite nice feel
(and we continue to work on further improvements on it). This makes the
keyboard much more resiliant against both water and dirt, and allows us
to seal the keyboard in the base of the machine. The keyboard is
connected via a PS/2 interface to save power. Smaller key pitch for
smaller hands. A lighter 40 gram touch than normal keyboards.
* Novel dual-mode extra-wide touchpad, with dual sensor technology.
Supports pointing⦠plus drawing and writing. Supports fingers, or a
pen, pencil, or stylus...
* Dual cursor control pads (w/Enter keys)
* Internal microphone, plus a mic-in jack. Unique âsensor
inputâ mode. The audio codec can be used in a mode where direct
voltage measurements can be taken, enabling children to learn about
temperature, voltage, and many other physical phenomena with cheap
sensors without requiring any external adaptors. The educational
possibilities are limited only by your imagination.
* Stereo audio with internal stereo speakers; Stereo Line-out jack
* There are three USB2 connectors, allowing for many expansion
possibilities.
* The power supply is tolerant of almost any voltage you might have
at hand for charging, either from a human powered generator or a car or
truck battery; accidental reversal of polarity will not damage the
machine.
* NiMH batteries are chosen to enable high charging efficiency from
a generator (LiION batteries require very close control of charging
voltages, so any higher voltage would have to be clamped and power
wasted). Additionally, NiMH batteries have no safety problems (LiION
batteries, when they fail, can fail by burning at extremely high
temperature). And LiION batteries should be recycled carefully. NiMH
batteries pose no environmental concerns.
* Power-efficient processor & electronics. Consumes 1/10th the power
of ânormalâ notebooks
* Long battery life == more useful. Under typical use, the computer
should last the entire school day without requiring charging. Avoiding
disruption in class rooms, and/or the need for wiring (or use of
generators) in the class room for power is very important.
* Removable battery packs, that are much lower cost than
conventional LiION battery packs. This enables easy swapping of
batteries so that one set might charge while another are in use.
* Careful attention to environmental issues, no hazardous materials,
fully ROHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) compliant.
>From the above, you can see that this is a novel system carefully
designed to solve the challenges outlined above, and not a typical
"laptop" in almost any dimension you care to name.
Where's the Crank? (you are asking...) Human power is still a major
program priority! Inside the laptop isnât always optimal as human
power is not always required. Human power stresses components. The crank
is great symbol, but not the most efficient for actual generation. We
are performing human motion studies: legs are stronger than arms, but
arms may be free while walking to school. AC Adapters are already
located on the ground/ and floor. Several types of generators are under
development, including one integrated with AC Adapter. More freedom of
motion will allow for optimum power generation.
Photographs of First Prototype Electronics
Power up of the first OLPC electronics prototype boards occurred April
15, 2006. Power and ground testing continued over the weekend, and
formal debug and BIOS bring up started Monday, April 17, 2006 at Quanta
Computer's labs in Taipei, Taiwan. By Wednesday, April 19, Linux was
booting on the first generation prototypes.
* Component side OLPC circuit board
* Back side of the OLPC circuit board
* Picture of Linux running with circuit board in the lab
* Picture of the screen of Linux running on the OLPC circuit board;
fittingly, it shows a Chinese desktop
Second Generation Design
Second-generation unit will use a more power-efficient integrated
Geode-based AMD chip (instead of the GX500/5536 set), presuming it is
the best alternative available at the time, and probably a next
generation wireless chip.
--
Jeff Kinz, Emergent Research, Hudson, MA.
Speech Recognition Technology was used to create this e-mail
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