OLPC Project Could Offer a Consumer Version by Year End

Technocrat

OLPC Project Could Offer a Consumer Version by Year End

zogger

Wed Jul 25 19:28:55 -0700 2007

Computers.

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The One Laptop Per Child organization is finally seriously considering offering their design on the open market, for roughly twice what a build costs them. So for around 350 dollars you might be able to get one around Christmas time. According to their CTO, they are talking to three companies with a "big presence on the web" to handle the consumer market aspects.

...""The PC industry will be watching this very closely," said Roger Kay, an analyst with PC market researcher Endpoint Technologies Associates Inc."..more, ha! do ya think?, there

ed: note to the observant: the current design models don't use a hand crank, the generator is a pull string affair now

ed2: $350 or higher might be steep, what with sub $400 dollar normal laptops hitting the shelves now or back to school soon. If they had done this all along, instead of being recalcitrant and ignoring all the offers of "double for one" that people were making originally, maybe, but now years later and at near double the original proposed cost-not sure if it will sell all that well, albeit they will still sell a lot of them. The self powered innovation and a few of the other features are nice, but it's too close now to a regular low end new laptop. thinking of it as an open PDA instead of a laptop is a better marketing idea I think, although it is really not in either class looking at it. It really *is* a kid's sized laptop.

OLPC Project Could Offer a Consumer Version by Year End

Harry Tuttle

Thu Jul 26 00:08:03 -0700 2007
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One of the many things in the OLPC hardware's favour is its very low power requirement.
Where I live, electric power costs around 25 US cents per kwh, so running a home server that dissipates 50W continuously costs around 110 USD per year. Using a server that uses OLPC hardware techniques to drop that to 5W continuously makes the cost far more acceptable - and it is obviously sensible to be prepared to pay a little more for that.
Now, I know the OLPC laptop is not a server, but I'd hope the techniques used would be reapplied.
I've looked at possible low-power servers and found things like the NSLU2, VIA based small format PCs, ARM-based systems and so on, and not found anything that is a slam dunk obvious home server - there are compromises with all the choices. The NSLU2 is a bit light on RAM, VIA cpus are not bug free and the support chipsets are a little idiosyncratic, ARM-based systems are expensive and don't run a lot of x86 based software.
It's off topic, but what low power dissipation servers to technocrat readers use?
Cheers,
Tarco

OLPC Project Could Offer a Consumer Version by Year End

japester

Thu Jul 26 01:15:08 -0700 2007
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I use a WRAP1-2 board. admittedly, as a firewall/router/gateway/captive portal device.

I have considered attaching some NAS drives to it ... once I get one of those round tuit things

OLPC Project Could Offer a Consumer Version by Year End

Charles E Hill

Thu Jul 26 06:27:53 -0700 2007
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For a home server, I use Via's now discontinued 310-DP. It is a dual-processor EdenN with GigE, 2 Gb RAM, SATA, MPEG-2/4 and crypto acceleration. Quiet, efficient and cool for a server, just don't try and play games on it.

I'm investigating Sun's Niagara machines for use in co-located services and want to see the Niagara 2 when it debuts later this year, as well as what happens to the price of the Niagara 1 systems.

low spec servers

zogger

Thu Jul 26 10:00:11 -0700 2007
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I don't have one or use one, but I was reading before some guys have used mac minis as lower power servers. I imagine google will fetch you the links for that.
with that said, one big solar panel and a charge controller and a couple of storage batteries (two six volters, deep discharge models hooked series for 12 VDC to go into a normal inexpensive inverter) and it seems like it, just from the modest requirements,you could run your server all the time if all you need is 50 watts. Higher outlay upfront, but it would work. I ran my laptop (PB1400) for years on just a two solar panel rig, almost nonstop, hardly ever turned it off, plus a shortwave radio and a little TV and a smallish fluorescent light, but the TV not too often, and I never ran out of power. At a quarter a kilowatt hour you are really getting gouged for power there...the alternatives are much more cost competitive in your case than for people still paying under a dime or close to it.

OLPC Project Could Offer a Consumer Version by Year End

Matt Fulkerson

Thu Jul 26 06:41:00 -0700 2007
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Still, if the profits are going towards the goal of achieving the $100 laptop, many would rather subsidize that cause. Also, I see great potential in a laptop designed for kids, but still interesting to adults (and especially adult programmers interested in helping kids). Get some smart computing into the classrooms rather than the junk that kids are probably being exposed to these days.