Classmate PC heads for Africa

By Leon Engelbrecht for Intel
Johannesburg, 24 Apr 2007

Intel and AMD are at loggerheads again, this time fighting to be first to put a low-cost laptop on school desks.

The Classmate PC was on display at last week's Intel Developers Forum (IDF), in Beijing, China, and production by various original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) is imminent.

The Intel product rivals an AMD technology that forms part of the United Nation's One Laptop per Child (OLPC) programme. The proposed OLPC machine will be Linux-based, have a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory.

It will lack a hard disk, but will have four USB ports and wireless broadband that will allow the machines to work as a mesh network and form an ad hoc local area network.

OLPC promoter Nicolas Negroponte says the laptops will use innovative power solutions, including wind-up, to overcome the electricity supply issue "and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data".

While not openly dismissive of this approach, Intel developers at the IDF argued that children need a fully functional computer, not a dumbed-down machine if they are to seamlessly migrate from educational machines to the real thing later in life.

Pat Gelsinger, Intel's senior VP and GM of the Digital Enterprises Group, said the Classmate would be fitted with the company's "Little Valley" entry-level board solution.

There is not much of a price difference. Taiwanese OEM Asustek is launching its bottom range 1GB flash memory Classmate at $199, while Negroponte hopes to sell his to education departments for $100. However, trade magazines say the current price is $150.

Asutek is rolling out five Classmate models, the most expensive of which, at $549, will have 40GB of memory. The computers, aimed at children aged between six and 12, will be available in the second half of the year.

Gelsinger added Pakistan was taking 700 000 of the machines. This is in addition to reports that Mexico was planning to take 300 000 units that can run either Linux or Windows XP embedded.

Classmate has also been tested in Nigeria - a country also considering OLPC - and may soon head for South African shores.

Meanwhile, the OLPC coalition has released its own figures, saying eight countries have signed contracts to buy more than eight million of the machines. Sales will "definitely" surpass 10 million units in the first year of the roll-out, it says.