One Laptop Per Child

The implementation of alternative means to power the OLPC computer is one of the areas that has attracted a lot of interest to the OLPC, most noticeably the distinctive hand crank. Different options in this regard have been touted, from the use of kinetic force, to small scale solar and wind recharging stations. The power supply is designed to be tolerant of almost any available voltage for charging, from human powered generators to car batteries, with any small accidental spikes or reversals of polarity not damaging the computer itself.

The batteries themselves are Nickel Metal Hydride or NiMH, which are much cheaper and more resistant to voltage fluctuations than their conventional Lithium counterparts. Another advantage of these batteries is that they are completely RoHS compliant. RoHS stands for Reduction of Hazardous Substances, and is a seal of environmental safety. This is naturally very important when you consider that the intention is to put tens of millions of these units into use worldwide.

The OLPC is planned to run a Linux operating system as there is naturally no desire to expend money in this area where no money need be spent. While Linux is very much the underdog in terms of its global share of the market - despite being free - at the moment it seems very likely that if the $100 PC projects do take off this might cease to be the case as tens of millions of Linux PCs enter circulation.

Manufacture of the OLPC laptops is due to be handled by Quanta Computers. Whilst not one of the most well known companies in the world of IT, they are certainly among the biggest, already producing almost a third of all the worlds laptop computers - more than any other company. Production and distribution of the earliest versions of the OLPC systems is scheduled to begin in 2007.

What Does This Mean For Us?

The humanitarian benefits of helping to educate millions of children and bridge the digital divide between the rich and poor nations of the world are pretty self evident even to the most hardened cynic. However there can be no denying that a whole lot of the technology being developed for use in the $100 PC systems looks pretty tempting to users of power hungry, delicate and network-shy conventional laptops.

Manual power supplies for charging laptops and PCs and other devices are actually already here, though you’d be forgiven for having missed them. Freeplay Energy provides various generators and gadgets powered by kinetic and other energy sources. The Freeplay Weza generator can be charged via a foot pump and among its many uses allows you to use a 12V DC cigarette lighter adaptor to recharge devices such as phones or laptops.

Linux, the free OS powering the OLPC, is common and easily available in many forms to anybody who wants it. So if you want your PC to do a good impersonation of an OLPC system, at least on the screen, then that can be arranged.

Getting a modern developed nation laptop PC to mirror the robustness of the 100$ PC designs is a much tougher proposition. The technology does exist for what are called rugged laptop PCs in the developed world, with companies like Terralogic providing military spec laptops with all the modern convenience of your cosy home computer in an armour plated, environment-proofed casing - but the costs of those kind of protections for a conventional laptop are very high. Components like hard disk drives are just not intrinsically designed to be robust.

If anything, the most important and potentially revolutionary trickle down, or rather trickle up, effect of the $100 PC project in developed nations is the idea that a laptop built specifically as an educational tool for children can be not only useful but also affordable and achievable. How far this is actually the case however remains to be seen.