Marvell gives OLPC $5.6 million for development of next gen laptop
The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) foundation has received $5.6 million from chip manufacturer Marvell to pay for the development of its next-generation OLPC XO tablet computer, the XO-3. According to Xconomy, OLPC Founder and Chairman Dr. Nicholas Negroponte said that the deal was signed last week and will run through next year. Negroponte added that, "Their money is a grant to the OLPC Foundation to develop a tablet or tablets based on their chip," noting that, "They’re going to put the whole system on a chip".
The new XO tablet will reportedly be based on Marvell’s Moby reference design and on OLPC’s current tablet designs, which features an 8.5 by 11 inch touch screen (the size of US letter paper), a virtual keyboard and a camera on the back. The OLPC project says that the new tablets will include new elements and capabilities based on feedback from nearly two million users around the world and that it will require approximately only one watt of power, compared to about 5 watts in current XO laptops. As previously confirmed by Negroponte, the XO-3 is expected to cost $75 and is targeted for release in 2012.
Marvell and OLPC previously announced their partnership to develop the XO-3 earlier this year. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project is a non-profit organisation who's mission is to provide children across the world with low cost laptops for the purposes of self-education.
See also:
- OLPC partners with Marvell for next gen XO laptop, a report from The H.
- Conceptual design of OLPC XO-3 tablet revealed, a report from The H.
(crve)