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ARM Powered OLPC XO-1.75 Laptop Is Faster Than X86
Charbax writes "Not only is power consumption halved to less than two Watts and price of the motherboard reduced, the performance of the next generation OLPC Laptop is actually better for running full Fedora Linux compared to x86. Here's a video interviewing OLPC's CTO, Edward J. McNierney, where he explains how and why OLPC's world class engineers are making this change of CPU architecture. If OLPC XO-1 threatened Intel enough to start the netbook market and has reached two million poor kids in third-world countries thus far, XO-1.75 may help start the ARM-powered Linux laptop market. Do you think Fedora/Sugar will do, or should OLPC attract Chrome OS and Android solutions for education to get faster help from the big boys of Silicon Valley in bringing Linux software successfully to the next billion PC/laptop users?"
It's the intel laptops that cost an ARM and a leg.
I want to buy a powerful ARM laptop, with the fastest CPU, most cores and the biggest screen (15" is preferable).
Is there anything like this on the market?
Anyone else notice that they are building an Arm powered ARM powered computer? Now requiring only half as many cranks.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
I am not sure that Android would be any better than Sugar. I participated in the buy two get one program so that I could look at the original OLPC XO 1.0 laptop. I was not impressed by Sugar. I would prefer to see OLPC provide a path from the XO to a full blown Linux distribution that does not require children to learn a new UI. OLPC should stick to developing affordable hardware and ask Canonical to provide optimized versions of Edubuntu and Ubuntu for the OLPC XO-1.75 laptop.
... a full blown Linux distribution that does not require children to learn a new UI...
You know, I think any computer UI is likely to be a new one for many of the children they're targetting. They've got a rare chance to design an interface for people who don't already have expectations of how to use a computer. I know I'd take that opportunity to see if I could work out a better model.
OLPC was founded in 2005 with the "$100 Laptop" idea which Bill Gates, Intel, everyone imediately poo-pooed. Intel's Asus Eee PC Atom platform was a direct reaction to OLPC's hype, Eee was promoted as $199 Laptop miod 2007 but introduced by the end of 2007 as a $399 netbook.
The original XO-1 uses an AMD Geode LX 800, which was released in 2002/2003 or thereabouts. This latest XO-1.75 uses a Marvell Armada 610, and the marketing material I'm looking at from Marvell has a copyright of 2010 on it. The CPU in there is a Marvell Sheeva which the earliest reference I can find is from 2008, but that's not even a fair date because that's when they announced it, not shipped it.
So yes, this processor is faster than an 8-year-old AMD Geode. I would like to see power/performance tradeoffs vs. today's Atom and AMD Fusion stuff before everyone goes nuts about how ARM is faster than x86 for half the power.
I think the OLPC laptops by default all come with a full fedora linux desktop, as you can see in the video, which the kids can easily dual-boot into if they want "advanced mode", with full Gnome desktop.
Build the hardware and sell it at cost or maybe less then create an app store to make more money.
Huh? So, only the "rich" poor people can afford the "cool" apps?
Besides, it already has a free "app store" (AKA activity repository).
openSUSE has packaged about 50 activities in total for Sugar, with more activities available for installation from the sugarlabs.org activities repository. Activities that haven't been packaged can be downloaded directly from http://activities.sugarlabs.org/ and installed by the user through the browse interface (the repository is similar to firefox addons.)
I don't think Android would form the right basis. It was basically designed to be an entertainment consumption OS. It is not designed for IT productivity which would be an important part for kids in third-world countries (not the only one but an essential part). The goal should not be to create countries of consumption drones.
The $100 has always been target that can only be reached once more than 6 million units are mass manufactured, that was always the original idea. Intel tactics though, it has been proven in official state letters, successfully blocked OLPC from reaching countries like Nigeria, China, India, etc. But even though they "only" sold 2 million laptops to children in some of the poorest places in the world, you can find plenty videos online http://olpc.tv/ , see how the kids and teachers are using those daily, it's a huge success. I mean comon, OLPC may have deeply changed the lives of 2 million families in more or less very poor third world countries. Sure enough, it'd be better they reached 2 billion kids by now, by they I mean OLPC or anyone else in the industry. It's all about lowering cost and lowering power consumption of laptops and also bringing internet everywhere.
It doesn't solve a problem that XO has. Linux fits very well.
Windows on ARM doesn't solve any problem XO has either, and potentially causes some, like licensing and lock-in. between you and me, if we're gonna start kids off with computers in the Third World, Linux makes WAY more sense than Windows. Even more than Android. Crome is not ready, and the cloud may not be Third-World-Friendly for a long time. try not to rely on resources that are either not available, cost more than food, or can be taken away by other nations, or even their own.
If ever there was a project that leverages the maximum potential for freedom via the Internet, this is it. Really, give the kids someething they can work with and watch out. Somethings wonderful will happen.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
An arm tablet/netbook can probably have a per unit production cost of under $100 if they opt for a relatively small screen and battery. It is definitely a lot cheaper than intel for similar power and endurance.
No. It's YOU that can't be serious. First you start with an obviously false premise and then expect us to take for granted something that no one really knows for sure.
Tablets just aren't that widespread. Most of what people know about them is taken on "faith".
Besides. If one "unix" with a tweaked shell can be successful then so can another.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
As I've watched Android dominate the tablet market, I'm bothered by the fact that these devices do not give root access without "jailbreaking". Isn't Android a major step toward the very scary world of "Trusted Computing"? That is, the hardware manufacturer, government, or whoever else has power can deny the ability for a user to run a program (or all programs!) at whim. Right out of the box, the user is denied permission to use their hardware in the way that they see fit.
I feel much more comfortable with a full Linux distro that empowers its users, rather than makes them comfortable with someone else holding the keys to their machine. Besided, android hardly seems compatible with the "open" goals of OLPC. A full distro would take advantage of a real JVM and a much richer software eco-structure instead.
US spends billions dollars every day on useless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This isn't about the US war in where ever. And the US ins't the only country neglecting "2 billion kids".
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
What about MeeGo? Already runs on the Nokia N900's ARM processor.
It's a US project made by the good people at the US MIT, without US initiative this project might not exist yet. Sure thing, I wish India, China, Europe, Saudi Arabia, all join together and make sure every child on this planet get a fair chance at education now. It's politics that decide the priorities and where to put the money, tax who and sponsor what. The idea is sure enough we need to build a few million more/better schools, and bring Internet to all. But, even though those things have to happen, better food, better health and security, we might as well give the children a school in a box which a Laptop has the potential to be.
OLPC is targeted at...shockingly enough...children in the third world. Where you don't have power outlets scattered around the house every 12'. As such, low-power is a critical requirement.
If they were rich enough for a power grid, they wouldn't need the aid.
I don't want Windows. I don't want Sugar. I don't want Fedora. I don't want Ubuntu. I don't want Anroid with their crappy market.
I want Linux Mint. It's faster, more stable, and more feature filled than any of those OSes out of the box. Dead simple, my mom was even a convert, and it is rock solid. I put Mint on a machine, and never get a tech support call back, which is exactly what I want.
Mint and Forget. And in this case I mean forget the other operating systems. Linux year of the desktop should be 2011, and it should be Mint version 10 which is incredible.
Don't flame me or troll me until you've installed it on 3 or 4 machines. It will shock you. I literally haven't hunted for a driver since the new mint came out. Not one. On about 20 different machines.
The only post format chore I have to do in Mint is make video files default to VLC, change the shortcuts a bit in the start menu, and install audacious and delete rhythmbox. It already has Firefox, Open Office Write, Brasero, Pidgin, and almost every other program an end user needs. Oh, except for Skype. I have to install that often as well.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
I would prefer to see OLPC provide a path from the XO to a full blown Linux distribution that does not require children to learn a new UI.
Since when being in a position to learn new things is bad for a kid?
Note that it is not the knowledge that's important, but rather to "flex that muscle" involved in learning and make learning (and, if possible, critical thinking) a constant through the life. Something that the westernalized "civilizations", so blinded by efficiency/cost-reduction, have lost the focus long ago - I'd venture to say for as long as 1950-ies. No wonder the "taming" process now called "education" is seen by the kids like a burden and also as a "cost" by the society in general.
No wonder a constructivist like Negroponte, in addition to a very low price, took another radical step: to make the OLPC not feel like a pure laptop but as a tool for leaning. A disputable choice, as there are many other choices leading to the same result, but at least the mission is very well defined:
To this end, we have designed hardware, content and software for collaborative, joyful, and self-empowered learning. With access to this type of tool, children are engaged in their own education, and learn, share, and create together. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.
Also, some other quotes from Negroponte's personal vision:
It's an education project, not a laptop project.
Laptops are both a window and a tool a window into the world and a tool with which to think They are a wonderful way for all children through "learn learning"
.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
No, he didn't want to build a boat. The show never showed what was going on at nighttime. The prof was the only good-looking and not-retarded unmarried man on the island, with two hot young babes. Why would he want to leave?
The goal is to use the laptops to further education and creativity, not to learn linux or the gnome desktop. I've seen a lot of open source advocates simply not get it and think the whole thing is about pushing linux. It's not.
Sure mr troll under the bridge. Intel has no relations with OEMs like Asus whatsoever, and Intel also manufactures the Classmate all by themselves, not by any chance in the same Pegatron factories that make Asus Eee laptops. Asus Eee was a staged marketing stunt orchestrated by Intel for Asus to block OLPC sales, go look back.
To me, it's pure win. I mean, imagine working for a high-tech company and in so doing having improved the lives of 2 million families. Doesn't that sound GREAT?
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Hi. Just reminding everyone that the current default OLPC OS now allows dual-booting to Fedora+Gnome aside from initially booting into the kid-oriented Fedora+Sugar desktop environment, making it suitable for more traditional uses by older users as well as being capable dev machines.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_notes/10.1.3 Will be posting this multiple times here (please don't mod as redundant) as Slashdotters really need to be made aware of this fact.
http://www.object404.com
What the video says is that the ARM chip is more powerful than the old x86 chips that OLPC used. Considering it's a SOC, and much newer technology (the original processor was 130 nm node, and the Armada is 65 nm node) it really should be.
Well lets see now.. There is the:
One laptop per child project
http://hfoss.org/
Arduino was started by a bunch of teachers and lecturers.
but I guess these people don't qualify in your opinion because it would go against your whole argument. woops.