The MIT Media Lab is working on a research initiative to develop
a $100 laptop.
This will be distributed through governments to schools to
help the education of the world's students.
These are my notes from a talk
Michail Bletsas,
Director of Computing at the MIT Media Lab
gave on the subject, at an event organized by the
Netmode Laboratory .
- In a laptop today the cost of sales marketing and distribution take up 50% of its retail cost; the display takes up another 25%; the hardware to support the requirements of MS-Windows 25%.
- 50% of a display’s cost is the backlight device.
- The laptop should have an e-ink display, but the technology has currently a slow display rate,
which is unsuitable for showing video.
Therefore now it will use a display with the following features:
- Dual mode 7" display
- 800*600 B&W readable in sunlight
- color backlit (with LEDs) 470*350
- The laptop should be in production 4Q 2006 (6 million units).
- The technical characteristics of the first generation will be as follows:
- 3W power consumption
- 500MHz AMD (Cyrix design) 0.5W consumption; supports 500Kbit video decoding.
- Crankable charger: 1 min charge 6 min operation
- 0.5-1GB Flash
- 128MB RAM
- 4USB ports
- WiFi
- Speaker/Mic
- The laptop's design should be distinctive in order to avoid the development of a gray market.
- The hinge takes inside it C batteries and contains the cranking mechanism. Its large size makes it cheaper (existing hinges cost $5 minimum).
- Two joysticks on the left and right side of the display.
- In total the physical design allows 6 different modes of use (laptop, handheld, tablet, theater, ...).
- Current cost for a 10,000 unit production run $135.
- Interference between radio waves is a myth: the problem is simply at the receiver end. With multiple antennas and digital signal processing one can get around the problem. Therefore the current fixed spectrum allocation is outdated.
- Bandwidth is a perishable commodity: use it or loose it.
- 3G networks are the most useless technological effort in history. Yield management could allocate some of the unused capacity for networking the educational laptops
- As an aside, SMS messages are bit for bit the most expensive communications technology on the planet.
- Laptops will network in a mesh topology.
- Microsoft's platform for the educational market is a $400 tablet.
- Aspects of the design are patented, to avoid having a company selling the device on the market for $110.
(The device will only get distributed to schools through governments.)
There is a chance for a $200 retail-version of the laptop; the profits will subsidize the educational effort.
Again, the retail version will have a different look, to avoid the risk of educational laptops getting resold
for profit.
- More information on the project can be found in the corresponding Wikipedia article.
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