The XO 1.75 is the latest computers from the OLPC Foundation. OLPC France is fortunate to have a preview for a few weeks, a beta of 2 models of this machine. Detailed review of the machine and the changes it brings.

On the form the XO 1.75 is identical to the XO 1.0 and XO 1.5 that succeeded it: it's always the little green computer launched in 2007. It inherits the same hull as his elders and he incorporates the main elements: even dual screen mode (PixelQi), even rubber keyboard, TouchPad even the XO 1.5 and the same ports (3 USB, 1 headphone, 1 microphone and 1 SD slot).

In fact it is in its internal components including the motherboard that the XO is 1.75 revolution. The XO 1.0 had an AMD processor, the XO 1.5 had a VIA processor. They both relied on an x86 architecture that is found on our PC or Mac. The XO 1.75 it is based on a Marvell processor architecture ARM architecture is based on which most of our smartphones and tablets. Advantage of this type of processor: it is cheaper than x86 and they consume much less energy (hence their use on thin clients). Two very important benefits for the XO.

Energy side, even if it is too early to have a benchmark full consumption of 1.75 XO. He promises to eat even less than his elders (for the record that are already among the most efficient machines on the market), it was recently seen such a feeding 1.75 XO directly (without battery) on a solar panel.

A clock power equal, the ARM processor is much more swift than equivalent x86 processor. We have conducted a comparative test of the starting time of 3 machines: 1.75 XO, XO 1.5 and XO 1.0. The XO 1.75 undoubtedly comes first. Speed ​​which is also the execution of various activities and or shutdown.

http://www.dailymotion.com/videoxnt5rw

Another feature of XO XO 1.75 compared to 1.0, memory storage is provided by the MMC instead of strips welded to the motherboard. The advantage is that its size (4GB to 8GB) can be selected with the order without changing the architecture of the motherboard. The other advantage is that this type of memory is less subject to changes in market prices of flash memory (a very important point as well). On the model B1 we have that memory MMC can also be completed via an internal SD card (plus a external SD card on port).

1.75 Finally, the XO features a new component found in some standard on smartphones today: a 3-axis accelerometer. That is to say, a component that detects the orientation of the machine, but a simple gadget that allows already to consider recreational uses in activities. Here for example a game developed with Etoys.

On the software side, the use of an ARM has a drawback: the binary code generated on an x86 processor is binary compatible with an ARM processor. Fortunately, Sugar, the operating system that the team relies on a XO GNU Linux Fedora. But Fedora was focused not only on x86 but also on ARM processors. Thus, the latest version of Sugar for the XO (11.3.0) based on Fedora 14 is fully functional on the XO 1.75, although some adjustments, being resolved, are still required (driver support specific XO ).

As for the different activities developed for previous versions of the XO, they run successfully for most of the XO 1.75. Indeed, the preferred development language development for Sugar is the language Python is an interpreted language and therefore completely independent of the binary and the type of processor. Only problem arise activity compiled for x86. In our tests this was the case of the activity kiwiX , Oo4kids and RiverHex . Their port to the XO 1.75 will require recompilation or repackaging.

The XO 1.75 is a natural evolution of the XO, it offers a refreshing components while preparing the ground for the future XO 3.0, which will inherit most of its components (including processor). In short, a continuation of the new!

The new version of the learning tool XO OLPC project should be presented at the upcoming CES in Las Vegas (10-13 January 2012).

Already, information on the characteristics of the successor of the previous generations ( 1 XO , XO 1.5 , XO 1.75 ) XO computer running on the Net.

A detailed presentation is given in French on the blog Blogeee.net:

And here is the tablet OLPC XO 3.0 to $ 100

... And English:

XO-1.75, XO-3, Nell? - What Will OLPC at CES 2012 Show Next Week?

A video (source: OLPC XO 3.0 tablet preview: print, video, and pictures )

Information on the prototype can be seen on:
XO 3 A1

To be continued so, especially on the blog armdevices.com , where there is a safe bet that
we will have the premiere of a video showing the new XO.

The opportunity to measure the progress made ​​since the "Children's Machine" by Seymour Papert : " Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas "(" Burst of the mind: computers and learning ") (1980) and, even further, in 1972, the Dynabook to Alan Kay , development of an idea dating back to 1968.

This article presented a drawing of the Dynabook situation:

Drawing of the Dynabook (1972)

... And a sketch:

Dynabook

Finally, a prototype was built 20 years later:

It shows a reconstruction of the Dynabook, the idea was presented in the article by Alan Kay (1972): A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages

What a long way ...

The announcement by the Indian government project to produce a digital tablet estimated at $ 35 (" Low Cost access-Cum-Computing Device Unveiled by Shri Kapil Sibal ", The Hindu, 23.07.2010) has attracted much comment, sometimes skeptical of the advertised cost and feasibility of the project, especially since it followed the sad story of the PC for $ 10 .

This tablet is associated with the educational program " Sakshat ", the" National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology "(NMEICT), and the project" National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning "(NPTEL) for creation of digital content for education .

In addition, other projects tablets are emerging in India, as one that was developed by the company allgo Embedded Systems , based in Bangalore (India), talent pool and the birthplace of Simputer , his legendary predecessor. This tablet was presented at the "Freescale Technology Forum" (21-24 June 2010, Orlando, United Kingdom), as shown in this video:

The figure of $ 35, often highlighted by the media, refers to the nomenclature of the product (the "Bill Of Materials"). Following statements tinged with controversy Minister of India, which pose the new tablet competitor of OLPC, several comments were published, including the independent news website OLPCNews:

• " How would you Accelerate the adoption of OLPC in India? "
• " MHRD India Should Stop Attacking One Laptop Per Child "
• " The Real Tablet $ 35 from India: an OLPC Complement, not Competitor "
• " Needed: Reality Check on India's $ 35 Tablet Computer "

In India, the press puts the ad in context, as can be seen in the article " Low-cost PCs fail to boot up fast in India ", which recalls the challenge of industrialization of a research project and development in a country like India.

Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the OLPC project, published about him on the OLPC blog an open letter (" Welcome: $ 35 tablet for education ") calling for a rapprochement between the two educational projects. We will reproduce below the full content, exclusively:

"Welcome: A tablet to 35 dollars for Education"

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) commends the Minister Kapil Sibal to promote a tablet to 35 dollars. Education is the first solutions to eradicate poverty, protect the environment and create peace in the world. Access to a laptop or a tablet connected is the fastest way to enable universal learning. We fully agree with you and ask you to consider this open letter as the starting of OLPC India to allow free access to all our technology and our experience based on 2 million laptops we have deployed in over 40 countries in 25 languages. The goal pursued by humanitarian and charitable our organization is the opposite of any desire to compete. Instead, we focus on collaboration and we invite you to act in the same spirit.

At the same time, let me share with you the six following suggestions:

1. The importance of targeting children aged 6 to 12 years. It is they who are the most precious natural resource of your nation. For primary students, a tablet is not about computing or school, it's about hope. Thus, passion is the first tool for learning.

2. Your tablet should mark the end of learning "by heart" rather than an instrument that would help. A creative society is not built on memorization of facts but on learning to learn. Repetition and practice are mechanisms inherited from the industrial era, at a time when the repetition and consistency were systematic. The digital age is itself one of the personalization, collaboration and ownership. The didactic approach of the OLPC project is known under the name of constructionism. We hope you love it too.

3. The tablets are the future. OLPC announced his eight months ago that. However, it should be attentive to one aspect of the tablets, that learning is not confined to the consumption of media. The challenge is to make a tool. By design, the iPad is a medium devoted to consumption. OLPC urge you not to make that mistake.

4. The material aspect is simpler. However, a robust hardware, a sunlight readable display and low power consumption characteristics are less obvious. Our computer is regularly fed by solar energy because it is by far the most portable energy efficient. Despite this, we must not neglect the human production of electricity - with a dynamo where other methods that children can use at night or when it rains. It would be wrong to stake everything on solar power. In addition, a robust hardware must be capable of supporting water or a fall from a height of 3 meters on a stone floor.

5. The software side is more difficult. The choice of Linux is the obvious, but whatever you do, do not make the mistake of making a dedicated system with a small number of functions. It is important that this is a general computer, allowing anyone to develop software, to invent applications and programming. We know that when children progress, they practice an ideal activity for "thinking about thinking." Similarly, when they correct their programs, they learn to learn. Here is the key.

6. Also, notice the most important and probably the easiest to overlook one of the view that I take the liberty to share with you is that of an industrial design firm. Make an affordable tablet not a tablet at a discount. Make sure it is attractive, that everyone wanted to have fun and love to have. Get inspiration from Apple on the matter, and also, why not OLPC. Paint it the best team of designers who are in India.

India is so huge that you have every chance to satisfy you in your market. But do not stop there because the world needs your leadership and your achievement! Your tablet is not an "answer" to the computer from OLPC XO or "competitor". It belongs to a family dedicated to peace and prosperity through the transformation through education. In conclusion, I reiterate my invitation to offer free and full access to all our technology. I urge you to send a team at MIT and OLPC at the time that suits you, so allow us to share our findings with you.

Nicholas Negroponte
Founder and President
One Laptop per Child Foundation
Cambridge, Massachusetts
USA

[N Traductio with "OLPC France" to " Welcome: $ 35 tablet for education "]

This open letter from Nicholas Negroponte she prefigures a connection between the proposed shelf announced by the Government of India and the OLPC? Time will tell. But one can not help in any case read the letter on "specifications" of what should be a tablet-like "XO-3":

• A tool for 6-12 years
• A tool for learning to learn,
• A tool to produce content not just to consume,
• A tool with a rugged, sunlight readable display and low power consumption,
• A tool based on a free and open
• A tool with a beautiful and sleek design.

No doubt the OLPC foundation is ambitious!

Digital publishing is becoming a central theme and focal point for several industries. This finding results from a consistent body of evidence: the enrichment of the supply of electronic books, the emergence of computer-type digital tablet, the maturation of educational computing projects, particularly in developing countries .

The relevance of the questions that are raised by these developments is illustrated in the immediate present, for the following events:

A study day

The third BookCamp , a day of workshops devoted to digital books, will be held in Paris, September 25, 2010, the premises of the canteen .

"The idea of ​​this day is to offer half-day experiments and thoughts about the book and digital. A series of "hands on" to better share the impact of digital innovation in the book chain. An opportunity to meet and exchange among librarians, booksellers, publishers, authors, critics and readers with the slogan, "all participants". "

A manual for producing digital books

Written by James Simmons, the manual " Reading and Leading with Sugar "(version PDF draft) aims to democratize the production and reading e-books, including the Sugar learning platform of Sugar Labs , in the context of extension of the OLPC educational project, in which more than one million children in developing countries now have access.

Digital publishing in the South

An invitation to tender (in French and English ) coordinated by the International Alliance of independent publishers on the attainment of a study on digital publishing in the countries of the "South" has been opened. Project proposals are to be submitted to the organizer for August 29, 2010, the selection committee will deliver its opinion on 20 September 2010.

Clearly, the synergies of this theme of digital books with digital library projects communities Sugar / OLPC around the world, and in particular with the digital library projects that OLPC France is involved (such as our partnership with the Malagasy editor Prédiff, which resulted in the first book in digital Malagasy youth ), are obvious.

This theme is indeed seen in the context of the upcoming release of the tablet XO 3 , for which he will find content to offer OLPC deployments, especially in the Francophone world, Africa, the Caribbean, the space Indian Ocean and elsewhere.

We have just learned that the developers of Sugar Labs , makers of the Sugar educational platform, working on a prototype keyboard:

This prototype should prefigure the virtual keyboard of the shelf 3 of the OLPC XO, which we know will have a touch screen (see " Partnership Marvell / OLPC to XO-3: decryption ").

An ISO image of the system SOAS ( Sugar on a Stick ) is downloaded to test this feature.

A screencast video shows the prototype, which should allow multiple keyboard layouts, multilingual and Multifunction.

The developer, Sayamindu Dasgupta , to whom we owe this prototype promising appreciate any feedback and contributions (see " Features / Onscreen Keyboard ").

Source: Sugar-Devel List

Clement Monjou (Ebouquin / OLPC France) and Marie Michèle Razafintsalama (Prediff / Young Malagasy)

A meeting about the digital library

Create a digital library for students of the School of Antitorona on the island of Nosy Komba, north of the Big Island: this was the thread of the meeting which brought together this June 4, 2010, in Paris, the editor Prediff / Young Malagasy, the news magazine of the digital readout and associations Ebouquin GduCoeur and OLPC France.

Thus, it is in an atmosphere at once relaxed and studious as Marie Michèle Razafintsalama Clement Monjou, Jonathan Ragot and yours truly were able to get to know and discuss the news of digital publishing in the Malagasy context.

The discussion was an opportunity to browse through different prototypes of digital books on different reading lights (or "electronic books", e-books, ebooks) such as the OLPC XO computer, ebook (iPad) and a netbook (Asus) on where the last working version - Mirabelle - the Sugar learning platform, in its variant of USB "SOAS" ( Sugar On A Stick ).

The Innovation Agenda

This meeting was an opportunity to review, preview, the first results of a collaboration around a digital book for schoolchildren in Madagascar in general and for students in the village school of Antitorona on the island of Nosy Komba in particular.

It was indeed an update on the first ebook we expect to achieve, from the catalog Prediff / Young Malagasy.

Marie Michèle Razafintsalama evaluates the prototype e-book on the XO

This project reveals the dynamism and entrepreneurial spirit of independent publishers in the South and especially the editors of French-speaking Africa, including Marie Michèle Razafintsalama mentioned projects and challenges.

The state of publishing is indeed a subject close to his heart, in a difficult environment, through an initiative uniting to date 54 African publishers, meeting within the association Afrilivres , which she chairs.

The draft e-book that brought us together was supported technical James Simmons , developer of software for reading ebooks Get Internet Archive Books and Read Etext and author of the book " Leading with Reading and Sugar ", edited by Floss Manuals Foundation .

Besides helpful tips to build a digital library, particularly in a school setting, this manual focuses on software tools and methods for producing electronic books and the application of electronic reading.

Prototype ebook Malagasy

Towards the shelf XO 3

The announcement of the XO 3, the result of partnership between industry and Marvell OLPC foundation to make a tablet with functions including e-book, gives digital library projects on which work teams OLPC around the world (eg " Around the World in 80 ebouquins ") more acute.

Digital libraries are indeed a central project, like the project "Internet Archive" presented in the article " Making Books Available "by Sayamindu Dasgupta, which we must also synthesize" Books, Sugar and OLPC ".

Southern voices go through the written word

Thus, to be heard, the voices of the South must rethink the book tomorrow with actors who are living: readers, authors, translators, illustrators, libraries, teachers, publishers, libraries, cultural centers, etc.. Paradoxically, the economic weakness and digital can be an asset, given the appetites of the majors for whom publishing is a global market "take" because they have the ability, by joining forces, the voice of diversity cultural and voiceless, our common heritage.

References

* Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (UNESCO, 2005), ratified by the European Commission , on 19/12/2006

* Analysis on " bibliodiversity "and" predation "by the International Alliance of independent publishers

* Objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (UN) - Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

* " Ebooks Madagascar "(OLPC wiki France)

The announcement has already been much written: Marvell and the OLPC Foundation announced Friday, May 28, 2010 the common output of a tablet on the basis of the tablet Moby Marvell and the concept of XO-3 announced by the foundation in November 2009 . The tablet will cost under $ 100 and will be presented at the next CES in January 2011.

As usual, everything is anything that has already been written on this tablet, it is useful to specify a number of points. Detail why the announcement of the foundation and try to answer some simple questions.

The announcement of the foundation

Here is the translation of the announcement of the Foundation published on its official blog :

XO-3 update: OLPC and Marvell partners to develop a range of shelves.

I am pleased to announce that today we finalized a partnership with Marvell to design a range of computer types shelves oriented education. Some of these machines, such as the XO-3 will be OLPC machines to countries in the developing world. This product range will be based on both the reference implementation has made for its Marvell Moby tablet and the concept of the OLPC XO-3 (particularly for low-energy models of the range). Machines distributed by OLPC will run Linux on our standard image, with the Sugar and Gnome environments.

Marvell is a longtime supporter of OLPC and a founding member of the board of the foundation, and has a real interest in education. Marvell provided the chips used by the XO network and contributed to testing and debugging. This partnership marks an even more serious collaboration in the design of the OLPC hardware.

The first tablets will be produced closer to Moby as the XO-3 and will target children in developed countries. They will appear at CES in January 2011 and will be available next year for less than $ 100. The original design of the XO-3 is still planned for 2012.

The Moby is currently pilot a school in Washington DC and Marvell invested in a campaign called "Mobylize" to improve technology adoption in the classes of the United States. This should help to advance the OLPC association in developed countries, the United States is behind many European countries and Asia, both the bandwidth and the adoption of technology in the classroom.

The OLPC Foundation continues to advance the design of the XO-1.75 version to have a low-power ARM processor fitted with a current of XO. This model will be the next destination of our target schools. The XO-3 is still planned for 2012 and will benefit both the experience of the 1.75 and the efforts of Moby.

Weili Dai, Marvell's co-founder, said of the partnership:

"The tablet Moby and his platform and our partnership with OLPC, embody our passion and our shared commitment to give students the ability to create, connect and collaborate with a completely new way. I am immensely proud of the capabilities of our Moby tablet and I am extremely honored to partner with the inventor of the netbook market and education, Dr. Nicholas Negroponte. I applaud his leadership, vision, passion. Together we will make the world a better place. "

Decryption

In a previous blog post, we will detail the "roadmap" of the foundation . This announcement does not upset her, but rather it happen. To understand, try to answer some simple questions:

The XO-3 will come out in January 2011?
The XO-3 was a "concept car" designed to determine what are the objectives of the foundation for the coming years. The partnership announced today will be to realize this concept but it is not just the XO-3 but a "product line" will be produced in partnership between Marvell and the foundation. It is clear that the model due out in January 2011 will be closer to Moby as the XO-3. The XO-3 is scheduled for 2012.

The XO-3 will he destined for developed countries?
The foundation OLPC target countries in the developing world, it is also the target of the XO-3. But again, the ad for a product line not a single machine. It is therefore likely that some machines in the range will be marketed by Marvell to developed countries. It is as if there was now a version of the XO that would be less demanding hardware side (for power consumption and support of weather) and would be destined for developed countries. Nicholas Negroponte also recall that in the interview he had given us did not exclude a new "Give One Get One" (A at home, a home) for the XO-3.

The XO-3 will work there with Sugar?
Yes! It is written explicitly in the ad. However the first machines of the range will probably be fitted with Android as it is today. Moreover, the adaptation of Sugar ARM processor and the new hardware will require some time.

The XO-3 will have there screen multi-mode Pixel Qi?
This is not the case today, but the Moby Pixel Qi has renewed its partnership with the Foundation a few weeks ago. No doubt it is intended that it be a screen PixelQi that will equip the XO-3 in 2012.

The announcement of this partnership has a meaning close to the worldwide release of iPad?
The partnership was announced the same day as the release of the iPad in France. It is a coincidence but the timing is very interesting comment. Let us say immediately that the iPad is a superb machine, several members of OLPC France have bought one and use it daily, it is not to denigrate this great tool! But the iPad is the opposite of XO-3 and the goals of the OLPC Foundation.

• The iPad is not based on a free and open as Sugar but on a proprietary OS and closed, controlled by Apple.
• The content on the iPad are not free. The iPad is primarily a machine to consume premium content (music, movies, applications, books, newspapers), non-free and often protected by DRM. The opening of the contents is a need for the OLPC project for wider dissemination, to be adaptable and be locally accessible at low cost.
• The iPad is not adapted to harsh climatic conditions. Despite the efforts of Apple's consumer requires regular loads, the screen can not be used outdoors and it is too fragile (shock resistance, humidity and dust).
• The iPad is expensive (between € 400 and € 800). The OLPC foundation aims to produce machines at cost as it is now the XO-1 while Apple makes a comfortable margin on the hardware and the content it distributes.

In short, as when the OLPC foundation has created the concept of the Netbook with the XO-1, XO-3 will demonstrate that ICT and the shelves are not reserved for an elite able to pay hundreds of dollars but they can be used at lower costs, education of children today have no access to information.

In recent days the press and mailing lists around the OLPC project (including that of OLPC France ) echo the recent interview with Nicholas Negroponte on xeconomy.com .

I must say that it is not less than three versions of XO that are mentioned! It therefore seemed necessary to make a little explanation text and specify what those different versions of the XO that hide very different realities.

It should be noted first that this article is that our analysis, and does not correspond to a "roadmap" official OLPC Foundation.

A small diagram will help clarify the issue already (click to view details):
(Note: This article and the following diagram is updated regularly with the latest announcements of the foundation)

Existing machines

Two versions of the XO currently exist: the XO-1 and XO-1.5.

The XO-1 machine is the first series was produced by the foundation. This is the machine that you all know, which was produced almost 2 million copies.

The XO-1 is equipped with an AMD Geode 400Mhz in, 256MB RAM, 1GB of flash memory, a dual screen mode and WiFi mesh (see the features detailed here ).

The XO-1 was announced in November 2005 at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. At that time he had his little crank

Before it is available in its final version, the XO-1 was preceded by five pre-series models (1 and 4 Alpha Beta versions):

• A in April 2006
• B1 in November 2006,
• B2 in February 2007,
• B3 in May 2007,
• B4 in June 2007.

Three updates were minor technical took place:

• C1 in August 2007,
• C2 in November 2007,
• CL1A in June 2009

The XO-1.5 is a technical evolution of the XO-1 which contains the complete design.

The XO-1.5 is equipped with a VIA C7-M 1GHz, 1GB RAM, 4GB Flash, the same dual-mode screen that XO-1 and WiFi. Its detailed specifications are available here .

The XO-1.5 was announced on the mailing list OLPC in April 2009 but there are already traces on one of the first posts of this blog in May 2008 !

The XO-1.5 went into production in May 2010. Several pre-production models have been developed previously:

• A1 in May 2009,
• A2 in July 2009,
• B1 in August 2009,
• B2 in September 2009
• [UPDATE 15/11/2009] B3 in November 2009

A first test of the machine B2 was produced by OLPC France.

Three updates of the production model have occurred:

• [UPDATE 16/12/2009] C1 in December 2009
• [UPDATE 30/05/2010] C2 in January 2010
• [UPDATE 30/05/2010] C3 in May 2010

It is important to note that the XO-1.5 replaces the XO-1 whose production has ceased. In short, future deployments will therefore use the XO-1.5.

[UPDATE 20/07/2010] The XO-1.5 HS is the declination of XO-1.5 announcement for older children.

Future directions

Chronologically the next generation of XO, which was announced in May 2008 is the XO-2.

The XO-2 has a lot of attention with its innovative design of dual-screen e-book. An overview is available on the Foundation wiki . A "mock-up", ie a non-functional model, has also been seen at the economic summit in Davos in January 2009.

Since the announcement of the XO-2, several manufacturers, such as, Asus , proposed prototype netbook with a dual screen.

Alas, in the interview xeconomy.com , Nicolas Negroponte said the idea to develop the XO-2 was abandoned because its production cost is too high.
Instead of the XO-2, Nicolas Negroponte announced two other concepts: the XO-1.75 and the XO-3.
The XO-1.75 is an evolution of XO-1/XO-1.5 but with an ARM processor instead of a processor based on x86 architecture.

One of the main advantages of this type of processor that is specifically designed for low power computers. Indeed, this type of processor that the team most of the SmartPhone : Nokia, BlackBerry, Palm and even the famous iPhone .

It is interesting to note, especially for those who still believe that Microsoft is the devil behind the OLPC, Windows 7 does not run on ARM processors and is compatible with Windows 8 is far from certain.

Instead, Sugar based on GNU Linux is already running on ARM processors. Moreover, as it relies primarily on interpreted code (Python), it is insensitive to changes in architecture.

The XO-1.75 is quite close to the XO-1.5 and less ambitious than the XO-2, it seems reasonable to think that he could emerge. The foundation actively working on the XO-1.5, it seems nevertheless difficult to imagine that a prototype is available before the last quarter of 2010.
[UPDATE 21/11/2010] A first prototype A1 was launched in October 2010.
[UPDATE 02/08/2011] A second prototype A2 was launched in January 2011.
[UPDATE 31/12/2011] A third prototype A3 was launched in June 2011.
[UPDATE 31/12/2011] A machine beta B1 was launched in July 2011.
[UPDATE 31/12/2011] A pre-production version of C1 was launched in September 2011.

[UPDATE 01/21/2012] Read the test of XO 1.75 here .

The XO-3 was described succinctly by Nicholas Negroponte . It would be great as a single sheet of paper, plastic thin, tight, with a reflective and transmissive color display without opening. It consumes just one watt and cost $ 75.

The XO-3 could be available in 2012.

Clearly, the XO-3, as was the XO-2, is only a concept, direction studied by the foundation. So do not expect more information at this time. The next step is probably a "mock-up" of the type used for the presentation of photos of XO-2.

[UPDATE 23/12/2009] Images of the mock-up have been published by Yves Behar on his site .
[UPDATE 30/05/2010] The foundation announced a partnership with Marvell to produce by January 2011 a first version of a tablet that is the basis of the XO-3.
[UPDATE 31/12/2011] A first prototype A1 (just the motherboard) was born in December 2011.

Or olpc OLPC?

Now that we have completed this overview of hardware and tracks studied to date by the foundation, it is useful to understand how it works, to emphasize a different part of the interview with Nicholas Negroponte : the separation of the foundation in two different entities. As well commented our friend Christoph Derndorfer in OLPC News , this is important to understand the view that we have just presented.

The foundation has indeed split into two entities:

• The association supports olpc deployment, developments and support,
• The OLPC Foundation support to publicize the project and performed research and development.

The XO-1, XO-1.5 and, soon, the XO-1.75 are the responsibility of the association olpc which will probably be under the supervision of Chuck Kane which is the current mission.
The XO-2 and XO-3 are each the responsibility of the foundation that Nicholas Negroponte is the visionary. The foundation then feed the association, in the same way that the engineering departments of car manufacturers supply them with "concept cars". All "concept cars" do not see the day (that's what happened to the XO-2) but the ones who breathe the dynamics in the automotive industry.
One can only hope that the OLPC foundation will continue to inspire ideas that will achieve a little dream of one computer per child.

Note that the diagram at the beginning of the article is freely available here in PDF format and we will try to update it regularly as and when announcements of the foundation.