Classmate PC is Out in the Wilds of Brazil
Who says high-tech giant Intel goes only after the big boys for their big bucks? Intel looks after the little children too for their computing needs. (Now, you might say Intel is also after the little boys for their big bucks; how about some loose change from a few billion children?).
Intel has released its Classmate PC in Brazil, beating to the punch the OLPC (one-laptop-per-child) initiative of MIT’s Negroponte. While the OLPC is still hemming and hawing, Intel’s Classmate PC has gone ahead and debuted in Brazil.
The Classmate PC is a full-featured personal computer for children especially those in emerging markets ( read: poor countries). It runs on Windows or Linux and for storage, it uses NAND flash memory. That means there’s no spinning hard drive to break in case the little hands drop it.
Typically, the Classmate PC has an Intel Celeron M processor, 7-inch 800 x 480 LCD, 256MB of DDR2 RAM and 1GB of NAND. This setup will cost under $300. It is mainly for educational purposes.
Obviously, you can’t play Quake or Doom with that, but trust me, someone’s going to hack it to make it more enjoyable for children, even big children.
Here are some pictures I swiped from Ricardo Carreon’s blog:
Close-up of the keyboard
Side by side with an IBM Thinkpad T60
The Classmate PC folds in a leather case with a handle for easy carrying.
[Via: meneame.net]
Classmate PC, Intel, Brazil, OLPC, children, computer
