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March 12, 2009

Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child Project is set to replace energy-hungry x86 processors with lower-power Arm-based CPUs in its next-generation XO-2 laptop with the aim of greatly improving battery life.

The nonprofit organization is committed in placing the low-power Arm-based processor in the next-generation XO-2 laptop, which is due for release around late-August 2010, said Negroponte, OLPC's CEO.

Overall, the XO-1 laptop currently ships with AMD's long aging 'Geode' chip, which is based on an old x86 design going back to 2004.

OLPC's immediate goal is to extend the battery life of the XO-2 laptop while building in more functionality than is in the XO-1, said Ed McNierney, chief technology officer at OLPC. Officials said Arm-based integrated chips will draw less power than x86 CPUs while building in functionality such as graphics and wireless networking.

While older x86 chips potentially could cut their power consumption by reducing their clock speed, Arm-based chip makers have been paying more attention to low-power and power-management features on chips, while still making them fast enough for most applications, McNierney said.

"Our current XO-1 laptop uses an average of just about five watts of power, and while most people think that's amazingly low, we think it's our biggest problem," McNierney said.

"We're seeing some very impressive system-on-chip (SOC) designs that provide both fundamentally low-power demands and the kind of fine-grained power management in the XO-1," McNierney added.

But the Arm chip could lead to some problems for XO-2 in trying to load a full version of Windows Vista, Negroponte said. As with the XO-1, the OLPC Project wants to offer a dual-boot option on XO-2 where users can choose to load either Linux or a full Windows OS.

While Arm processors can run Windows Mobile operating systems, they can't run a full Windows OS, not even the venerable and less RAM-hungry Windows XP.

Since January, OLPC has been in talks with Microsoft to develop a version of a full Windows OS for XO-2, Negroponte said. The XO-2 is still one-and-a-half year away from its release, so a lot can change with regard to Microsoft and Arm, Negroponte said.

"Like some observers have pointed out, the OLPC Project is urging Microsoft to make Windows (not Windows Mobile) available on the Arm Laptop. This is apparently a very complex question for them," Negroponte said.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The XO-2 laptop will include a software-designed, touch-sensitive keyboard and 2 touch-screen displays. It can be both a traditional laptop or an e-book reader, a small tablet PC and even a piano with its touch-based input, McNierney said.

OLPC is also aggressive in its efforts to prolong the battery life of XO-2 laptops in situations where power is unreliable or just simply unavailable. The laptop may carry current XO laptop features, including the ability to run on solar power, foot pedal or pull-string.

Designed mostly for use by children in poor and developing countries, the XO laptop has been praised for its innovative hardware features, Linux OS and environmentally friendly ergonomic design.

The XO-2 laptop is also being engineered with hardware and software features that OLPC hopes will appeal to kids in primary schools. So far, the Linux operating system has been one of its strongest selling features, since the OS is open source.

Source: Operating Systems Today.

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