OLPC doubled-stuffed the hardware!

[McLogic]

OLPC doubled-stuffed (http://www.olpcnews.com/prototypes/xo/olpc_btest-2_xo_laptop.html) the hardware with the BTest-2.

The OLPC people just doubled the insides of the laptop (http://laptop.org/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml). It will now have a 433 Mhz Athlon-class ("Spitfire" Duron core, with better SIMD) CPU. It will also have faster RAM and it will double in size to 256 MiB. The flash storage will also double to a GiB.

Other stuff is the same, and still cool.
a 1200x900 screen
3 x USB 2 ports
SD card slot
802.11 b/g
video camera
stereo speakers & mono mic


It should now run most desktop stuff a bit slow. I would rather run mainstream apps slowly then run some app-ghetto OS version. I do not know if Xubuntu has the apps I want, and I have run full-gnome Ubuntu on a 500 Mhz P3. This claims to be as fast as a 700 Mhz (http://www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolutions/ProductInformation/0,,50_2330_9863_13022%5E13072,00.html) processor, and has everything (but 802.11b/g) included in the chipset (http://www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolutions/ProductInformation/0,,50_2330_9863_13022,00.html).

Now, only the video card sucks. It should run Doom well (on its fast FPU), but Quake2 is a no-go. This is the same CPU and RAM as the pepperpad3 (http://www.pepper.com/forums/showthread.php?t=990). Pepperpad3 is for sale now (http://www.amazon.com/Pepper-Pad-Web-Player-Black/dp/B000G0OKFU/ref=cm_cr-mr-title/002-5582650-1716060), but not cheap or durable.

[gradedcheese]

Yeah, what happened is that AMD had better yields on the Geode LX than anticipated and they were thus able to offer it at pretty much the same price as the GX, enabling OLPC to switch to it now rather than in a later revision. This has some other (good) implications, including the better graphics controller. They've been working really hard on LX bringup and it's pretty close now :)

[Dragonbite]

OLPC doubled-stuffed (http://www.olpcnews.com/prototypes/xo/olpc_btest-2_xo_laptop.html) the hardware with the BTest-2.

The OLPC people just doubled the insides of the laptop (http://laptop.org/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml). It will now have a 433 Mhz Athlon-class ("Spitfire" Duron core, with better SIMD) CPU. It will also have faster RAM and it will double in size to 256 MiB. The flash storage will also double to a GiB.

Other stuff is the same, and still cool.
a 1200x900 screen
3 x USB 2 ports
SD card slot
802.11 b/g
video camera
stereo speakers & mono mic


It should now run most desktop stuff a bit slow. I would rather run mainstream apps slowly then run some app-ghetto OS version. I do not know if Xubuntu has the apps I want, and I have run full-gnome Ubuntu on a 500 Mhz P3. This claims to be as fast as a 700 Mhz (http://www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolutions/ProductInformation/0,,50_2330_9863_13022%5E13072,00.html) processor, and has everything (but 802.11b/g) included in the chipset (http://www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolutions/ProductInformation/0,,50_2330_9863_13022,00.html).

Now, only the video card sucks. It should run Doom well (on its fast FPU), but Quake2 is a no-go. This is the same CPU and RAM as the pepperpad3 (http://www.pepper.com/forums/showthread.php?t=990). Pepperpad3 is for sale now (http://www.amazon.com/Pepper-Pad-Web-Player-Black/dp/B000G0OKFU/ref=cm_cr-mr-title/002-5582650-1716060), but not cheap or durable.
I too am running Edubuntu w/Gnome (and sometimes Xfce) on a P3 500MHz machine but it's a desktop! At least if it were a laptop you'd still have the portability benefit.

It kinda sucks when people point out "hey, my PDA has more power than your desktop!" ;)

I removed OpenOffice and replaced it with Abiword and Gnumetric, otherwise it does run Blender (just don't know how to use it) and Kino (I've an issue with pulling video but otherwise..).

[McLogic]

Yeah, what happened is that AMD had better yields on the Geode LX than anticipated and they were thus able to offer it at pretty much the same price as the GX, enabling OLPC to switch to it now rather than in a later revision.

I'm really glad. I didn't want to have an orphaned generation of OLPC computers in a couple of years. You can really get a lot done in 256MiB -- and you don't have to run software that has had chunks chopped out to make it run in less memory.



This has some other (good) implications, including the better graphics controller. They've been working really hard on LX bringup and it's pretty close now :)

The graphics controller is not good, but I have hope with AMD buying ATI. I expect that the next "hammer"-based Geode would have an old Radeon core bolted into it. I would love to have an influx of tremulous (http://entertainment.newsforge.com/entertainment/06/07/06/0414224.shtml?tid=22%3Cbr%20/%3E) players.

The one missing thing would be bluetooth for phone-modem access and high-end headphones. I guess that the OLPC people don't think that poor children have high-end cell phones.

[gnomeuser]

I'd run the official OS, I like a lot of the stuff they've done rethinking security, besides it comes working and with a degree of support why would I change it - it's already free software.

I lust one of those candy colored bad boys..

[jfinkels]

I would love to have an influx of tremulous (http://entertainment.newsforge.com/entertainment/06/07/06/0414224.shtml?tid=22%3Cbr%20/%3E) players.

Hahaha I don't think teachers want their students to be playing Tremulous instead of learning :\ Although, mesh networking would provide a pretty good connection if you got the whole class in on it :)

By the way, don't expect to be getting your hands on an OLPC laptop...unless it's through the black market. They're only being sold to governments of certain countries.

[Hex_Mandos]

For the price of that computer, I could get a better desktop. I wonder if public universities will take the axe in order to pay for computers to trade for votes (because the cost of supplying every child under 15 with one of these in my country is comparable to the total budget currently received by public education).

[gnomeuser]

Hahaha I don't think teachers want their students to be playing Tremulous instead of learning :\ Although, mesh networking would provide a pretty good connection if you got the whole class in on it :)

By the way, don't expect to be getting your hands on an OLPC laptop...unless it's through the black market. They're only being sold to governments of certain countries.

Can you just imagine it.. team play being one child playing and the other child recharging the battery with a bicycle..