One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a non-profit association dedicated to research to develop a low-cost, affordable laptop has recently anounced that it will stop using the chips from Advanced Micro Devices in its XO-1 laptop hardware and use the processors from Via Technologies instead. The OLPC official announced on their website (via PCWorld) that it will be Via’s C7-M processor instead of AMD’s Geode processor to power the laptop.
The new refresh(Gen 1.5) will still be using the same industrial design and batteries as were used in the Gen 1. For maximiing the compatibility with the existig software, the XO Gen 1.5 will have a x86 processor, using a chipset from VIA. The memory will be increased to 1 GB of DDR2 SDRAM, and the built-in storage will be 4 GB of NAND Flash with an option for 8 GB.
The Via processor will operate at clock speeds of between 400MHz and 1GHz, which is considered an upgrade over the Geode LX processor in current XO laptops. The upgraded hardware should improve system performance while drawing similar amounts of power. The new Systems will become available for testing in August but unfortunately the date for volume shipments of the laptop wasn’t announced by OLPC.
