After Nicholas Negroponte unveiled a prototype of his One Laptop Per Child project’s $100 computer (The Chronicle, November 25, 2005), officials with Intel were quick to dismiss the device as a none-too-useful novelty item. Mr. Negroponte played down the criticism as a case of sour grapes: He had, after all, chosen to line his laptops with processors from Advanced Micro Devices, one of Intel’s competitors.
But now Intel has stepped forward with the Classmate PC, its own challenge to the One Laptop Per Child model. Like the OLPC laptop, the Classmate PC has flash memory instead of a hard drive. But while Mr. Negroponte’s machine runs Linux and comes with batteries that are recharged by a crank, Intel’s computer runs Windows XP and has a standard lithium ion battery.
The Classmate PC, which will be marketed to developing nations, will cost between $220 and $300—making it a great choice for “the poor and destitute with more discriminating tastes,” according to Gizmodo. —Brock Read
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