Intel to Make Cheap Flash Laptop

sien writes "In a similar vein to the One Laptop Per Child computer Intel have announced that they intend to produce a similar cheap laptop using flash storage.The entry of Intel and the declaration that Microsoft intend to get Windows running on the One Laptop Per Child machine suggests that there may be a general market for a cheap, robust laptop without hard drive or optical storage."

Re:Strange new world.

[melonman]

In my experience of an embedded linux application using CF for storage, the CF wasn't especially durable if you thrash it like a hard disc. Surely the main point of using this form of storage is to reduce power consumption, which either means much longer battery life or (probably in this case) much cheaper batteries. It also helps to get to a point where you don't need a fan, which in turn means less moving parts and less holes in the case for the monsoon to pour through.

Re:why?

[TheThiefMaster]

Yes, but these companies don't make their money on food or shelter.

Most of the OLPCs are going to countries where the people have shelter and food and water, but are in desperate need of decent education.

Plus I'd love a small laptop I could play simple games or read web-pages on while I had nothing better to do. I have a pocket pc, but software is lacking for it and typing on it is a pain. (I'm not a child btw)

Re:Cheapness aside....

[jrwr00]

i thought you could already, http://www.smartm.com/product/product.cfm?productI D=37 [smartm.com] seem to only get up-to 8gb tho

There's this thing called the INTERNET, where...

[Medievalist]

...you can look up stuff.

Might I recommend the OLPC home page [laptop.org] for starters - which is where you end up if you type "one laptop per child" in pretty much any search engine (or your browser's search bar, if you have one)?

Take ten seconds to learn about something before commenting on it, and you will look like a genius compared to most people around here. Your question is answered in the WIKI [laptop.org], and probably about ten thousand other places already.

Re:Cheapness aside....

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen plug and play 8GB ATA-66 devices in a 2.5" laptop form factor for in the US$300 range. RAID0 of 3 of those is a bit more expensive than US$500, but I suspect the day we'll see a 20GB drop-in replacement for a mechanical hard drive for a few hundred bucks isn't too far in the future.

Makes a lot of sense to me.

[everphilski]

It is actually sub-$300, better specced than an OLPC, several *gigs* of memory (512M in the OLPC) and a faster processor. This is beefier than an OLPC and built to survive a harsher environment than a standard notebook. It fits a need, IMO.

engadget [engadget.com]'s review from 2 months ago.

Re:Cheapness aside....

[thue]

http://www.supermediastore.com/super-talent-super- flash-16gb-ide-flash-drive.html [supermediastore.com]

16GiB IDE flash drive for $500.

Re:Third computer offered by India

[gwayne]

Simputer [simputer.org] comes to mind...

Re:Strange new world.

[robaal]

Isn't MS losing money on the whole Xbox operation though?

Aaaiight, here's a short version since y'all asked

[Medievalist]

It was a legitimate question. There's no reason reason to chastise him for asking it. I think the fact that he read the origional article and was reading through the comments was proof enough that he was already taking time to learn about the subject.

But, as Dogbert would say, "where's my satisfaction?" ;)

Short version is "A guy named Nick Negroponte, who has devoted large portions of his life to helping others, experimented with giving used laptops to kids in areas where the population was technologically illiterate. The results were astounding , yet clearly the lack of power and networking in technologically underdeveloped areas was holding the children back. Thus Nickneg gathered a corps of geeks and industrialists to push human-powered, mesh-networked systems outwards from the edge of the developed world. The phenomenal success of cell phones in Africa and Asia indicates this could work. Extremely well-informed scientists and government agencies have examined the project's supporting science and data and are enthusiastic about the project, but because it has the potential to bring millions of 3rd world children into cyberspace without any dependency on telephone companies or software suppliers there is growing opposition to the project."

As for "looking like a genius compared to most people around here"... not my job, man!