One Laptop Per Child is planning to end the production of its XO-1 laptop as well as drop AMD's x86 Geode processor. OLPC intends to replace these with a low-powered ARM alternative in the XO-2 laptop, which is slated for release in about 18 months. Even though the current XO-1 model consumes a mere five watts, OLPC feels thats the biggest problem. "We're seeing some very impressive system-on-chip designs that provide both fundamentally low-power demands and the kind of fine-grained power management ... in the XO-1," said Ed McNierney, chief technology officer at OLPC. Though using ARM architecture will reduce power consumption, it puts using the full-fledged Windows OS on their laptops in jeopardy. The company is currently wrestling Microsoft in order to try to get them to develop a full version of Windows to be able to run on ARM processors. It's not likely Microsoft will budge on the subject as ingrained as x86 is and how seemingly little there is in it for them, but we've been surprised before.
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I agree with your sentiment completely. We need portable computers that last more than 2 - 3 hours.
As far as OLPC goes, I think the organization is a joke. The whole idea behind it was originally supposed to be to provide impoverished kids with a computer; whereas they would otherwise never have the opportunity.
These children aren't saying to themselves, "gee, I'd really like a computer, but I don't want a crappy OLPC because it won't run all the Windows software I have." That seems to be the focus of the OLPC organization though.
Considering the intended audience, who cares what Microsoft does, since Windows would actually be a hindrance to these children obtaining software and learning how to use a computer?
Edited 2009-03-15 19:24 UTC
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2005-07-06
I am all for ARM chips in netbooks and laptops. They consume way more power than CISC processors, the most annoying feature of any laptop/netbook is the fact that the batteries die too fast. I work 8 hours a day not 2.
Edited 2009-03-12 06:11 UTC