OLPC's modular laptop 'XO-Infinity' can last an entire childhood

The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project introduced small, low-cost, low-powere durable laptop for educational purposes, with focus on poor and developing countries. The very first XO Laptop were shipped in 2007 and since then there has been improvement in specifications and performance. OLPC has not launched any new device over the past few years.

Now, One Education Australia, a spinoff of the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) intiative is working on a modular laptop dubbed XO-Infinity. The laptop is designed for use in schools and homes and is simple enough for a 4-year child to put the parts together. The Modular laptop is strongly built so it can last an entire childhood.

The XO Infinity is likely to be a hybrid and can be used as tablet or laptop with connected keyboard. It can be used by both preschool kid and older kids.  A preschool child can use the XO-infinity as a tablet with an Android chip and touch enabled display. By attaching a keyboard older kids can use it as a Laptop. The CPU can be swapped into Windows and Linux comaptible chip and can downgrade the display to a non-touch panel.

It has replaceable and optional parts.  According to information on the XO-Infinity website the laptop will come with 5 different module types - Core, Battery, Camera, Screen, Wireless. All the 5 modules when put together will form a whole PC.

One Education states "When the camera on a phone is getting old, or the processor, the device is generally thrown away and replaced with an entirely new one. With a modular design, it’s possible to update one part at a time as needed, at a much cheaper price. Left over parts can be re-sold, or better yet, donated to those who wouldn’t normally be able to afford them at all."

The XO-Infinity modular laptop will be distributed to the disadvantaged childern in Australia. Right now the XO-Infinity is a prototype, A crowdsourcing campaign to raise money will be launched later this year in order to start mass production of the XO-infinity Laptop. It is scheduled to launch by mid 2016.

Source : Ink, Bits, and Pixels