Talk:Green Machine

Coltan from Sustainable Mines ?

It's a very sensitive issue in the regions around the Great Lakes (RDC, Rwanda, Burundi), as this mineral is mined there under often horrible conditions. Is there any coltan in the XO? What efforts are made so it comes from sustainable mining activities? Thy --SvenAERTS 22:03, 3 December 2013 (UTC) coaching teams working on OLPC in RDC, Ruanda and Burundi.

You will have to manage this sensitive issue. We can make such a guarantee if required, but the cost to implement the guarantee may be large, raising the price per laptop significantly. We may need funding for that work, and we might not be able to complete it within the desired time. Contact OLPC directly for more details; the relevant OLPC staff do not use this Wiki, it is used by technical staff only, as you know from viewing edit histories. --Quozl 06:19, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

Tantalum Capacitors on the XO

The mineral Coltan (columbite–tantalite) is one of many used for the extraction of the chemical element Tantalum. We sometimes have Tantalum capacitors on the XO; large yellow devices near the power supply input. Sometimes we use polymer capacitors, which are black. See the following photographs:

An XO-1.75 B1 prototype with three Tantalum capacitors on bottom right near the mounting hole.

An XO-4 A2 prototype with polymer capacitors on the bottom right.

At this time, only the XO-1.75 and XO-4 are in production. --Quozl 06:19, 5 December 2013 (UTC)