Core electronics

Introduction

This refers to the core electronics inside the OLPC's case. See Hardware specification for current details.

Idea List

Why not a RISC System on Chip?

There are so many amazing embedded CPU options available now I wonder why go with an x86 arch. How about ARM, or MIPS or PPC? There are SOC options for all of them. Half the computer would be designed already using one as the core, including the display controller and networking controllers.

Because this needs to be manufactured by a company that is already tooled up to keep costs down. Quanta is ready to do this with AMD parts. In future, since the OS is Linux and the apps are written in Python, newer models could be built on a different architecture.

First step is for people to port the Sugar environment to an ARM-based Linux and verify that it all works.

Tilt Sense

Most laptops contain a sensor that detects rotation and acceleration in order to park the hard drive if the laptop falls off of a desk or is dropped. The sesors are inexpensive, but not too accurate. Some attemps have been made to use tilting and shakeing as an input method.

Some PC and pocket computers can sense when they are in Landscape or Portrait mode and adjust the text accordingly. Hardware support is very inexpensive and the laptop ought to have such a feature. L Pfeffer