OLPC XO Laptop Project Chooses VIA Platform Over AMD

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation has spruced up the offerings of its XO laptop that will see a faster processor as well as the feature to play HD video.

The OLPC is bringing a notable overhaul to its erstwhile XO-1 laptop with a new version, dubbed as “XO-1.5”, which will drop the AMD Geode processor that was employed since launch. 

Instead the new version will be using VIA C7-M processor that has a clock speed in the range of 400MHz to 1GHz depending on the nature of the task being performed by the laptop. 

With this new modification, OLPC also gets a new chipset that further adds HD video decoding, 3D acceleration, as well as surround sound to its new iteration of the laptop. 

The organisation further asserted that the new version will consume no more energy than that of the existing version, with the laptop would draw between 1.5 watts and 5.0 watts  

In addition to this, it will also feature 1GB of DDR2 SDRAM, along with 4 GB of NAND Flash with an option for 8 GB expandable memory. 

Commenting upon the changes it introduced in the updated version of its laptop, OLPC said in a statement, “Overall, the target is to match the Gen 1 XO-1 in power consumption while making aggressive suspend easier, and in price (while changing to components which are more likely to decrease in price). It is likely that both goals can be met”. 

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