Intel Corp’s low-cost laptop initiative was set to get a boost yesterday from Portugal’s government, which is pledging to provide elementary school students with 500,000 computers based on the chipmaker’s Classmate PC design.
The announcement brings Intel’s rivalry with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization into the spotlight once again.
In May, the nonprofit OLPC group said its green-and-white XO laptop computers would work with Microsoft Corp’s Windows in addition to a homegrown Linux-based operating system.
The move was seen as a way to make the so-called US$100 laptop, which actually costs approximately US$188, more palatable to education ministers primarily in developing countries who might have balked at an open-source system.
But in a single deal for half a million PCs, Intel nearly matched OLPC’s total orders to date — 600,000 units as of May — calling into question whether OLPC’s adoption of Windows has made much difference.
Representatives for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based One Laptop Per Child did not immediately return calls or e-mails seeking comment and an updated order total.
As part of its biggest deal for the Classmate PC to date, Intel said it would serve as technology adviser to Portugal’s Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Communications, which is coordinating the laptop program.
Intel spokeswoman Agnes Kwan said parents of young school children would be able to choose between computers running Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and ones with an open-source Linux operating system.
She added that the government would distribute the new machines to Portugal’s elementary school students over the course of the school year starting this fall.
As of the middle of this year, “hundreds of thousands” of the Classmate PCs had already shipped to customers in more than 30 countries, Kwan said.
The spokeswoman declined to disclose how much the laptops will cost parents or other financial terms of the deal. She said Portugal’s Ministry of Education is working out pricing details.
Classmate PCs are based on Intel’s design and include its processors, but the machines are built by other manufacturers and sold under a variety of brand names.
The first generation went on sale in March last year; a heftier version with a faster processor and a bigger screen hit the market in April.
Intel’s Classmate PC and OLPC’s XO are just two of a growing field of small, low-cost computers aimed at the millions of students in developing countries who are just gaining access to technology and the Internet.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS