This sounds great, the description makes it sound as if the plastic will be the same. Does this imply that a new mother board will fit into the existing plastic?
Mark On Apr 17, 2009 Friday, at 2:24:21:0, John Watlington wrote: > > OLPC is excited to announce that a refresh of the XO-1 laptop is in > progress. In our continued effort to maintain a low price point, OLPC > is refreshing the hardware to take advantage of the latest component > technologies. This refresh (Gen 1.5) is separate from the Gen 2.0 > project, and will continue using the same industrial design and > batteries as Gen 1. The design goal is to provide an overall update > of the system within the same ID and external appearance. > > In order to maximize compatibility with existing software, this > refresh will continue with an x86 processor, using a chipset from > VIA. The memory will be increased to 1 GB of DDR2 SDRAM, and the > built-in storage will be 4 GB of NAND Flash with an option for 8 GB > (installed at manufacture). > > The processor will be a VIA C7-M [1], with plans on using one whose > clock ranges from 400 MHz (1.5 W) to 1GHz (5 W). The clock may be > throttled back automatically if necessary to meet thermal constraints. > > The enabling chipset is hot off the fab line, the VX855 [2]. This > single chip provides the memory interface, a 3D graphics engine, an HD > video decoder, USB, SDIO, and other system interface and management > functions, in a low power and small footprint package. One change > induced by the chipset change is a move from AC'97 to HD Audio. > This brings higher sampling rates and allows an upgrade to a stereo > external microphone (and DC sensor) input. > > The CaFE chip is being retired, and replaced with an external Flash > management controller, possibly one of the low cost SSD controllers > currently being tested. The camera will now be tied directly to the > VX855's video capture port. > > The network interface will be upgraded to an 88W8686, which will halve > its power dissipation and move it to an SDIO interface (further > dropping the power consumption). The current goal is to locate it > in a removable module, allowing its replacement for repair. It will > remain powered while the laptop suspends, waking the laptop if a > packet addressed to it arrives. It is likely that early production > models will not directly support 802.11s (i.e. forwarding mesh packets > while the interface is asleep), but we are working with Marvell on > several different 802.11s solutions. > > Gen 1.5 will continue with the existing display, although OLPC is > working with PixelQi to try to improve the brightness and efficiency > of the screen. The DCON is retained (even though the VX855 includes > much of its functionality) as it provides the low power interface and > the timing controller functions for the existing display. > > 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. > > We also expect the Gen 1.5 machines to ship with an OLPC 8.2.x > software release, modified to support Gen 1.5's new hardware but > otherwise unchanged from the current production software release and > compatible with our current software in the field. Gen 1.5 machines > will be deployed in environments already populated by Gen 1 machines, > so seamless software interoperability is an important goal. > > Early versions of the hardware (bare board) should be available for > driver development at the end of May. A larger number of prototype > laptops (several hundred) for software development and testing will > become available around the end of August. The OLPC contributors > program will be the preferred way of requesting a Gen 1.5 machine for > testing your software for compatibility or development. We hope to > use the contributors program to ensure Gen 1.5 support for the wide > variety of application and OS solutions created for Gen 1.0. > > We're excited to be finally able to make this news public. While > members of the technical team have been working on this for several > months, it was not until last week that we could with any certainty > say that we were going to refresh the hardware and what that refresh > was likely to be. We're now committed to this project and look > forward to working with you to make it happen. > > ---John, Ed, and the OLPC Tech team. > > ======== > > [1] http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/processors/c7-m_ulv/ > [2] http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/chipsets/v-series/vx855 > > _______________________________________________ > Devel mailing list > Devel@lists.laptop.org > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
