First $100 laptop to come this year

I think we have all heard about the One Laptop per Child Program by now. At first I have to admit I had my doubts, especially because of the magnitude of the project and the low price tag, but all that speculation will soon be over according to Quanta Computers, the Taiwanese PC manufacturer in charge of the program's production. Quanta, who are by the way the largest contract notebook PC manufacturer in the world, said that the first $100 laptops will roll off the production lines this year. It is amazing what $100 will get you:

“The $100 machine will run the Linux OS on a 500MHz microprocessor from Advanced Micro Devices, will be wireless broadband-ready, and contain 128MB of DRAM and 500MB of flash memory for storage. The only major component missing will be a big hard disk,” according to the group.

These laptops are intended to give children in less developed countries the same educational opportunities as their counterparts in more developed parts of the world.