Laptops For The Powerless

Sun Herald

Sunday November 20, 2005

DANIEL DASEY

A SIMPLE laptop computer that is powered by a crank and costs just $160 to produce has been unveiled at a United Nations conference.

The makers of the Green Machine hope the device will bring computer technology to children in developing nations, helping them to keep pace with their counterparts in the developed world.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Nicholas Negroponte unveiled the simple, robust device at the UN net summit in Tunis.

He said he hoped to have millions of the machines in production within a year so that they could be distributed to the governments of poorer nations.

Up to 100 million could be produced by the end of 2007.

A crank on the side of the computer allows it to be wound up, instead of relying on mains power supply which is unavailable in many areas.

One minute's winding would power the machine for about 40 minutes.

The computer has a 500MHz processor with flash memory instead of a hard drive.

© 2005 Sun Herald

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