It is now the turn of ClassMatePC (CMPC)! Wishing it all the best on
Teacher's Day.



This is a good write-up* on Teacher's Day (Who can forget them
despite our growing up? And the contribution they made in what or where
we are today). And it is good to see too that the promise, the children
will have a computer at reasonable cost, comes from Intel. But such
announcements continue to be made from time to time! When will they
actually materialize? I am yet to see a low cost PC and surely would
love to have one.



Check it at www.classmatepc.com <http://www.classmatepc.com/> .



The site says that pilots will be running in more than 30 countries by
end of 2007.



Here is, still not giving up the hope of one day low cost PC
materialising, wishing the CMPC all the best.



Dr D.C.Misra

September 5, 2007

(Teacher's Day)





CLASSMATE PC NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

This laptop for children targets the next billion new computer users in
the world, with a full feature-laden machine for under Rs10,000

B Y N IYAM B HUSHAN ·························

Can you use a pen? This new kind of laptop uses a normal-looking pen
that writes with real ink on real paper.

Yet, as you scrawl on paper, a software "auto-magically" pops up on the
screen and digitally recreates whatever you are penning down.

It is perfect for schoolchildren who are comfortable with a pen but who
may never have touched a computer, and it is coming as an education
project. The other thing most comfortable about the ClassMate PC,
(CMPC), is the price tag.

The initial launch may start at Rs18,000 as formally announced by HCL.
But, with various other players intending to enter the fray, industry
estimates put the price tag between $180 and $225 (Rs7,380-Rs9,225).

A 7" colour LCD screen provides high-resolution graphics.

The integrated keyboard and "mousetracker" are ergonomically designed
for the hands of a child. However, an adult can also tap away on it.

Impressively, high-speed wireless Internet is available on the computer
through built-in Wi-Fi. The embedded speakers provide disappointing
sound reproduction but, at that price, offering built-in speakers is
commendable. The ports for a separate microphone and headphones are more
promising. I plugged in my reference headphones and streamed CDquality
Internet radio through the laptop to find the quality quite acceptable.

I could envision children making free phone calls all over the world to
friends and family, using a plugged-in microphone and free software such
as Skype or Ekiga.

Two USB ports allow children to connect a wide variety of off-the-shelf
peripherals such as a webcam for videoconferencing, an external CD/ DVD
burner, a desktop colour printer, a digital camera, a scanner for
digitizing documents, an iPod or MP3 player, and much more. A built-in
Ethernet port allows for connection to a wired network, and Microsoft
Windows XP or Linux powers this neat gizmo. The battery lasts about four
hours.

You can discover more about the CMPC on www.classmatepc.com.

Intriguingly, the laptop makes no sound. Even when I pushed it to
extreme tasks, I did not hear the mechanical whirring of a spinning hard
disk or a cooling fan.

The CMPC is designed to have no moving parts inside.

This allows it to withstand the shocks and drops expected from a child.
A 1GB or 2GB flash disk does the storage in place of a traditional hard
disk.

The CMPC is designed to be a networked, rather than a stand-alone,
computer. What this may eventually do is change the way we think about
installing our software applications and storing our data.

Digital school bag This is not a toy but a real laptop, a significant
evolution that is hiding itself among children.

In fact, though the CMPC platform is slated to be shipped in India from
this month by HCL, Wipro, Zenith, and Edge, you cannot go and buy it as
an individual user.

"It is an education project, not a laptop project," declares Nicholas
Negroponte, referring to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project that he
founded. OLPC was the initial idea and rival laptop that sparked off the
CMPC.

Negroponte, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's famous Media
Lab in Boston, provoked the new thinking with his OLPC, targeting a
sofar elusive price tag of below $100. You can get more details at
www.laptop.org.

The site expresses the profound challenge faced by developing worlds for
their children: "Most of the nearly twobillion children in the
developing world are inadequately educated or receive no education at
all. One in three does not complete the fifth grade."

Realizing this higher goal and its inherent challenges and
opportunities, both the OLPC and the CMPC joined hands for a larger
cause.

Market boom The CMPC is thus sold exclusively to schools and, according
to John McClure, Intel's South Asia director of marketing, "as a
fully-managed service model with hardware, software, networking, and
support". The business model is also innovative. "We could model the
pricing into a nominal incremental increase in the per month fee of the
students. We are in dialogue with about 25 schools all over the country
and expect to have 3,000-5,000 PCs in nine to 12 months," says Rajendra
Kumar, executive vice-president of HCL Infosystems Ltd.

Education and learning content is provided by all vendors through
individual tie-ins with Educomp Solutions Ltd, NIIT, Microsoft, Edurite
Technologies and various other education content providers, and conforms
to India's education board standards.

More than 30 pilot projects across schools around the world are being
launched, with three in India alone: Delhi Public School, Vasundhara;
Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) in Faridabad near New Delhi and Padma
Sheshadri Bal Bhavan in Bangalore.

According to H.N.S. Rao, deputy commissioner of NVS, students and
teachers can submit and check assignments from anywhere on the campus,
thanks to the wireless network.

However, they do not find the courseware entirely sufficient, so
teachers are encouraged to develop their own course material. McClure
points to the other challenges teachers face, with the blackboard giving
way to presentations and chats streaming to laptops, and a classroom
with no eye contact as students pore over their screens. However, he
sums up the CMPC's impact in pilot projects worldwide: "Dropout rates in
schools have gone down and classroom participation is up."

But the CMPC will eventually impact mainstream laptop-users as well.
McClure says this is inevitable. Asustech has already launched laptops
globally, starting at $225 for ordinary end-users. Check out the
presentations at www.eeepc.com.

Different strokes McClure also foretells the launch in India of "a wave
of products from November to March". The interesting offshoot of the
CMPC is its support not just for Windows XP but Linux as well.

"When ordinary children can use Linux so easily, the myth of Linux not
being user-friendly can finally be laid to rest, paving the way for an
exponential adoption of this OS," says Valsa Williams, Asia strategy
manager, Linux and OpenSource, at Intel. "Currently, the CMPC has been
known to run all the major flavours of Linux, including popular
distributions in India such as Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu and Mandriva," she
adds.

"Specific flavours of Linux from Brazil and from Argentina are also
known to run. Therefore, I look forward to India-specific Linux-distros
on the CMPC."

The adoption of both Windows and Linux also opens up opportunities for
individuals, entrepreneurs and organizations to author and contribute
education and learning material using OpenSource values.

A nation's most precious resource is its children. By next Teachers'
Day-5 September 2008-we'll know how many lives light up to learning on
an LCD screen.

CMPC HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

Processor: Intel Mobile Processor ULV 900MHz, Zero L2 cache, 400MHz FSB
Memory: DDR-II 256M SO-DIMM Storage device: 1GB/2GB NAND Flash Operating
system: Windows XP Pro or Linux LCD: 7" 800x480, LVDS Interface, LED B/L
Audio: Stereo 2 channel audio, built-in speakers and microphone, jack
for external output and microphone input Power solution: Battery with
adapter–SIX cells, approximately four hours LAN/WLAN: 10/100M
Ethernet+WLAN 802.11 b/g w/ antenna Chipset: Intel 915GMS+ICH6-M
Keyboard: Integrated keyboard with hot keys Touch pad: Cycle touch pad
with left and right buttons Digital pen (optional): Wireless pen to take
digital notes Weight: Less than 1.3kg

(Source:
http://epaper.livemint.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=05_09_2007_012_002&m\
ode=undefined, accessed: September 5, 2007)













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