OLPC XO TABLET TO FEATURE MARVELL CPU

The folks at OLPC has announced that their next XO product will be a tablet, and not a laptop. The original XO laptop was built in-house, but this time around OLPC is working with chipmaker Marvell whose Moby Reference design will be the basis of its new tablet.

The XO tablet is still aimed at students in developing nations. It will have a multi-lingual software keyboard with touch feedback. And it will consume just one watt of power.

The Marvell Moby Tablet platform has a 1GHz Marvell ARMADA 610 processor with built-in Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi 802.11b/n and FM radio. The chipset is capable of handling 1080p HD video. It also provides 3D graphics support. The Marvell Moby platform can run Android, Windows Mobile and Ubuntu Linux.

The XO tablet will also have a webcam for video chat. It also sports a mobile hotspot feature that would let you share a broadband connection with up to 8 devices over WiFi. Both OLPC and Marvell are expected to showcase the tablet at CES in January.

No word on pricing or availability at the moment. But the Marvell Moby reference design is aimed at building tablets costing $99. So this one has got to be cheaper than the original XO laptop.