Section 3 - Multi Seat System Hardware and Software

Section 3 - Multi Seat System Hardware and Software

The primary goal of this project is to help promote education in developing countries by providing grade schools with electronic resources. There are a variety of other groups that have already initiated solutions to this problem. The most prominent group is the One Laptop Per Child Association (hereinafter referred to as OLPC), which has created a cheap, durable laptop known as the XO-1. Other groups such as the Center for Scientific Computing and Free Software (hereinafter referred to as C3SL) have made significant strides in reusing older computers for schools; however, both of those programs have some significant drawbacks.

The primary competitor identified is the OLPC. The OLPC Association is dedicated to producing low cost laptops and distributing them to low-income areas. There exist several problems with the program, including the per-deployment cost and deployment into rural areas. The original intent was to deliver a laptop to every child for a cost of $100 per device. The program, however, is unable to deliver the laptop at the $100 target; in fact, the cost to donate a system is almost $200. Deployments also require a minimum commitment of 100 laptops. This represents a very significant financial burden, though once deployed, it is difficult to integrate multiple PCs into a cohesive learning environment, and this takes away from educating the students. However, the XO-1’s are extremely rugged PCs and do not depend on any external power sources except to charge the batteries.

C3SL’s solution integrates into school systems better, and was widely deployed in the Paraná Digital project. This project involved having multiple terminals running off of a single computer in multiple schools. This program has been very successful and shows great promise, but there is a critical flaw. The program is entirely software, and this software was intended to run in a classroom equipped with basic utilities, such as power and internet connectivity.

Our solution was to integrate the OLPC's ruggedness and the C3SL's novel software solution into one robust package. The design team preceding ours built a solar powered computer system that can be deployed in a relatively durable building. They assembled a solar panel, battery, and a charge controller into a self contained solution, such that deployment in a wide variety of climates and locales is possible, but they were unable to decide on the computer system. Our primary goal for this project is integrating the solar charging and battery system with a computer system that is suitable for educating youth, regardless of regional or socio-economic boundaries.

The requirements for the computer system were fairly simple; four seats, low power. This could be established very easily with four laptop computers, but there were design issues that had to be considered. First, the system will be deployed in a relatively extreme environment. It also will not be running off of mains power, and will therefore have to be low power. It should also be as cost efficient as possible, i.e. lowest cost per seat. Four architectures were discussed for the computer system: laptops, thin clients, multiple-motherboard, and multi-seat.

The first prototype was a simple laptop-server setup. Each workstation would consist of small laptop (a 10” form factor, such as the Lenovo S10). The laptops would be connected to the Internet either by an Ethernet cable, or even Wi-Fi. Laptops would be run without being directly connected to AC power; a charging station would be setup next to the server.