OLPC XO-1 Laptop Specs

I received my XO laptop the other day and before I started messing around with it too much I thought I would make an informative post regarding the specs of it. Since the operating system is based on Linux I will show you the commands you use at the Terminal to see some hardware information - these apply to all Linux-based OSes not just the OLPC one.

Once you've found the Terminal in Sugar and opened it you can type:

• cat /proc/cpuinfo

On my XO-1 that results in the following output:

processor	:	0
vendor_id	:	AuthenticAMD
cpu family	:	5
model	:	10
model name	:	Geode(TM) Integrated Processor by AMD PCS
stepping	:	2
cpu MHz	:	431.222
cache size	:	128 KB
fdiv_bug	:	no
hlt_bug	:	no
f00f_bug	:	no
coma_bug	:	no
fpu	:	yes
fpu_exception	:	yes
cpuid level	:	1
wp	:	yes
flags	:	fpu de pse tsc msr cx8 sep pge cmov clflush mmx mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow
bogomips	:	863.54
clflush size	:	32

Now to see information about the memory in the system you type:

• cat /proc/meminfo

The MemTotal for my system is MemTotal: 237852 kB

• cat /proc/version

Provides an output of: Linux version 2.6.22-20071121.7.olpc.af3dd731d18bc39

• df or df -h (for human readable format):
  

Filesystem	Size	Used	Avail	Use%	Mounted on
mtd0	1.0G	322M	703M	32%	/
tmpfs	35M	0	35M	0%	/dev/shm

Those are the default file systems mounted on the XO-1.

I got my OLPC XO-1 Laptop!

I ordered my OLPC XO-1 the first week of December during their "Give One Get One" period. Hmm, is it XO-1 or X0-1? In case you've been hiding somewhere OLPC stands for One Laptop Per Child and has been formerly known as "the $100 Laptop". After months of waiting it finally came in the mail, in a very small box. They gave me no notification or tracking number, it just arrived as a surprise. It has a return address of BrightStar US, Inc., which seems to be some kind of "technology distributor". Interestingly, it says on the package it was ordered on March 7th, 2008 which is months off. Perhaps it is the date the BrightStar company was ordered to distribute it.

It's really quite simple - all that is included is the laptop, battery, an AC adapter, and instructions telling me to see http://www.laptopgiving.org/start for details on how to use it. So of course I installed the battery, plugged it in, and turned it on. It is about as small as I thought it would be, but heavier as well.
After about 30 minutes of fooling around I have to admit it is very hard to use. It is clearly designed for children! You don't have access to nearly any OS details/capabilities, let alone advanced ones. By the way did I mention the OS is called Sugar and is derived from Fedora Linux? At least there is a Terminal, but by default the PATHs aren't set, so to figure out your OLPC XO-1 MAC address you need to do:

• /sbin/ifconfig

And find the HWaddr for your mesh connection type. If I recall correctly it shares it with eth0 as well. It looks like the laptop does have some neat capabilities that I will need to try out in the future, and for now it should serve well as a distraction during long classes and/or work. Look for more posts on this in the future. Here are a couple more photos I took:


You can find more photos elsewhere, like here.