On Tuesday, a prototype of One Laptop Per Child’s upcoming technology was unveiled by chairman Nicholas Negroponte. According to him, the machine’s price could be as low as $75, as this particular laptop "comes from a different point of view."

The new XO 2.0’s size has been significantly reduced and targets students who must walk long distances to and from school. Mr. Negroponte described the current XO model as being "a little too big" and "a little too heavy."

The XO 2.0 comes with a touch-screen keyboard which can also act as a secondary display, thus allowing two or more people to study at the same time. As the prices of display screens have been lowered thanks to their mass production, there will be no additional costs for the 2.0 model. The laptop’s production will begin sometime in 2010.

Last week, Microsoft officials announced that a deal was reached with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. Its Windows XP operating system will thus be made available on the low-cost notebook computers which are intended to reach developing countries’ students.

The current XO runs on a AMD Geode LX-700 processor clocked at 433MHz and comes with a 1200 x 900 screen, 256MB of RAM, and 1GB of flash storage.

Mr. Negroponte described the goal of his association to be the attempt of using technology in order to transform education.