OLPC Goes Via for Generation 1.5 of XO

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) may be hard at work on the all-touch generation 2.0 of its XO laptop intended for children of the developing world, but holding true to its promise it will be updating its original XO.

OLPC annouced via its blog on Friday that it will be releasing the XO 1.5 with a Via C7-M processor, forgoing the AMD chipset it was previously using. In addition the RAM will be increased to 1 GB, and the built-in storage will be 4 GB of NAND Flash with an option for 8 GB (installed at manufacture).

It will also use Via’s new VX855 chipset which promises to provide “a 3D graphics engine, an HD video decoder, USB, SDIO, and other system interface and management functions, in a low power and small footprint package.”

According to OLPC early versions of the hardware  should be available for driver development by the end of May. A larger number of prototype laptops for software development and testing will become available around the end of August.