OLPC to use Pixel Qi 3Qi screens

Posted by Charbax – March 30, 2010

Image representing PixelQi as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

A cross-licencing deal between the One Laptop Per Child non-profit and Pixel Qi has been announced in this press release:

As a result of the agreement, OLPC receives full license to all Pixel Qi “3qi” screen technology, including 70+ patents in process and all current and future IP developed by Pixel Qi for multi-mode screens. Pixel Qi is leading the design of new screens for OLPC’s next-generation XO laptops.

“A huge barrier to getting computers to mass use in the developing world is limited access to electricity. Pixel Qi is designing new screens for OLPC that will keep laptops going even longer between recharges and excel in long-form reading while providing color and video,” said Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child.

Mary Lou Jepsen, founder and CEO of Pixel Qi, added, “OLPC’s focus on the need for low-cost, low-power devices led me to invent power-efficient LCD screens that are optimized for reading. Commercial tablets, notebook computers and smart phones have precisely the same needs. This is one of the few examples in which cutting-edge computer technology first deployed for developing nations benefits the developed world as well.”

A few questions I would have about this awesome partnership:

1. Will a version of XO 1.5 come with the 10″ 3Qi screen in the same form factor design?

2. If 3Qi only comes to OLPC starting with the ARM Powered XO 1.75, will it come in the 10″ size or will they cut a smaller 7.5″ version of it? My guess is to keep the costs low, they will pick the mass produced 10″ size there, and fit it inside of the same design just removing most of the screen bezel.

3. I can’t wait to learn what power consumption the XO 1.75 and XO 3.0 can run at using the Pixel Qi screen. Does it now run 50 hours on a battery? How much better are ARM Powered laptops like the XO 1.75 and ARM Powered tablets like the XO 3.0 at implementing the DCON processor process where the main processor can turn itself off completely when not in use?

4. Can anyone confirm that we will soon see Pixel Qi in the Marvell Moby Tablet project? Thus sooner see some implementation of tablets for education leading to the full release of the XO 3.0 tablet.

Look perhaps for some answers at Mary-Lou Jepsen’s blog. Watch again some of my many Pixel Qi videos:
I’m testing it outdoors at CES
Interviewing Mary-Lou Jepsen about Pixel Qi’s status at CES
Demonstrating the Notion Ink Android tablet that uses Pixel Qi
Comparing Pixel Qi with Toshiba’s transflective screen and the Kindle’s e-ink
Filming in Mary-Lou Jepsen’s home lab
Interviewing Mary-Lou Jepsen at Computex 2009
Introducing the Pixel Qi screen at Computex 2009

This press release was found via: slashgear.com

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  • aludal

    Funny…. I thought OLPC/Pixel Qi/3Qi/Mary Lou Jepsen/NI Adam has become definitely irrelevant pieces of vaporware this January. Apparently, I was mistaken, partially: some irrelevant steps in technology transfer occur bearing some of those those names, so Marvell's Moby vaporware might look like Notion Ink vaporware. Or even better. Who cares? Prime time netbook manufacturers don't, they care only that OLPC won't get large consignments of 10″ LCD sreens, that's all.

  • obarthelemy

    how can you jump from “cross-licensing agreement” to “pixQi screen to be used ” … ?

    Intel and AMD have cross licensing agreements. Are AMD CPUs inside Intel's ?

  • http://armdevices.net/ Charbax

    If you read the announcement, Pixel Qi gets to own and control the licencing for the XO-1 screen as well. In return for Pixel Qi owning its technology, OLPC can licence it for free, and even licence for free any future technologies from Pixel Qi, so it goes both ways.

    I think this could be formalities as shipments of Pixel Qi screens is just about to happen in huge scale, and so that no matter what happens in terms of huge business deals with big manufacturers, that OLPC has some kind of guarantee that Pixel Qi technology is always available to them with no other licencing costs than manufacturing costs.

  • http://www.lookatmycrazyshoes.com/fitflop fitflop walkstar

    PixelQi said they have 10″ only and will produce other sizes in the future. I think they wrote somewhere that they want to produce a large factor screen next. OTOH, OLPC is at 8.1″ or so. So probably no retrofit for the forseable future. I also don’t really see the point. The new PixelQi displays are supposed to be somewhat better than the OLPC ones but the basic design design is the same. In B/W mode, the white of the OLPC screen is a bit darker than the grey of eInk screens, but not too much. Color support is probably somewhat better as well. But in case of OLPC, who cares? Kids don’t need to draw in 16 million colors.

  • http://armdevices.net/ Charbax

    XO-1 design has a 7.5″ screen, but it has a lot of bezel around the screen. So in fact, the XO-1 design mold nearly wouldn't need to be changed to fit in a 10″ screen. The only difference would be that the 10″ screen would nearly not have any screen bezel if keeping the same current design.

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    i read and actually developed part of the 3Qi screen tech while at OLPC, so there was some mild confusion …

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    I can’t wait to learn what power consumption the XO 1.75 and XO 3.0 can run.thanks.

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