Each key feature recognizes common setbacks in developing countries. Lack of money for education is one of them. The laptop price is low enough for poorer governments to buy the machines, with outside help, and distribute them like textbooks. A non-profit organization called One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is masterminding the help.

As reported by MIT and the newswires, the researchers loaded the $100 laptop with features found in models worth $1,000 and more – including wireless Internet access. The machine is designed to do almost everything except store huge amounts of data.

Children in developing countries can’t count of an electricity supply, so these laptops come with crank handles that give 10 minutes of power from one minute of winding. The AC adapter doubles as a carrying strap for locations where electricity is available. Recognizing that classrooms are a luxury in many areas, the display can shift from full color to glare-resistant black and white for outdoor classes. And these machines are childproof - rugged and encased in rubber with tight seals.

To make the $100 system possible, the researchers trimmed away what they refer to as "the fat." They explain that two-thirds of the software in today’s laptops is unnecessary and used only to manage the other third, which performs the same function many different ways. And the scale of the project will help to keep the cost down: the plan is to manufacture the laptops in the millions.

Nicholas Negroponte, the chairman of the MIT Media Lab and co-founder of OLPC, believes the $100 laptop could revolutionize how we educate the world's children. The ergonomics underpinning the plan suggests it could very well succeed.

Sources: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab; Associated Press; Reuters