Odds are, you’ve probably heard of the so-called $100 laptop from OLPC, but a $12 computer? That’s just not possible, is it?Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) non-profit, back in 2005, began an attempt to make a laptop that would cost them just $100 to make and Third World governments just $100 to buy. Sadly, after two years of amazing hardware and software development, OLPC was able to produce the XO Laptop which cost them just under $200 to construct. Since they’re a non-profit, OLPC began selling their XO to NGOs and Third World governments for that same $200 a pop. After all, $200 is still a good price, right?Well, the idea behind OLPC was to put computers in the hands of kids in developing nations. However, many critics felt that even $100 would be too much to charge people in many Third World countries. Now, a group of designers attending MIT’s International Development Design Summit are designing a computer that they hope will cost just $12 to build.Will these uber-inexpensive computers surf the web or play your favorite YouTube videos? Probably not. The theory is that some rudimentary Internet use will be possible, but so far it’s not clear how much.What this group of designers hopes to do is hack the crap out of a cheap, probably unlicensed gaming system, upgrading it with new software and, from the sound of it, not too many new parts.After all, the beauty of the “Victor-70″ (also known as the “Victor-60” and the “Victor-90” and probably other numbers) is that it is, essentially, a knock-off of the Famicom game system from Japan. If you’re not familiar with the Famicom, it was the original version of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) before its casing was redesigned and sent over to America. As a result, any game cartridge that worked on the old Famicom system works on the Victor-70, including one that ran a version of the programming language “Basic.” This opens up a lot of possibilities for repurposing.The other advantage of the Victor is that it plugs into a TV set and doesn’t have a dedicated monitor or display like the OLPC XO does. That, alone, will allow the price to drop dramatically. There are also other “educational” game cartridges available for it that are already available. This, in theory, would make the untouched device already a nice little box for kids, especially for the price–in India, they go for around $10. One assumes a mark-up, so if bought wholesale, it becomes obvious that a $12 computer just might be possible.Get a bit more information at the official site for the project: PlayPower.org or the official wiki for the project or, uh, another official wiki for the project.Will these ever come to the First World? Who knows? ComputerWorld.com was able to track down an online source for the Victor-70, but the link was dead as of this writing.Sources: BostonHerald.com and Computer World.com
