The $100 OLPC XO 3.0 tablet will be shown off at CES 2012

It was just over four years ago that the first OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) laptop was unveiled and since that time, thousands of super cheap Linux-based laptops have been given to children in third world countries. At this year’s CES, OLPC Nicholas Negroponte will be unveiling the tablet version, the $100 OLPC XO tablet.

The XO 3.0 tablet doesn’t have two screens like the prototype Negroponte described a few years back, but it is built in very much the same way as the XO laptop. It’s been designed by Yves Behar, has a rugged case, and can be charged via a hand crank or solar panel. In fact, OLPC’s CTO Ed McNierney told us that the two-watt tablet can get 10 minutes of runtime from one minute of cranking. (The cranks will be third-party accessories and won’t automatically come with the tablet.)

In terms of raw specs, the XO 3.0 has an 8-inch, 1024 x 768-resolution PixelQi display, which can be read indoors and out, a Marvell Armada PXA618 processor, 512MB of RAM, and will be configurable with either Android or Sugar operating systems. Sugar is OLPC’s own Linux operating system, which was designed specifically for kids. “We designed the XO-3 with an open fireware and with open BIOs so it is easy to support multiple operating systems. Countries can choose between Android and Sugar,” McNierney said.

And that bit about countries is very important. The XO 3.0, like the XO laptops, won’t be sold directly to consumers or parents. OLPC will sell the tablets in bulk to countries who want to ensure their children have computers, and won’t produce units until orders come in. So how much will countries like Uruguay and Peru (both of which have deployed thousands of OLPC laptops) have to pay? McNierney and Negoroponte say that $100 promise will actually be fulfilled, depending on a little flexibility. Both told us that the tablet can be configured for as low as $100, but that it wouldn’t necessarily have the PIxelQi display (a $100 variant would have a regular LCD) and other more premium components might be sacrificed.

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