In a significant architechtural move away from X86, the 2011 generation of the XO (One Laptop Per Child Project) will move from a VIA C7 CPU to a Marvell design based on ARM cores.

In an updated article at Engadget, the word direct from OLPC is that it will ‘enable two times the speed at a quarter of the power usage. That version will sell for somewhere in the $175 range.’

Sounds like a ARM Cortex A9 MPCore to me.

If the tech details sound boring though, check out a concept they’re touting for XO-3!

More images and reading at Engadget:

OLPC shows off absurdly thin XO-3 concept tablet for 2012 (update: XO-1.5 and XO-1.75 coming first) — Engadget.

The next generation XO Laptop will be a smaller, dual-touchscreen device consuming just 1W of power and is scheduled for launch by 2010 says Nick Negroponte of the OLPC project.

Laptop Mag were at the launch event today and report that the device will take on a dual-format design that can be used in book or notebook PC modes.

Its an interesting concept although at 1W, which I assume is without Wifi, you’d have to build this on an extremely low power platform. Moorestown or ARM would be the only contenders which means XP or Vista is out of the question. [Vista won't run on Moorestown due to architectural limitations around the lack of a PCI bus] Which leaves either the Moblin distribution or something new from Microsoft.

Laptop Magazine. First Look: OLPC XO Generation 2.0