The One Laptop Per Child project is humming along, and while the dual-screen, open-hardware OLPC 2.0 is still riding unicorns in Narnia, the OLPC 1.5 is quite real. And according to the project’s hardware guy, it’s going to be more of the same — but better. They’re upping the storage space, brightening the screens, and replacing the old AMD processor with a shiny new VIA C7-M.

Supposedly the new processor (and its much newer chipset, the VX855) will allow for smooth 1080p playback, because those kids in the third world have nothing to watch their Blu-ray movies on. But really, it’s about making the thing as capable as other netbooks, yet as low-power and adaptable as conditions require it to be.

I think it was a mutual thing with AMD; they’re more interested in pushing their mid-range Neo platform, found in the sexy but slim HP dv2. VIA’s another underdog (everyone’s an underdog compared to Intel), so I’m glad to see their tech being put into something interesting and useful. Maybe they’ll be powering the XO 2 as well?

[via The Register]