14 DAY TRIAL // According to recent rumors on the PC area, Intel is on its way to serve us yet another generation of its already famous Classmate PC. It seems that the company is readying the third iteration of the netbook, one that will probably line-up with famous machines of the industry like the Eee PC or the Wind netbook. The original model was intended for educational purposes, but the company made the Classmate PC available for retail as well.
Intel is said to have created a new design for the Classmate PC, as a response to the feedback it received from those that already use this mobile PC. According to the same rumors, the Classmate PC will come with a software upgrade, considered by analysts to be the Sugar Interface, which was originally designed for use on the OLPC XO Laptop, a similar netbook.
For those that are not familiar with the names, we should mention that Intel primarily designed the Classmate PC to be used by school children, having as model the netbook developed by the One Laptop Per Child charity foundation. Various PC makers in Classmate PC's area of distribution manufacture it at the moment. The current configuration supported by the Classmate PC includes a 1.6GHz processor with 1GB RAM, 30GB HD and an 8.9-inch display and runs Linux, while the first model of the netbook packed a 900MHz Intel Celeron processor and only 256MB of RAM.
Intel might be thinking of releasing a new Classmate PC that will feature specs similar to those of the major brands' netbooks (ASUS's Eee PC, Acer's Aspire One, MSI's Wind). Yet, the company should also take into consideration the price it intends to put on this third generation. In the end, the price is what would separate all these netbook models from each other.
The netbook is expected to be announced by the company in about a month.