Nicholas Negroponte, founding chairman of MIT's Media Lab and one of the foremost IT futurists, has given more details of the $100 laptop that he plans to mass-manufacture in a not-for-profit venture.

The project aims to produce up to 10 million $100 laptops by the end of year 1, and many times than number in the second year. "We're looking to 100 to 150 million $100 laptops," says Negroponte. "Compare that to the worldwide market today for laptops - about 50 million are sold each year."

The idea was first floated in February 2005. Since then Negroponte has worked with a variety of product designers and IT manufacturers to develop a concept design for a laptop that will cost no more than $100 to manufacture. Talks are underway with the Brazilian government to set-up a manufacturing centre in that country.

Governments in poor countries are being asked to buy the laptops by the truckload and distribute them to schools 'like textbooks'. The goal: a laptop for every child.

The laptops should do the functions of most ordinary laptops. They will be Linux based, have colour screens, and be Wi-Fi and mobile phone-enabled. The current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB. The hard drive capacity has not been announced but it will be limited, but expandable by way of USB ports.

Costs are kept low by using cheap LCD screens, of the sort found on portable DVD players; by thinning down the operating system and software so that minimum processing power is needed; and by cutting distribution costs - the laptops will be delivered to ministries of education who will distribute them to schools with textbooks.

The first $100 dollar laptops will be distributed by late 2006.