Schoolchildren using Classmate machines

Flickr /John Connell

The government of Venezuela has ordered one million laptops for the country's schoolchildren from Portugal as part of a US$3 billion bilateral agreement.

Portugal manufactures the low-cost machines, based on the Intel Classmate laptop designed especially for schoolchildren, under Intel's license.

The machines, known as Magalhaes (Magellan) will have low-power Intel Atom chips, a digital camera, broadband web connection and will run a version of Linux developed in Venezuela.

Intel's initiative is similar to the project 'One Laptop Per Child' (OLPC) created by Nicholas Negroponte, professor at the US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The deal between Venezuela and Portugal will also cover housings and utilities.

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