Taiwan's Quanta Computer Inc, the world's biggest personal computer manufacturer, will start production on the entry-level laptop and desktop in Changshu, Jiangsu Province at the beginning of next year, the company's officials said at the IT exhibition eMEX 2006, which opened yesterday in Suzhou.

The low-cost computers run the Linux operating system, a free-to-buy competitor to Windows, and require little power.

Its makers hope it will provide every child in the world with access to education.

The laptop is developed by the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) trade association. OLPC is a Delaware based, non-profit organization created by faculty members of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. Quanta, which manufactures computers for Hewlett Packard and Dell, is the original design manufacturer of the US$100 laptop.

The first five million to 15 million units will be shipped to Brazil, India, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria and Thailand as well as China.

The computers will be sold to governments and aid agencies and not be available on the retail market.

Meanwhile, Jiangsu Lemote Technology Co Ltd is scheduled to start mass production on the low-cost "Godson" chips by the end of this year.

Godson, or Chinese name "Longxin", is the first China-developed central processing unit, and computers carrying the chip will cost about 1,000 yuan (US$125) excluding monitor.

"We have made dozens of models and they are still in strict tests," Yu Jianwen, Lemote's engineer said at the exhibition yesterday.

Godsen computers will have a CPU similar in ability to Intel's Pentium 4 1.5 gigahertz chip, which is capable of Internet browsing and word processing, according to Yu, who said the products were designed for students and rural people in the rural regions.

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