The first working model of a $100 laptop aimed at providing mobile computing to under privileged children made its debut on Friday at the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) in Boston.

Nicholas Negroponte, who was inducted into the MITX Innovation Hall of Fame on the same night, used his time at the podium to unveil a working model of the from his One Laptop Per Child association.

The model was similar to ones seen before - it was Linux based, featured a 7 inch screen, and a processor supplied by Advanced Micro Devices - however the model demonstrated lacked the hand crank seen previously. He said that the crank was moved to an external power supply that could be connected to the device as necessary. The device will run on only 2 watts of power.

We're going to be below 2 watts [of power consumption], Negroponte said in a keynote address at LinuxWorld recently. That's very important because 35 percent of world doesn't have electricity.

Negroponte, the founder of OLPC and co-founder of the MIT Media Laboratory, aims for the program to bring inexpensive computing to children in undeveloped and developing nations around the world.

It's job, in part, is to educate by granting students access to the Internet and its vast store of information

The machines, when fully ready, will likely be introduced in Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Nigeria, Thailand and other parts of the Middle East.

The $100 laptop's initial price will start at $135 in 2007. It is expected that the price will move downward over time, however, reaching $100 in 2008, and hitting $50 by 2010, Negroponte said.