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Marvell revolutionizes education with $99 tablet
By siliconindia
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Monday, 22 March 2010, 17:40 IST
New York: Marvell has announced a bold new education initiative to deliver a high performance mobile tablet based on its silicon platform. For about $99, Marvell's Moby tablet prototype promises to change the way students learn by delivering an always-on. Marvell's Moby tablet could eliminate the need for students to buy and carry bound textbooks and an array of other tools.
Powered by high-performance, highly scalable, and low-power Marvell ARMADA 600 series of application processors, the Moby tablet features gigahertz-class processor speed, 1080p full-HD encode and decode, intelligent power management, power-efficient Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM/GPS connectivity, high performance 3D graphics capability and support for multiple software standards including full Adobe Flash, Android and Windows Mobile. The ultra low power Moby tablet is designed for long-battery life.
Announcing the initiative this week during her keynote speech to the country's leading publishers at the Future of Publishing conference in New York City, Marvell Co-founder Weili Dai said that the Moby tablet is a technology whose time had come. "Education is the most pressing social and economic issue facing our country and our times. I believe the Marvell Moby tablet can ignite a life-long passion for learning in all students everywhere. Marvell's goal is to fundamentally improve the way students learn by giving them more efficient, relevant - even fun tools to use. Marvell's Moby tablet recognizes that every student learns differently and so it delivers an array of media choices for different learning styles," said Weili Dai, Marvell's Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell Semiconductor's Consumer and Computing Business Unit.
"Marvell can help propel education into the 21st century with an all-in-one device that gives students access to the best live content, information and resources the world has to offer - from books and online sources, in text, video, news, music, data expression or any medium. With Moby tablet, students can conduct primary research, reach out directly to the world's leading subject experts and even collaborate with one another around the globe. Best of all, the device is highly affordable. I envision Marvell's Moby tablets to benefit all students around the world," Dai said.
Besides providing a superior learning tool, Marvell's Dai said the Moby tablet addresses three important issues today:
Printed textbooks are not current: Many textbooks are already outdated or obsolete by the time they leave the publishers' loading docks and they are expected to be used for many years. According to a study by the New York Library Association, the average book in New York public school libraries is between 21 to 25 years old. Electronic versions of textbooks on Marvell's Moby tablet can be continuously updated and refreshed.
The rising cost of textbooks: According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the average cost of a single textbook for even secondary school students can range from $60 to $200. And textbook costs are spiraling. In California, the state auditor reported that school book prices have skyrocketed 30 percent in four years. At the university level, according to the GAO, the average estimated cost of books and supplies for a first-time, full-time college student in 2003-04 was $898 at four-year public institutions. Downloadable electronic versions of textbooks for Marvell's Moby tablet could sell for a fraction of the bound versions.
School bags are too heavy for students: Studies conducted around the world show that students today are carrying too much weight - often in excess of 15 percent of their body weight in school books and supplies. One study of Californian high schools showed that the average weight of a physics textbook is 4.8 pounds. According to the American Academy of Orthopedics, neck and shoulder injuries from overweight backpacks have become among the fastest-growing health concerns for the world's children.
Actual size and weight vary by configuration, but Marvell's ultra thin and light Moby tablet is expected to hold a full year's worth of books but weigh less than half of one typical textbook.