Intel Donates 900 Laptops to Ministry of Education
The international computer component-manufacturer Intel has donated 900 of its lightweight laptop computers to the Ministry of Public Education to further the ministry’s drive to make this country’s youngest generation computer literate as fast as is economically possible. Each $300 Classmate comes with two gigabytes of memory and contains a 900 megahertz processor.
Intel has a large microchip plant in Costa Rica and the donation coincides with the visit of board of directors Chairman Craig R. Barrett to this country, where he visited classrooms already equipped with computers.
In an interview with the daily newspaper La Nacion, Barrett reviewed his 33 years in the computer field. When he first began, he related, the “new technology break-through,” transistors, could be viewed with the naked eye. Then, as chips miniaturized, an optical microscope was necessary. Today, an electron microscope is needed. “Soon,” he said, “You can carry the Internet in your pocket.”
Currently, the private Omar Dengo Foundation is working with the Ministry of Education to place a computer at the disposal of every school child in the country. Barrett related that Intel has already been working with the Foundation, which as directed its attentions toward training the teachers in computer skills.