While India has been working on a Simputer, a low cost portable alternative to PCs that can bridge the digital divide, Africa has come up with the idea of a Solo computer, which can beat the heat, dust and erratic power supply in rural areas.
The Solo computer, devised by the Fantsuam Foundation of Nigeria, comes in wooden boxes and contains no spinning disks that can get clogged in dust and crash in high temperatures. It consumes a fraction of power required by other computers.
Fantsuam Foundation's John Dada, who is behind the project, said: "The name was chosen for a number of different reasons.
The computer can be used on its own, without being connected to an electrical grid or supply. So it is used 'solo', meaning 'alone'. It also uses very little energy. Solo sounds like 'so low'."
Kafanchan, a remote region in northern Nigeria where the Fantsuam project is based, is an unlikely place for a digital renaissance, but it recently attracted the attention of the global media.
The non-profit foundation came up with the idea to develop these computers after the refurbished computers it had imported for non-profit groups in Nigeria fell victim to heat, dust and the unreliable power supply.
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