Quanta to build the $100 laptop

Quanta Taiwan's biggest manufacturer of notebooks in the world, has signed on to the $100 laptop project. The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization, which hopes to bring a $100 laptop championed by MIT's Nicholas Negroponte, has selected Quanta to manufacture products, but also participate substantially in the final design.

The signing of Quanta isn't an entire surprise. Earlier this year, MIT and the company signed a five-year, $20 million research pact. Still, lining up one of the world's major contract manufacturers further demonstrates the feasibility of the project, according to backers.

"Any previous doubt that a very-low-cost laptop could be made for education in the developing world has just gone away," Negroponte said in a statement.