[Olpc-za] Intel Quits One Laptop Per Child Program

[Joris Goudriaan]

ooh well...

http://www.physorg.com/news118637835.html

Citing disagreements with the organization, Intel Corp. said Thursday it
has abandoned the One Laptop Per Child program, dealing a big blow to
the ambitious project seeking to bring millions of low-cost laptops to
children in developing countries.

The fallout ends a long-simmering spat that began even before the Santa
Clara-based chipmaker joined the OLPC board in July, agreeing to
contribute money and technical expertise. It also comes only a few days
before the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where a prototype of
an OLPC-designed laptop using an Intel chip was slated to debut.

Intel decided to quit the nonprofit project and the OLPC board because
the two reached a "philosophical impasse," Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy
said. Meanwhile, Intel will continue with its own inexpensive laptop
design called the Classmate, which it is marketing in some of the same
emerging markets OLPC has targeted.

Both sides shared the objective of providing children around the world
with the use of new technology, "but OLPC had asked Intel to end our
support for non-OLPC platforms, including the Classmate PC, and to focus
on the OLPC platform exclusively," Mulloy said. "At the end of the day,
we decided we couldn't accommodate that request."

A spokesman for OLPC did not immediately return a request for comment.

The One Laptop program was founded in 2005 by Nicholas Negroponte,
former Media Lab director at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The original concept was to offer a "$100 laptop," but the
green-and-white low-power "XO" computer now costs $188. It runs on a
Linux operating system and a chip made by Intel rival Advanced Micro
Devices Inc.

Negroponte told The Associated Press last fall that until OLPC had a
machine using an Intel chip, he could understand why Intel wouldn't want
to push an AMD machine to customers.

Mulloy said the use of AMD chips in the OLPC machines had nothing to do
with Intel's decision to withdraw.

Intel believed all along that there is a need for multiple alternatives
to meet the needs of children in poor countries, he said.

"It's unfortunate this happened, but at some point, you have to make a
tough decision," he said.