Monday, 7 January 2008

Intel Pulls Out of One Laptop Project

Intel made a surprising announcement last Friday stating that it has decided to withdraw from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project that it was previously supporting with funds and technical help, citing “philosophical” differences.

OLPC, whose goal is to materialize an inexpensive laptop computer—costing no more than USD100--intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world, providing them with access to knowledge, and opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves, sees the chip makers departure as a big blow.

Reasons for the departure have ranged from Intel expressing its displeasure at the OLPC organisation for apparently asking it to stop supporting rival low-cost laptops to wanting to concentrate more on its own economical laptop version, the Classmate, which is being touted in many of the same areas as the OLPC.

The Santa Clara, California, US based Intel joined the OLPC in July 2007, expecting to work on a version of the laptop that will use its chips.

The first version of the OLPC laptops is now powered with AMD, better known as Intel’s competitor.