Intel pulls out of OLPC project

gallery

Intel has pulled out of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) development project, citing "philosophical" differences.

The chipmaker has withdrawn its funding and technical support from the project that is aimed at improving the education opportunities for children in developing nations by providing a wind-up laptop that was originally intended to cost no more than $100 (£50.71) per child.

"OLPC had asked Intel to end our support for non-OLPC platforms, including the Classmate PC, and to focus on the OLPC platform exclusively," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. "At the end of the day, we decided we couldn't accommodate that request."

The Classmate PC is Intel's own low-cost laptop, aimed at the same market as the OLPC project, which was launched in 2005 by founder Nicholas Negreponte, with the original corporate backing of AMD, News Corporation, Google and Red Hat.

They envisioned the low-cost, rugged, Linux-based operating system (OS) laptop and, just two months after going into mass production, Intel's withdrawal is seen as a blow to its hopes of being ordered in sufficient quantities by governments to create the economies of scale it needed to meet its price point.

Final versions of the laptop, trialled last year in Nigeria and Uruguay, have cost $188 (£95).

Although the OLPC had yet to issue any comment on Intel's withdrawal, the decision was not thought to involve any disagreement over the 'XO' laptop, as it has been named, using archrival AMD's chips.

Email to a friend

Print this page