A Step Back For OLPC- Intel Pulls Out

According to the Wall Street Journal, Intel has pulled out of the One Laptop Per Child partnership, citing disagreements with founder Negroponte.

“We’ve reached a philosophical impasse with OLPC,” Mr. Mulloy said. He added that Mr. Negroponte had demanded that Intel stop selling its own-designed laptop, known as the Classmate, in developing countries and stop supplying its chips to other laptops marketed to schoolchildren in those countries.

“We can’t accommodate that request,” Mr. Mulloy said.

This is unfortunate, however, AMD, which is the current supplier, is capable enough of handling the requirements here. It’s been really hard for OLPC to solidify orders for the low cost PC, and it needs more demand so it can scale to drive down costs. I believe part of the motivation for Negroponte to be the sole supplier of these low costs PCs stems from that.

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