Intel strikes truce with One Laptop Per Child project
updated 11:40 am EDT, Fri July 13, 2007
Intel Joins OLPC Project
Intel today announced that it will join the One Laptop Per Child project, ending a recent but increasingly difficult feud with its MIT-born rival. The chipmaker has joined the board of directors for OLPC efforts and said it will collaborate to help create future versions of the sub-$200 student PC, which could include Intel hardware as well as educational content for the machines. Current versions of the OLPC use AMD's 433MHz Geode processor and have frequently come into conflict with Intel's Classmate PC when trying to win contracts to ship hundreds of thousands of systems to countries such as Pakistan, which chose Intel's design.
No changes to the existing design are expected in the immediate future due in part to its cost, which rose from the targeted $100 to $175 and is expected to remain static in features until 2009, when it should reach the originally intended $100 figure. OLPC developers have also recently denied rumors a possible switch to Windows from Linux that had followed news of the price change.
