Nicholas Negroponte, founder of non-profit initiative of the One Laptop Per Child project (OLPC), which is to sell low-cost laptops to developing countries, has accused Intel Corp. of trying to undermine the project by selling its own machines in the same markets, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
Responding to Intel's announcement Thursday that it was severing ties with the OLPC, Negroponte said Intel has "been doing damage in the marketplace with countries since the day we started" and "after we made peace with them, they did more damage."
The two sides had been feuding over Intel's aggressive marketing of the Classmate, a low-cost laptop of its own design. The OLPC machine, called the XO, uses a microprocessor from Intel's chief competitor, Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
A Peruvian government official said that after the country recently agreed to buy 272,500 OLPC laptops for primary-school students, an Intel sales representative tried "to scare us" by claiming the machines and their power adapters failed to work, according to the report.
Intel agreed to join the OLPC project in July last year, paying6 million U.S. dollars and promising to contribute another 12 million dollars.
As a result of the split, the OLPC will not receive any additional contributions from Intel, said the report.
Source:Xinhua
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