Monday, 16 July 2007

Intel To Now Support USD 100 Laptop

After initially declining to be part of the USD 100 Laptop project, Intel Corp has finally succumbed to the allure of the project that aims to laptop in the hands of poor students in developing countries.

The world's biggest chipmaker, that also has its own version of low cost PC-Classmate PC, will join the board of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, which developed the XO laptop – a personal computer that it plans to put into production in September and sell for USD 176. The two parties said they would be able to incorporate each other's technologies, and would also consider collaborating on developing a laptop.

"We are going to have complementary product lines," said Intel Vice President Will Swope.

Both Intel and the foundation said they had yet to address whether the chipmaker would be able to commercialise the XO's display and power management capabilities, which use what industry analysts widely regard as breakthrough technologies.

The One Laptop Per Child project is the brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, the former chief of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab.