Intel Resigns from One Laptop Per Child Project

theodp writes "Reportedly angered by the One Laptop Per Child project's demand that it curtail work on its Classmate PC and other cheap laptops, Intel has resigned from the project's board and canceled plans for an Intel-based OLPC laptop. Intel's withdrawal from the project comes less than six months after the chip-making giant earned kudos for agreeing to contribute funding and join the board of OLPC. It's the latest blow to the OLPC, whose CTO quit earlier this week to launch a for-profit company to commercialize her OLPC inventions."

Comments

her inventions

[dominux]

yes, she will. She helped develop new innovations and bring the project from drawing board to production. Her job is done. Now someone else will manage the continuing development of the product as it moves from technology transfer to mass production.

Re:Really a blow?

[ByOhTek]

Win tel?

OLPC has always been a Linux offering I thought. There is no Windows about it it, and that's what MS has been whining about.

Collectors items

[mrjb]

They are rapidly becoming collectors items. On Ebay they're already selling for over $400. For ONE unit, that is.
Great business model.

1. Buy two laptops for $200
2. Give one to charity
3. Sell the other one for $400
4. Profit!

Re:Collectors items

[shirai]

Interesting, except that it's one laptop for $200 and two laptops for $400.

You can still profit but its more like:

1. Buy two laptops for $400
2. Give one to charity
3. Sell one for $400
4. Break even on cash
5. Get a $200 charity tax receipt

Your net up is a tax receipt which has value which varies depending on how much you pay in taxes.

I have one of these...

[hajo]

Was one of the first to get one. Comments:
It is low powered; booting up takes a while; loading rpograms takes a while. Once up and running it's fine.
I don't like the window manager; The frame that pops up is annoying. I would do a skinny drop down of running apps when hitting the top-left corner, a list of available apps at top right corner etc... or something like that
I HATE the journal as a file manager. This is the first 'activity' that needs to be replaced.
The programming games are fun. My kids LOVE the logo like activity the best.
Some of the software doesn't play well together.
The documentation that comes with it is dramatically subpar. You really need to go to their faq to make any use of the machine. One of the issues with that is that some of the faq info (particularly abvout commecting to a network is not available to you before you are online...)
(At least include a pdf with the latest version of the wiki and faq on it.)
The battery life is very good. (This is before an expected update of the system software; particularly power saving features) early 2008)
It is rugged; wifi reception is better than my Macbbok pro. Too bad you can't connect a cantenna easily that way one of these could bridge a few miles and the rest of the laptops could mesh network with it.
I bought the laptop to do some good and mess around with it.
I'll probably use this laptop on my boat (Will compare it to my toughbook; It's definitely a lot lighter!)
Over all I think it's a success.

Hajo

Re:Screw Intel. They need to be ARM Based.

[LuxuryYacht]

The problem with the PXA versions of the ARM based SOC's has been proprietary and/or binary only libraries. Linux runs on the core cpu but you run into a wall when you need to get multimedia codecs or 2d/3d graphics support working at any usable rate.

RMI Mips based (formerly AMD/Alechemy) SOC's http://www.razamicroelectronics.com/products_alchemy/ are more open when it comes to multimedia and Linux support.

3DLabs has some multicore ARM mutimedia 2D/3D SOC's http://www.3dlabs.com/content/mediaProcessor.asp . But they don't open the tools and libraries to develop codecs.

Freescale also has their i.MX line of ARM media SOC's http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/taxonomy.jsp?nodeId=0162468rH311432973ZrDR

Debian/Linux and UBoot support is available for the cores for many ARM SOC's but the problem has always been open source with the multimedia and graphics acceleration portions of the designs.

Re:Commercial sale risks alliance falling apart

[rbanffy]

"They don't even need to sell the entire thing. Something as simple as selling developed components or licensing tech that could in effect pay for the distribution of the laptops to the target audience would be both beneficial and attract the type of participation that could make it a reality."

That's what going to happen with the screen http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/1324240. AMD sells the processor, Marvell sells all the wireless components and there are literally dozens of manual chargers for phones. All components of the OLPC are readily available if you want to build, say, a thousand of them and many are available in stores.

You complain nobody is making a cheap $200 notebook. There is the EeePC from ASUS, which does not employ XO's cool display, but has a better keyboard. If sales are strong, they have proved a market exists for cheap ultraportable notebooks.

Have some patience. Someone is bound to pursue that market.

Re:FPFPFPFP

[puto]

Different world view, cannot blame you for it, just you were fortunate to grow up in the US.

I grew up in the US, but have a Colombian father and was privileged enough to live there as an adult for 5 years, so see how the other side lives.

Priveleged in the sense I got to live and work for pesos, no credit cards, cold showers in the Andes, etc. It changed my life.

Sex between adults and teens is very common and excepted in other countries. I know in Colombia when I was a 30 year old college professor, i could have dated 16 year old girls without too much trouble, parents would encourage it. They saw stability in an older, employed person, rather than a young rake, so to speak.

If you ever read missionary works about Africa, particularly Paul Theroux, you will realize most missionary and peace corp people do get it on with the local people.

And I am not only talking about the visiting teachers, but the native ones as well. It is a cultural thing, and they are are very different culturally than we are.

I would reccomend to anyone that things that thinks are "not THAT different" in Africa(or other countries) to truly vistit them for more than a vacation.

Africa is poverty stricken and a wild and wooly country. If the teacher is the guy with a few coins in his pocket to pay you for sex, to in turn feed your family, then you fuck the teacher.

Culturally, it could be an honor to bang the wise man.

And of course since AIDS is rampany in Africa, I think the numbers are valid.

And if you count no shoes, living in huts, abject poverty, and disease as not different than what we have here, you need to take a leave of abscence and see the rest of the world, not Amsterdam.