The rocky relationship between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child project has come to an end. The news come just six months after Intel and OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte agreed to settle their differences and join forces in their goal to provide children in the developing world with access to $100 laptops.
Although OLPC's XO machines shipping now are based on AMD chips, a future version of the laptop based on Intel processors was in the works. The breakup, according to Intel, came after Negroponte asked the chipmaker to stop selling its Classmate PC - a machine aimed at the same market as the XO laptop - while it was part of the OLPC.
Obviously, that was a mistake. The OLPC had much more to gain by keeping Intel on the board than Intel did in joining the project. But according to OLPC president Walter Bender, relations broke down because of "a complete lack of cooperation by Intel on software, learning etc." All in all, the lack of cooperation between the two does not bode well for the future success of the XO laptop.