Intel drops out of One Laptop per Child program in a dispute

Intel Corp. dropped support for a foundation working to provide inexpensive laptops to the developing world because the group would endorse only one model of computer.

The world’s largest chip maker reached a “philosophical impasse” with the One Laptop per Child foundation and founder Nicholas Negroponte, who had asked the company to support exclusively the group’s XO laptop, Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said Thursday.

The XO is built around a chip made by Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel’s chief competitor, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. One Laptop per Child aims to sell the XO for $100.

Intel joined the group’s board in July, teaming up with former critic Negroponte. He had accused the company of trying to put his program out of business by developing a similar laptop called the Classmate PC.

“Intel doesn’t do the exclusive thing. Their view, and it’s a smart view, is they have to be free to go where the market is,” said research analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in San Jose.