As Nicholas Negroponte stormed the developing world trying to drum up buyers for the innovative $175 computers designed by his One Laptop Per Child education nonprofit, he encountered a persistent obstacle: competition from Intel Corp.
Intel's chairman, Craig Barrett, had derided Negroponte's machines as mere gadgets. And Intel was signing up international governments for its own little ''Classmate'' PCs, which follow more conventional computing designs than One Laptop Per Child's radically rethought ''XO'' computers.
Negroponte was suspicious of Intel's motives, since the XO runs on processors from Intel's fiercest rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Negroponte said Intel had hurt his mission and ''should be ashamed of itself.''
But in recent weeks, Negroponte and Intel CEO Paul Otellini began peace talks, culminating in a face-to-face meeting Thursday at Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif. And on Friday, the two sides said they had joined forces: Intel will join One Laptop Per Child's board and contribute money and technical expertise to the project.
Intel will continue to sell the Classmate, which has fallen in price from about $400 to the low $200s, attracting buyers in Pakistan, Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria, according to spokeswoman Agnes Kwan. And One Laptop Per Child still hopes its machines reach schools in several countries this fall.
But now, Intel and One Laptop Per Child might seek ways to package their computers together. For example, Intel's Classmate, which has to be plugged in, might be an option for governments to deploy in urban schools, while the XO laptops, which use very little power and can be mechanically recharged by hand, could go into rural districts.
''There are an awful lot of educational scenarios between K and 12,'' said William Swope, Intel's director of corporate affairs. ''We don't think all those are going to be served by any one form factor, by any one technology, by any one product.''
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