Negroponte hits out at Intel

Chipmaker violated its written agreement with One Laptop Per Child programme, claims founder

OLPC aims to provide $100 (£50) laptops for kids in developing countries

Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), has accused Intel of "violating its written agreement several times" after the chip maker dropped out of the project last week.

Intel left the OLPC programme - which aims to develop a $100 system for distribution in the developing world - after the board demanded the firm commit more resources and not focus on its own rival Classmate PC.

Negroponte claims Intel contributed nothing to the development of OLPC's XO laptop - despite a written agreement.

"Over the entire six months that it was a member of the board, Intel contributed nothing to OLPC," he said. "Intel never contributed in any way to our engineering efforts and failed to provide even a single line of code to the XO software."

Last year OLPC accused Intel of promoting its own Classmate PC over the OLPC model in key developing countries.

Intel is unwilling to sacrifice any of its market share for a good cause, according to Negroponte.

"We view the children as a mission; Intel views them as a market - we will continue to focus on our mission of providing every child with an opportunity for learning," he said.