Intel has joined the board of the One Laptop per Child project.

The project and chipmaker will "bring the benefits of technology to the developing world through synergy of their respective programs", whatever that may mean.

Intel and OLPC have been in a war of words since the early days. Soon after OLPC chaiman Nicolas Negroponte unveiled his laptop project, Intel pieced together the Eduwise notebook computer. Where the first is intended as a revolutionary education tool that happens to be a notebook computer powered by AMD, Intel's is a cheap notebook computer that happens to come from the world's biggest chip maker.

16 Jul 2007

If there is a grand educational vision behind Intel's design, the company has hidden it very well. OLPC seems to have done the same with any paying customers for OLPC, which has missed its original shipping deadline.

Intel no doubt wants to see its chips in the OLPC. But even without an Intel OLPC, the chipmaker should expect that it will gain its fair share of the developing world market when graduating OLPC students upgrade to real computers.

More importantly, OLPC needs Intel's relations with distributors and Intel needs OLPC's technical innovations. Everybody wins here. Well, maybe except Microsoft.