Intel: doing the dirty on OLPC
p2pnet news | Freedom:- Intel’s agreement with the OLPC Foundation included a ‘non disparagement’ clause, under which Intel and One Laptop promised not to criticize each other, according to Nicholas Negroponte in the latest article in the Wall Street Journal.
Still Intel tactics have violated that repeatedly to kill OLPC efforts in Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan, India, China and Intel is also still trying to pull those tactics in Mexico, Brazil.
This is simply disgracefull of Intel, scandalous.
But Negroponte has signed an agreement saying that he is not allowed to criticize Intel, so he is not allowed to talk about these shameless tactics even though Intel is the one violating the agreement.
So only independent voices on the Internet can get those messages of truth out about Intel’s tactics.
In Nigeria, Intel came and donated 3000 laptops to counter OLPC efforts, then sells 17 thousand Classmates to Nigeria at a loss.
Then Microsoft corrupted Nigerian officials with 400 thousand dollars to install Windows XP on those instead of Mandriva Linux.
Anyway, the next step will be that Intel is investing hundreds of millions to develop the Diamondville x86 processor that is the Intel version of a fanless, low cost, low power processor, and alternative to the AMD Geode.
So the next step is there will have to be an Intel powered XO laptop ready for mass production. Otherwise it simply seems Intel will not allow OLPC to start the mass production. So possibly some deal will be done between OLPC, Intel and AMD, so that 50% be built with AMD processors and 50% with Intel processors. Hopefully Intel executives will let it mass produce and mass distribute with that sort of agreement.
Thankfully CMO, Quanta, AMD and all others involved have accepted to delay the up ramping of mass production, they are complying to Intel’s shameless behavior of delaying the OLPC project, since only 300 thousand AMD powered OLPC XO laptops are being produced in the first few months in Quanta’s factories. But at any time in the beginning of next year, mass production could reach a volume of over a million laptops per month.
The questions are:
- Will Intel allow OLPC to start ramping up mass production to its maximum production capacity of exclusively the AMD powered version even though the Intel Diamondville integration might not be completely ready before the middle to second half of next year?
- Will Intel agree to stop selling its inferior and more expensive ULV powered Classmate PC?
- Will Intel tell Asus to stop marketing the current ULV powered version of the Asus Eee as an OLPC competitor?
Charbax - Charbax Blog
[Charbax studies at the multimedia and film school in Copenhagen, Denmark. "I travel the world to events, to consumer electronics trade shows, to film festivals, to sport events," he says. "I film it all and I've been putting terrabytes of videos on the Internet for several years. It’s got to be my favorite occupation. I believe video on the Internet is the next best thing to actually being there. So I will be working lots on putting lots maybe even all videos on the Internet. When that happens, the goal will be reached. Then evolution will be perfect."]
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November 26th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Twice, no less!
November 26th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Stop trying to publish your distorted view of the world as the truth..
How is Intel preventing the ramp up? These are pure execution issues that were ridiculously underestimated by OLPC (Estimating 100$ without doing proper cost analysis is not an intel flaw).. Hopefully Intel can help correct this..
Based on what r u saying that the Intel Classmate PC is inferior? most benchmarks contradict your opinion and in fact is a primary reason OLPC is losing some of these deals..Bottomline is that in the name of “charity” u just cant offload inferior products like the underperforming geode.
Why the hell should Eee be taken off the market..It is an exceptional low priced product and does not compete with OLPC in any way. I for one dont wnat to crank away to get my cheap laptop working.
November 26th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
I am NOT saying Eee should be taken off the market, it’s a very good commercial laptop. And if Asus reallz wants to mass produce that until they have got the Diamondville processor then that is great.
BUT Eee is not suited for school kids in any of developping nations or developped nations. So Asus tactics in regard of competing against OLPC is shameless behaviour. Such as the Asus deal in Russia smells of corruption or something like it. The whole way Eee was launched and has been marketed is to be a competitor to OLPC which it simply is not.
Classmate and Eee are very much inferior in following areas:
- Software, interfaces, design not suited for kids.
- Power consumption 5-10 times higher then the OLPC XO
- Battery recharge cycles 4 times less than OLPC XO
- Wireless is much less usables since it is not Meshed and does not function independantly from the main processor
- Screen is unusuable in sunlight thus more than half of the worlds school kids the Classmate/Eee is useless cause they do not use indoor lighting but work and study in sunlight
- Screen is unusuable for reading ebooks
- Screen is smaller and much more expensive to manufacture
- Screen backlight is expensive and difficult to repair, while XO backlight is cheap and can be changed by a kid if it breaks
- OLPC XO uses a much more optimized and simplified hardware platform which is half the price of Classmate and Eee
- DCON chip which means that the XO laptop can function without the need of using the main CPU when nothing is happening on the screen
- XO has much better wireless range which is crucial for more than half the worlds population if they want to have Internet at home.
December 19th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Mate you are full of it… full of nonsense that is…
- Software, interfaces, design not suited for kids.
Prove it. There is no proof that Sugar is better than traditional UIs for children.
For every story you raise in this area, I can counter with many parents (myself included) that have 5 yr olds capable of navigating traditional desktops UIs with ease.
- Power consumption 5-10 times higher then the OLPC XO
Prove it. We are still yet to see this in action. The last tests we saw published on the web in Peru had the Classmates beating OLPCs.
- Battery recharge cycles 4 times less than OLPC XO
Nothing stopping Intel from adopting the same battery technology as OLPC.
We heard they already had.
- Wireless is much less usables since it is not Meshed and does not function independantly from the main processor
You obviously have no clue about Mesh networking. Current Mesh routing protocols are not scalable.
But having said that, Intel is already offering standards based IEEE 802.11s based mesh using the most recently released .11s spec and has claimed they will be following the spec as it evolves. OLPC Mesh is based upon an outdated .11s spec and does not and will not conform to the standards.
- Screen is unusuable in sunlight thus more than half of the worlds school kids the Classmate/Eee is useless cause they do not use indoor lighting but work and study in sunlight
Again, you’ve not visited half the worlds kids. Intel is not targeting those kids that have classes under trees.
Majority of kids, like in Brazil, India, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Russia, Mexico, Peru etc have classes inside and this is not an issue.
- Screen is unusuable for reading ebooks
Nonsense. Have you tried it? Its quite readable and very clear.
Having both devices and having also used both for long periods of time… I also like them both very much, Im affraid you are really full of crap!
- Screen is smaller and much more expensive to manufacture
Screen is industry standard as used for portable dvd players etc. So its easy to replace and obtain.
- Screen backlight is expensive and difficult to repair, while XO backlight is cheap and can be changed by a kid if it breaks
Thats a good one. How? Dont XO’s come with crappy LEDs that havent passed the grade?
At anyrate, the display on the OLPC is a great advance unfortunately the tech is not easily available to others…
- OLPC XO uses a much more optimized and simplified hardware platform which is half the price of Classmate and Eee
Yes it does. OLPC folks have truely done a fantastic job of this…
But its also alot slower and because of this its suffered.
Classmate seems to be supporting many different Linux distros and (yugghhh) Windows XP. But for some folks this is important.
- DCON chip which means that the XO laptop can function without the need of using the main CPU when nothing is happening on the screen
Yep. This combined with the XO display is great. Finally you are making some sense…
- XO has much better wireless range which is crucial for more than half the worlds population if they want to have Internet at home.
Promises… Promises… kind of like Nicholas’s misleading comments about Mesh bridging the communication divide and allowing network to be created for the people and by the people… blah blah…
This long range testing is nonsense and not at all usable. Folks doing tests on the ground in Brazil have shown this is not really true/Praccurate.
First long range in terms of line of site is one thing, but then you need to worry about Fresnel zones and other line of site factors. Through buildings (with large amounts of brick and cement) the distance is not so good.
Charbax, stop being such a fan boy…