Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of One Laptop Per Child program, has openly criticized Intel’s decision to pull put from program after only six months.

According to Negroponte, Intel has tried to undermine the project to undermine the project by selling its own machines in the same markets even after joining the project's board in July.

Today, Intel announced its split with OLPC, citing as the main reason the Negroponte’s desire that the chip-making company to stop selling its own low cost computer, The Classmate. The OLPC machine uses a microprocessor from Intel's chief competitor, Advanced Micro Devices, but a new version using an Intel chip had been set for an unveiling next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"We've reached a philosophical impasse with OLPC," Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy told the Wall Street Journal.

"They've been doing damage in the marketplace with countries since the day we started. And after we made peace with them, they did more damage,", Negroponte said in an interview for the Wall Street Journal.

Negroponte had planned to sell as many as 150 million of the 100- dollar-devises by the end of the year.

The "100$ notebook" or OLPC XO-1 is produced by Quanta Computers, who has a 33% market share of laptops world-wide. It contains an AMD LX-Geode CPU at 700 MHz and 256 MB of RAM. There is no hard disk, but a 1 GB flash memory. A dual-mode SVGA LCD screen (monochrome and color mode) helps saving power. It has a built-in wireless network interface and color camera. The XO has no moving parts, can be powered by solar, foot-pump or pull-string powered chargers and is housed in a waterproof case.

But though OLPC developed an innovative machine, the XO currently sells for $188 and has not succeeded in getting mass orders from governments.

Last year, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett dismissed the OLPC device as a "gadget". Shortly after, Nicholas Negroponte responded to Barrett’s claims and has criticized Intel for its attitude, saying that the company hurt his mission and "should be ashamed of itself."