The XO laptop, known as the $100 laptop, is set to go into mass production after long standing obstacles to the project were overcome.
The One Laptop Per Child initiative aims to put computers in the hands of poor children around the world.
The OLPC foundation plans to sell the laptops to government agencies around the world, requiring each country to buy hundreds of thousands of the devices, then give them to impoverished school children for free.
OLPC had said that over 3 million orders for the laptops were required in order to make the project viable.
The initiative received a major boost earlier this month when Intel decided to reverse its long-standing opposition to the proposal.
The world's biggest chipmaker had been marketing its own Classmate PC, a computer that competes with the foundation's XO laptop.
The two parties have now agreed to incorporate each other's technologies, and have said they would also consider collaborating on developing the laptop.
Intel has long been accused of undermining the project with its promotion of the Intel Classmate PC, which it distributes in smaller numbers, giving educators direct instruction in how to use the devices in their classrooms.
Intel will now join the OLPC board that includes News Corp, Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices, and Google, which is providing e-mail accounts and back-up services.
Also on the board is Red Hat Inc, which has developed computer programs for the device using the Linux operating system, while Microsoft is seeking to develop a version of Windows compatible with the XO.
The One Laptop Per Child project is the brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, the former chief of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab.
The XO laptop will operate with low-energy consumption technology, which allows it to be run on hand-crank-generated power.
Breakthroughs have also been made in developing a low-cost, high-resolution colour screen that can switch into a black-and-white so that it can be viewed in strong sunlight.
The so-called $100 laptop should eventually cost $178 (€128) and it is hoped the first models will be available in October 2007.
Protecting from pornography
The project hit a public relations snag this week when it was revealed that Nigerian schoolchildren were using pilot-programme OLPC laptops to surf pornographic sites on the Internet.
The official News Agency of Nigeria said its reporter had seen pornographic images stored on several of the children's laptops.
'Efforts to promote learning with laptops in a primary school in Abuja have gone awry as the pupils freely browse adult sites with explicit sexual materials,' NAN said.
A representative for OLPC said the computers would now be fitted with filters.
