3 ms·

As someone who's integrated several SOCs, SOMs, COMs, and SBCs, I promise the only special part about this is that it's x86. Pentium class power has been availa

As someone who's integrated several SOCs, SOMs, COMs, and SBCs, I promise the only special part about this is that it's x86. Pentium class power has been available in these kinds of form factors for quite a while. Further, the OP doesn't really say anything about ports, or availability, and forget about "ports," really. The real difficulty with these is power management. PMICs are getting nice and small, and I'm betting there are a few LDOs on board for generating core voltages, but otherwise all of the real power management will be off board as there isn't much room for inductors on an SD form factor board. $20 says this is just a cute reference implementation to give to their field application engineers so they can get the OEMs jazzed about Quark. [Edit: The fact that this is an SD form factor is extra fodder for this argument. This thing doesn't go into an SD card slot, or speak SD, but because SD is something everyone thinks of as "tiny but huge," some marketer somewhere said "make it the size/shape of an SD." For example, the last SOM I integrated (for a computer vision application, built around a 466MHz ARM9 SOC) was of similar size, but of much more useful shape.]

nl 13y ago
$20 says this is just a cute reference implementation to give to their field application engineers so they can get the OEMs jazzed about Quark. I fear you are correct. But Intel does seem to be attempting to build RaspberryPi competitors[1][2], so maybe this will be in the same line rather than an engineering sample which you can't actually buy. [1] http://makezine.com/2013/10/03/10-great-intel-galileo-features/ http://makezine.com/2013/10/03/10-great-intel-galileo-featur... [2] http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2298580/intel-unveils-quark-based-galileo-computer-to-rival-raspberry-pi http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2298580/intel-unveils-quark-b...
- benjamincburns 13y ago
  Intel is silicon company. They are myopically focused on this, and this alone. They feed the OEMs and for the most part, try not to step on their toes. Intel will never, ever build something to compete with RPi because that's not where Intel plays. Intel might build something to compete with the Broadcom chips which power the RPi, but honestly I think the revenue stream of the entire hobbyist/educational market combined is just barely a blip on Intel's radar. They like the margins, but the volume just isn't there. All that said, that doesn't mean that Intel's technical marketing departments aren't taking risks in areas such as the hobbyist market. Companies as large as Intel are often quite good at this. However, I wouldn't trust the longevity (and therefore future) of anything out of Intel that isn't a high volume silicon product line.
  - nl 13y ago
    Intel is silicon company. They are myopically focused on this, and this alone. They feed the OEMs and for the most part, try not to step on their toes. Intel will never, ever build something to compete with RPi because that's not where Intel plays. Counterexample: Intel NUC[1]. It's targeted at consumers, and you can actually buy it. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Unit_of_Computing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Unit_of_Computing
    - benjamincburns 13y ago
      Sure, there are plenty of such counter examples, but I'd bet my left shoe that each of them draws from some marketing budget or equivalent. Think of those as start-ups within the larger organization: they're risky, transient, and haven't gained acceptance to be a complete part of the whole yet.

nl 13y ago

$20 says this is just a cute reference implementation to give to their field application engineers so they can get the OEMs jazzed about Quark. I fear you are correct. But Intel does seem to be attempting to build RaspberryPi competitors[1][2], so maybe this will be in the same line rather than an engineering sample which you can't actually buy. [1] http://makezine.com/2013/10/03/10-great-intel-galileo-features/ http://makezine.com/2013/10/03/10-great-intel-galileo-featur... [2] http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2298580/intel-unveils-quark-based-galileo-computer-to-rival-raspberry-pi http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2298580/intel-unveils-quark-b...

benjamincburns 13y ago
Intel is silicon company. They are myopically focused on this, and this alone. They feed the OEMs and for the most part, try not to step on their toes. Intel will never, ever build something to compete with RPi because that's not where Intel plays. Intel might build something to compete with the Broadcom chips which power the RPi, but honestly I think the revenue stream of the entire hobbyist/educational market combined is just barely a blip on Intel's radar. They like the margins, but the volume just isn't there. All that said, that doesn't mean that Intel's technical marketing departments aren't taking risks in areas such as the hobbyist market. Companies as large as Intel are often quite good at this. However, I wouldn't trust the longevity (and therefore future) of anything out of Intel that isn't a high volume silicon product line.
- nl 13y ago
  Intel is silicon company. They are myopically focused on this, and this alone. They feed the OEMs and for the most part, try not to step on their toes. Intel will never, ever build something to compete with RPi because that's not where Intel plays. Counterexample: Intel NUC[1]. It's targeted at consumers, and you can actually buy it. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Unit_of_Computing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Unit_of_Computing
  - benjamincburns 13y ago
    Sure, there are plenty of such counter examples, but I'd bet my left shoe that each of them draws from some marketing budget or equivalent. Think of those as start-ups within the larger organization: they're risky, transient, and haven't gained acceptance to be a complete part of the whole yet.