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Interesting to see it announced with Linux and Android support. If this doesn't signal a shift from a Microsoft-oriented (Intel) world to a new era, I don't kn

Interesting to see it announced with Linux and Android support. If this doesn't signal a shift from a Microsoft-oriented (Intel) world to a new era, I don't know what does.

tdicola 13y ago
I think people are trying to read too much into this device. This is one of many small board computers you can buy today, many of which particularly in the industrial market have x86 processors. If this sells a few hundred thousand boards like the Beaglebone Black it will be a smashing success. This isn't a statement about Intel moving away from MS.
exelius 13y ago
I think it signals diversification for Intel; not necessarily a shift away from Windows. Running Windows on ultra-low-end boards like this makes no sense; the license would cost more than the board itself and the board isn't powerful enough to run anything approximating a modern version of Windows. It's an order of magnitude slower than your cell phone. Ultimately though, the x86 PC (aka Windows) market is not a significant growth market for Intel. They'll keep pumping money into it as long as they get their 3-5% growth, but if Intel wants to move the needle for the company, they need to find new markets.
- mark-r 13y ago
  > It's an order of magnitude slower than your cell phone. Really? I'd like to see some evidence of that. I'd assumed they were roughly the same ballpark.
  - exelius 13y ago
    The base $99 model is a single core 1.4 gHz E3815. The graphics core is significantly slower than a cell phone SoC as well. Intel is not an inferior company or anything; just this product at this price point is slower than a 3 year old cell phone.
sireat 13y ago
I do wonder what would it take to run Windows (oh perhaps XP) on Minnowboard. The drivers would be the biggest issue. Licence cost would not be that bad(MSFT was charging $15 per licence to netbook vendors a while back).
TD-Linux 13y ago
This shift happened a long time ago. Intel has been by far the best supporter of Linux of any SoC / processor vendor, with first party support of open source drivers for their wifi and GPUs. They patch the kernel to support their devices far ahead of their actual release. They have been pushing their own Linux based OSes (Meego, Tizen) for a while (without success).

Interesting to see it announced with Linux and Android support. If this doesn't signal a shift from a Microsoft-oriented (Intel) world to a new era, I don't know what does.

tdicola 13y ago

I think people are trying to read too much into this device. This is one of many small board computers you can buy today, many of which particularly in the industrial market have x86 processors. If this sells a few hundred thousand boards like the Beaglebone Black it will be a smashing success. This isn't a statement about Intel moving away from MS.

exelius 13y ago

I think it signals diversification for Intel; not necessarily a shift away from Windows. Running Windows on ultra-low-end boards like this makes no sense; the license would cost more than the board itself and the board isn't powerful enough to run anything approximating a modern version of Windows. It's an order of magnitude slower than your cell phone. Ultimately though, the x86 PC (aka Windows) market is not a significant growth market for Intel. They'll keep pumping money into it as long as they get their 3-5% growth, but if Intel wants to move the needle for the company, they need to find new markets.

mark-r 13y ago
> It's an order of magnitude slower than your cell phone. Really? I'd like to see some evidence of that. I'd assumed they were roughly the same ballpark.
- exelius 13y ago
  The base $99 model is a single core 1.4 gHz E3815. The graphics core is significantly slower than a cell phone SoC as well. Intel is not an inferior company or anything; just this product at this price point is slower than a 3 year old cell phone.

sireat 13y ago

I do wonder what would it take to run Windows (oh perhaps XP) on Minnowboard. The drivers would be the biggest issue. Licence cost would not be that bad(MSFT was charging $15 per licence to netbook vendors a while back).

TD-Linux 13y ago

This shift happened a long time ago. Intel has been by far the best supporter of Linux of any SoC / processor vendor, with first party support of open source drivers for their wifi and GPUs. They patch the kernel to support their devices far ahead of their actual release. They have been pushing their own Linux based OSes (Meego, Tizen) for a while (without success).