7 ms·

Very interesting! The picture is kind of confusing though, it took me a minute to realize that the picture was of an "expansion board" with the module installed

Very interesting! The picture is kind of confusing though, it took me a minute to realize that the picture was of an "expansion board" with the module installed (in the lower left hand corner). I like what I see though, they have packed quite a bit of processing power into the tiny package. Good amounts of memory too. And I really like the built in WiFi/bluetooth. Looks like it could be a good option for making connected devices with. The only problem is transitioning from prototype to production with Intels current business model. This video does a good job to show off the Edison on it's own, for anyone interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GY8kaaFzbTE https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GY8k...

MrBuddyCasino 12y ago
Its definitely a lot better than the Galileo - Intel was pretty liberal giving them away for free, yet still nobody used them since they sucked. Not sure what the strategy is though - are they afraid to loose developer mindshare to Atmel / TI? Are they hoping that their chips will power the next kickstarter success? My 5 cents: at least they are a player now, and the CC3200 has a competitor. Issues: - for battery-powered projects, its a bit large - 1.8V logic level is nice for energy consumption, but its really hard to source components for that, and level shifters are annoying - price is a tad bit high, though adequate for its performance
- akiselev 12y ago
  Minor nitpick about the voltage: How many chips at this level (at the border of micrcontroller to microprocessor) actually use more than 1.8V for internal logic? Other than a few chips that have on board power switching from 3.3V, I can't find any other CPUs, DDR3 RAM, or even CMOS cameras (720p+ chips) that don't require a 1.8V rail. For prototyping a divider with 1% resistors would do just fine (although with some instability with a bad breadboard) and if you can't find 1.8V power parts for production you have much bigger problems. As for level translators, I've found they are almost inevitable on any design that uses enough chips and sensors.
- rasz_pl 12y ago
  You need to realize they are trying to compete in a market soon to be dominated by $4 a pop (RETAIL) Chinese modules. They will fail (and so will TI). http://hackaday.com/2014/08/26/new-chip-alert-the-esp8266-wifi-module-its-5/ http://hackaday.com/2014/08/26/new-chip-alert-the-esp8266-wi... Galileo was a total failure. Intel gave up giving whole stock to MS, MS in turn gave them out to developers pretending they have viable IoT platform.
  - TTPrograms 12y ago
    This is like a more extreme case of saying RPi will fail because Arduino is cheaper...
  - digitailor 12y ago
    Thank you for this- I have a handful of completely unmarked boards that appear to be this module. Who knew they might be so capable? I hope someone translates the instruction set document linked. This is definitely the direction that things are going, at least more than an odd $50 Intel mongrel. Intel wants us to pay for something that industry won't buy with the Edison. Contrast to Arduino and rPi, which are providing affordable access to something only available otherwise to industry: AVR: High volume microcontroller- let's make it accessible and useful outside of heavy industry == Arduino. ARM: Exploding in popularity due to mobile devices- let's make it accessible outside of device manufacturers == rPi. Atom: No one is using these in industry- let's palm it off on hobbyists and see if they can drive demand == Edison. Hard to find the point of the Edison. Too anemic and dull next to true next-gen SoC solutions like the Zynq [http://zedboard.org/ http://zedboard.org/], and too overpowered for most microcontroller applications. Weird price point. No GPU or vidout. There's many SoMs and SoCs to try before this one. Intel has had to give away Atoms to get them used in any volume, this HN comment on a contemporaneous article has links on the subject: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8294864 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8294864 If Intel wants to hit the hobbyist embedded market running, they could sell Edisons for $10. By giving them away to heavy industry, yet selling them to hobbyists, they aren't garnering interest, they're patronizing.
    - niutech 12y ago

MrBuddyCasino 12y ago

Its definitely a lot better than the Galileo - Intel was pretty liberal giving them away for free, yet still nobody used them since they sucked. Not sure what the strategy is though - are they afraid to loose developer mindshare to Atmel / TI? Are they hoping that their chips will power the next kickstarter success? My 5 cents: at least they are a player now, and the CC3200 has a competitor. Issues: - for battery-powered projects, its a bit large - 1.8V logic level is nice for energy consumption, but its really hard to source components for that, and level shifters are annoying - price is a tad bit high, though adequate for its performance

akiselev 12y ago
Minor nitpick about the voltage: How many chips at this level (at the border of micrcontroller to microprocessor) actually use more than 1.8V for internal logic? Other than a few chips that have on board power switching from 3.3V, I can't find any other CPUs, DDR3 RAM, or even CMOS cameras (720p+ chips) that don't require a 1.8V rail. For prototyping a divider with 1% resistors would do just fine (although with some instability with a bad breadboard) and if you can't find 1.8V power parts for production you have much bigger problems. As for level translators, I've found they are almost inevitable on any design that uses enough chips and sensors.
rasz_pl 12y ago
You need to realize they are trying to compete in a market soon to be dominated by $4 a pop (RETAIL) Chinese modules. They will fail (and so will TI). http://hackaday.com/2014/08/26/new-chip-alert-the-esp8266-wifi-module-its-5/ http://hackaday.com/2014/08/26/new-chip-alert-the-esp8266-wi... Galileo was a total failure. Intel gave up giving whole stock to MS, MS in turn gave them out to developers pretending they have viable IoT platform.
- TTPrograms 12y ago
  This is like a more extreme case of saying RPi will fail because Arduino is cheaper...
- digitailor 12y ago
  Thank you for this- I have a handful of completely unmarked boards that appear to be this module. Who knew they might be so capable? I hope someone translates the instruction set document linked. This is definitely the direction that things are going, at least more than an odd $50 Intel mongrel. Intel wants us to pay for something that industry won't buy with the Edison. Contrast to Arduino and rPi, which are providing affordable access to something only available otherwise to industry: AVR: High volume microcontroller- let's make it accessible and useful outside of heavy industry == Arduino. ARM: Exploding in popularity due to mobile devices- let's make it accessible outside of device manufacturers == rPi. Atom: No one is using these in industry- let's palm it off on hobbyists and see if they can drive demand == Edison. Hard to find the point of the Edison. Too anemic and dull next to true next-gen SoC solutions like the Zynq [http://zedboard.org/ http://zedboard.org/], and too overpowered for most microcontroller applications. Weird price point. No GPU or vidout. There's many SoMs and SoCs to try before this one. Intel has had to give away Atoms to get them used in any volume, this HN comment on a contemporaneous article has links on the subject: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8294864 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8294864 If Intel wants to hit the hobbyist embedded market running, they could sell Edisons for $10. By giving them away to heavy industry, yet selling them to hobbyists, they aren't garnering interest, they're patronizing.
  - niutech 12y ago