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Impressive how much Intel can shrink their X86 processors and supporting hardware. However I think Intel is making a mistake trying to push Arduino 'compatibil

by tdicola 12y ago

Impressive how much Intel can shrink their X86 processors and supporting hardware. However I think Intel is making a mistake trying to push Arduino 'compatibility' with this and the Galileo. Unless they actually put an AVR microcontroller on board it will have poor compatibility with Arduino shields (like the Galileo). You also won't have real-time control of the GPIO so making servos move smoothly, talking to 1-wire-like interfaces (like WS2811 LEDs), etc. will be problematic. Lots of folks were excited about the Galileo but unhappy after actually using it and realizing its limitations. Hopefully Intel will get the messaging a little better this time.

pinkyand 12y ago
I think they've improved in this regard: they've added an independent microcontroller inside the core(which will probably run the arduino layer).This will solve compatibility and real time issues. This is in general targeted to a bunch of chips that integrate a microprocessor and a microcontroller and are usually fabricated in 65nm-45nm. With it's process advantage(22nm finfet) , intel can offer orders of magnitude lower sleep currents, some nice decrease on power(depending on x86 vs arm details), and more power in general. All interesting to embedded guys. But they still have to create a large library of peripherals and support it(which they might solve by creating a few speedy cores and let the crowd code and share/support peripherals), add analog blocks, and gain the trust of the embedded community as a reliable long term supplier(which might be the one thing intel couldn't solve - because of it's past as an unreliable embedded supplier). The second option is that this is mainly to motivate other embedded chip companies guys to use it's fabs. Anyway ,i'm grabbing the popcorn.
- gte525u 12y ago
  The one bit I can't find anywhere in the docs released so far. Is there a communication mechanism between the microcontroller and the main core? It's not hard to dangle a micro off of i2c or some other bus, however, I can definitely see the the benefit of an easy prototyping solution combining an beefy (~100k RAM and 100Mhz CPU) real-time micro and a general purpose OS with wifi / bluetooth LE.
zrail 12y ago
The Arduino block that SparkFun is selling[1] has an actual AVR on it that communicates with the Edison via a UART. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13036 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13036

by tdicola 12y ago

pinkyand 12y ago

I think they've improved in this regard: they've added an independent microcontroller inside the core(which will probably run the arduino layer).This will solve compatibility and real time issues. This is in general targeted to a bunch of chips that integrate a microprocessor and a microcontroller and are usually fabricated in 65nm-45nm. With it's process advantage(22nm finfet) , intel can offer orders of magnitude lower sleep currents, some nice decrease on power(depending on x86 vs arm details), and more power in general. All interesting to embedded guys. But they still have to create a large library of peripherals and support it(which they might solve by creating a few speedy cores and let the crowd code and share/support peripherals), add analog blocks, and gain the trust of the embedded community as a reliable long term supplier(which might be the one thing intel couldn't solve - because of it's past as an unreliable embedded supplier). The second option is that this is mainly to motivate other embedded chip companies guys to use it's fabs. Anyway ,i'm grabbing the popcorn.

gte525u 12y ago
The one bit I can't find anywhere in the docs released so far. Is there a communication mechanism between the microcontroller and the main core? It's not hard to dangle a micro off of i2c or some other bus, however, I can definitely see the the benefit of an easy prototyping solution combining an beefy (~100k RAM and 100Mhz CPU) real-time micro and a general purpose OS with wifi / bluetooth LE.

zrail 12y ago

The Arduino block that SparkFun is selling[1] has an actual AVR on it that communicates with the Edison via a UART. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13036 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13036