The weirdest thing has happened.
Intel has hooked up with Arduino to make an x86-based Arduino-compatible:
http://arduino.cc/en/ArduinoCertified/IntelGalileo
The board has been added to the Arduino IDE menu. So it'll look like a 'real' Arduino board, though it is far, far away architecturally. (I am assuming the IDE is using gcc for x86. I am not assuming Intel has implemented an AVR or ARM emulator, which would be genuinely amusing if they had :-)
It also looks like Intel have jumped through the essential hoops to be Arduino hardware compatible. The diagram shows the board has ADC and PWM chips (external to the processor SoC).
Some of the documentation reads like it is 'bare metal' with no Linux or OS mentioned.
Edit: I had a look at Intels's FAQ: http://www.intel.com/support/galileo/faq.htm
and it says that the board has a small Linux on-board:
" Intel® Galileo runs Linux* out of the box. It comes in two flavors; the default is a small Linux. If you add an SD card to your kit, you can add a more fully-featured Linux."
It has quite a lot of storage:
- 8 MByte Legacy SPI Flash
- 512 KByte embedded SRAM
- 256 MByte DRAM
- micro SD
- USB storage
- 11 KByte EEPROM
8MB would be a big Arduino program.
It sounds quite power hungry: "... recommended output rating of the power adapter is 5V at up to 3Amp." but that might be for the power it can supply to user electronics. It doesn't run off USB power.
Intel must be worried to go to this much effort. I imagine in Intel budget terms, it is a small effort. However, I can imagine their legal department alone is costing more than a kickstarter project to do a similar project :-)
I wonder what price Intel will sell the chips at for anyone wanting to make their own board?
Might they absorb a loss for a while hoping to get lock-in?
I guess IBM will need to follow up with the 'duino-PowerPC, or a Raspberry-PiBM?
(Full disclosure: I am not a member of Leafabs staff. All opinions are mine.)
