Introducing Intel’s Galileo Development Board

Image via Mouser

Mouser Electronics recently announced that it is taking pre-orders for Intel’s Galileo Arduino Development Board, a microcontroller that is designed like the 32-bit Intel Quark SoC X1000 Application Processor with a core speed of 400 MHz and memory speed of 800 MTs. The Galileo Development Board is hardware and software pin-compatible with shields designed for the Arduino Uno R3. It works with the Arduino Software Development Environment, and supports shields that operate at 3.3 or 5 V. Intel’s board also has many PC I/O ports and features to broaden its capabilities. The 100-Mbit Ethernet port, Micro-SD slot, RS-232 serial port, mini-PCI Express slot, USB Host support, USB Client Port, and 8-Mbyte NOR flash are included on the board.

For storage options, Galileo has 512-Kbyte embedded SRAM and an optional micro SD card that offers up to 32 Gbytes of storage. The USB storage is made to work with any USB 2.0 drive; 11 Kbytes of  EEPROM are programmed from the EEPROM library. The processor is easy to use because it has a single thread, single core, and constant speed. ACPI-compatible CPU sleep states are supported with this device. There is an integrated real-time clock (RTC) as well as a 3-V battery option for operations that occur between turn-on cycles.

At 10 cm long and 7 cm wide, the device can be drilled into a surface or put into a case for portable use.

The Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is used by Galileo to make programs or “sketches.” The sketches can be created by connecting a power supply and Galileo’s USB to a computer, then you can upload the sketch with the IDE interface. The sketch uses the Arduino I/O adapter to communicate with the Linux kernel that can run on Galileo’s board.

This Intel processor is a trusted piece of machinery, catering to students and professionals. This device will be most useful to professional developers who are looking for an easy and economically efficient place to develop in contrast to the Intel Atom processor and Intel Core processor type of designs.