intel edison

just saw these today, http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-01/07/intel-edison

its the intel edison, i think something like this could be a major boon to the reprap.

if a guy could get it to work with a ramps board, i think it could be great for UI's and even networking them.

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[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

All of the GPIOs are through an I2C port expander, so it will be too slow to drive steppers. Better to wait for the Tre or buy an UDOO if you want that sort of setup.

Im not thinking to use it for that.

But I think if it could work. A person could put it into the SD slot then use it fore a network host for the ramps. Maybe it could even slice models too.

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[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

I'd love to know what the cost will be for one-off, or even if it will be on sale for "ordinary" folk. Intel seem to be cagey about pricing.

A wireless SD module is not new, the electric imp already does that but it does not have a 400Mhz Cpu. [www.adafruit.com] There are also a number of cheap serial-wifi type modules available, one has wifi and dual LAN ports, which would be simpler to connect to a controller.

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I guess a lot will come down to that. I hope they don't cost a arm and a leg.

If it is cheap enough it could prove interesting to see what we could do with it.

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[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

Quote
dissidence
Im not thinking to use it for that.

But I think if it could work. A person could put it into the SD slot then use it fore a network host for the ramps. Maybe it could even slice models too.

Sorry, I was thinking about Galileo. If Edison has enough RAM and storage then I agree. I still haven't found a use case for the Galileo that a BeagleBone can't fill better at half the price.

It seems like Intel want to compete with ARM and get into the "maker" scene, but they are not willing to compete on price. Maybe they think their stuff is that good, or people will pay for the name, or maybe they just can't reduce costs low enough (a Pentium comes with a lot of legacy baggage).

I'm not sure how well a 400Mhz Pentium compares with a 1GHz ARM, I guess it is somewhat slower, so slicing is probably not very feasible.

You can get the HLK-RM04 wifi module with Dual LAN ports and tcp-serial bridge for < £20, it's basically a router chip on a module, so there's not much cheaper route to network connectivity. I think you can also get OpenWRT to run on it.

Olimex have a 1GHz Cortex A8 board for €30, I think that is about the value I've seen in these type of boards.

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What is Open Source?
What is Open Source Hardware?
Open Source in a nutshell: the Four Freedoms
CC BY-NC is not an Open Source license