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posted by martyb on Friday March 22 2019, @07:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the does-that-not-compute? dept.

Intel to Stop Developing Compute Cards

Intel will not develop new Compute Cards, the company has confirmed to Tom's Hardware. Compute Cards were Intel's vision of modular computing that would allow customers to continually update point of sale systems, all-in-one desktops, laptops and other devices. Pull out one card, replace it with another, and you have a new CPU, plus RAM and storage.

"We continue to believe modular computing is a market where there are many opportunities for innovation," an Intel spokesperson told Tom's Hardware. "However, as we look at the best way to address this opportunity, we've made the decision that we will not develop new Compute Card products moving forward. We will continue to sell and support the current Compute Card products through 2019 to ensure our customers receive the support they need with their current solutions, and we are thankful for their partnership on this change."

Oh yeah, that was a thing.

Here's some EOMA68 news from 2018:

Remember The EOMA68 Computer Card Project? It Hopes To Ship This Year
A libre GPU effort based on RISC-V, Rust, LLVM and Vulkan by the developer of an earth-friendly computer
The EOMA68 Libre Computer Developer Wants To Tackle A Quad-Core RISC-V Libre SoC Design

Previously: Intel Announces Compute Card, a Small and Flat Form Factor for Computing

Related: EOMA68 Free/Libre and Modular Computing Devices
Intel Discontinues Edison, Galileo, and Joule Product Lines


Original Submission

Related Stories

EOMA68 Free/Libre and Modular Computing Devices 42 comments

The goal of the EOMA (Embedded Open Modular Architecture) project is to introduce the idea of being ethically responsible about both the ecological and the financial resources required to design, manufacture, acquire and maintain our personal computing devices. The EOMA68 standard is a freely-accessible, royalty-free, unencumbered hardware standard formulated and tested over the last five years around the ultra-simple philosophy of "just plug it in: it will work".

With devices built following this standard, one can upgrade the CPU-card (consisting of CPU, RAM and some local storage) of a device while keeping the same housing (e.g. laptop). One can also use the CPU-card in different devices (e.g. unplug CPU-card from laptop, plug into desktop); or use a replaced/discarded CPU-card from a laptop for NAS storage or a micro-server. There are housings currently available for a laptop (can be 3D-printed in full, or in part to replace parts that break) and a micro-desktop; and there are plans for others like routers or tablets in the future.

There are multiple articles talking about this project and analyzing the hardware, for example from ThinkPenguin, CNXSoft or EngadgetNG. There is also a recent live-streamed video introducing the project.


Original Submission

Intel Announces Compute Card, a Small and Flat Form Factor for Computing 15 comments

Intel announced the Intel Compute Card at CES 2017. The devices are slightly larger than a credit card and are intended for release in mid-2017. Actual dimensions are 94.5 mm × 55 mm × 5 mm (compare to 85.60 mm × 53.98 mm for an ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1 credit card):

The Intel Compute Card has been designed to be a universal computing platform for different kinds of devices, including those that do not exist yet. The ultimate goal is to simplify the way companies develop equipment, use, maintain, repair, and upgrade it. Creators of actual devices have to design a standard Intel Compute Card slot into their product and then choose an Intel Compute Card that meets their requirements in terms of feature-set and price. For example, PC makers could create systems in all-in-one or clamshell form-factors and then use Compute Cards instead of motherboards. For corporate customers that need to provide a lot of flexibility (and, perhaps, solve some security concerns too) - every employee has a card and can switch between PCs. In other markets such as automated retail kiosks, vendors can easily provide upgrades to deliver better functionality as Intel releases new Compute Cards in the future.

From a technology standpoint, Intel's Compute Card resembles the company's Compute Stick PC. However, its purpose is much wider: it is a small device that packs an Intel SoC or SiP (including Kaby Lake-based Core processors with vPro and other technologies), DRAM, NAND flash storage, a wireless module and so on into a small enclosure. Nonetheless, there are a number of important differences between the Compute Card and the Compute Stick. The Compute Card is a sealed system with "flexible I/O" in the form of a USB Type-C and an extension connector. The "flexible I/O" is not Thunderbolt (obviously, due to power consumption concerns), but it handles USB, PCIe, HDMI, DisplayPort connectivity and has some extra pins for future/proprietary use. Intel is currently working with a number of partners to enable the Compute Cards ecosystem. The list of global players includes Dell, HP, Lenovo and Sharp. There are also regional partners interested in the new form-factor, including Seneca Data, InFocus, DTx, TabletKiosk and Pasuntech.

Wait a second, it's just a smartphone without the screen and cellular connectivity!

Intel's existing Compute Stick line is not being updated with Kaby Lake processors (although given the similarity between Skylake and Kaby Lake performance, that may not say much about the future of Compute Stick).


Original Submission

Intel Discontinues Edison, Galileo, and Joule Product Lines 10 comments

Intel has discontinued its Edison, Galileo, and Joule product lines. The hardware was intended to be adopted in the IoT, wearable, embedded computing and single-board computer markets:

Intel has discontinued three of its offerings for the Internet of Things and embedded device markets.

The chipmaker said in a series of low-key product updates that it would be killing off the Edison [PDF], Galileo [PDF] and Joule [PDF] compute modules and boards over the second half of the year.

The notices mark an ignoble end for three lines that were once seen as key to Chipzilla's IoT and connected appliance strategies.

First unveiled at the 2014 CES show as a "PC on a card," Edison's aim was to put x86 chips into both the wearables and "maker" markets with kits and hobbyist boards (like the Arduino).

Additional coverage on hackaday.io with one interesting note:

It's important to remember that this does not mark the end of the semiconductor giant's forray into the world of IoT development boards, there is no announcement of the demise of their Curie chip, as found in the Arduino 101. But it does mark an ignominious end to their efforts over the past few years in bringing the full power of their x86 platforms to this particular market, the Curie is an extremely limited device in comparison to those being discontinued.


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2) by black6host on Friday March 22 2019, @08:40PM (4 children)

    by black6host (3827) on Friday March 22 2019, @08:40PM (#818572) Journal

    I'd hate to have been an early adopter of "Compute Cards". That really didn't last long at all... Oh well, bad (or not profitable as is probably the case) things shouldn't live on forever...

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday March 22 2019, @09:01PM (3 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 22 2019, @09:01PM (#818583) Journal

      Since a POS (point of sail) system could be expected to last for, say, 20 years, it is too bad that you cannot upgrade the compute guts inside of them.

      Of course, POS manufacturers are dancing in the aisles.

      Increasingly POS systems are expected to interconnect with ever changing Payment Processor terminal equipment. (eg, Insert your card, scan your Google Pay, etc) These systems obviously have real time access to the payment processor and ultimately the customer's bank.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 5, Funny) by ikanreed on Friday March 22 2019, @09:17PM (1 child)

        by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 22 2019, @09:17PM (#818589) Journal

        point of sail

        Usually we call those "masts"

        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 25 2019, @01:34PM

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 25 2019, @01:34PM (#819492) Journal

          New Masts in spring colors! ON SAIL NOW!

          --
          People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday March 23 2019, @09:52PM

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday March 23 2019, @09:52PM (#818821)

        There are still plenty of other "standards" from PC-104 to COMe.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 22 2019, @09:18PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 22 2019, @09:18PM (#818591)

    ...is actually MARKETING THE PRODUCT.

    It's hard to look into a new product if you don't know it exists in the first place. This is the first I've ever heard of these things.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 22 2019, @10:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 22 2019, @10:06PM (#818604)

    Not enough room on the card for Intel to add all the telemetry they wanted for the next gen version so they dropped the product line.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 23 2019, @01:18AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 23 2019, @01:18AM (#818646)

    when the enclosure matters more then internal values ...

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