Revealed back at CES in January, Intel's Edison SD card form-factor platform was quite a success apparently as due to a lot of interest, Intel has decided to expand the product "to a family of development boards", which will be somewhat larger but more powerful than a platform showcased at CES.

In case you missed it back at CES, Intel Edison platform was the system packed on a size of an SD card, featuring dual-core Quark processor, WiFi and both onboard memory and storage. In its new blog post, Intel says that the new family od development boards will be slightly larger than an SD card and based on a "simplified industrial design". Although there is no details regarding the actual design, Intel might go for something a bit more durable and affordable.

While the initial SD card size system packed dual-core Quark processor, the new development boards will be based on an Atom-based SoC with dual Silvermont cores clocked at 500MHz. Although larger, these two cores should pack a much better performance punch compared to the Quark. It will also have a slightly more inputs/outputs, or precisely, over 30 of I/O interfaces will be accessible via "small 70-pin connector".

According to Intel, the Edison family was expanded in order to "best address a broader range of market segments and consumer needs." Intel did not give up on an SD card Quark-based form factor either but it appears that the focus was shifted to Atom-based Edison development boards.


Source: Intel.com.