Techin3D

Every year, the TVs, phones and gadgets at CES seem to get bigger and bigger – but Intel’s reversing the trend with its brand new computer, the Intel Edison, which fits everything you need into a board the size and shape of an SD card. Raspberry Pi, eat your heart out.

Four months ago, Intel unveiled its Quark SoC at IDF. Today at CES 2014, company CEO Brian Krzanich wants to introduce you to Edison, a miniature computer based on the same technology condensed into the form factor of an SD card. The tiny computer is built on the company's 22nm transistor technology, runs Linux and has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth modules. What's more, the tiny machine can connect to its own app store. Naturally, the device is aimed at developers

Intel Edison: Meet the computer the size of a memory card!

This might look like the storage card for your compact camera, but make no mistake, this is a computer, with its own 22nm dual-core processor, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities. It can run multiple operating systems, including Linux, and will be available for manufacturers and hobbyists this summer – price is still TBC, but we’re hoping it’s as low as the £25 Raspberry Pi computer.

Intel’s making a big push with wearable technologies this year at CES in Las Vegas – the company also showed off its own smartwatch prototype yesterday, although it is not planning to release it to the public – and it’s betting big that Edison will play a part in that. One of its demonstrations showed the little computer working in harmony with sensor’s connected on a baby’s onesie, displaying temperature and even turning on a bottle warmer when the baby started to wake.

That’s just one example of course: hackers have turned the Raspberry Pi into a robot, a media centre, a pet feeder and much more besides. We can’t wait to see what they’ll do with something many, many times smaller than that still.

Source: Intel