Linux-powered Intel JOULE Is Its Most Powerful Developer Kit Yet

During the Intel Developer Forum 2016 at San Francisco, California, Intel launched its most powerful developer board till date. Named Intel Joule, this development kit packs an Intel Atom processor and a shocking 4GB RAM. Joule also includes Intel’s RealSense depth-scanning camera that makes it a great choice for high-end IoT and VR applications. This board supports Linux flavours and Windows 10 IoT Core although one can always custom build an OS. It comes pre-installed with Linux Kernel 4.4 optimised for IoT.

There’s no denying the fact that Intel missed the mobile revolution. The silicon giant knows that it can’t afford to miss the IoT and VR revolution and it’s making efforts to leave an impact.

Earlier this week, from the stage of the annual Intel Developer Forum, CEO Brian Krzanich teased the Windows 10-powered open source VR headset Project Alloy. The same stage also became a witness of the launch of Joule, Intel’s most powerful developer kit yet.

It’s being assumed that Joule is named after James Prescott Joule, in the line of Intel’s previous products Edison, Galileo, and Curie.

“Intel Joule is a high performance system-on-module (SOM) in a tiny, low-power package thus making it ideal for computer vision, robotics, drones, industrial IoT, VR, AR, micro-servers and other applications that require high-end edge computing.”

Joule is Intel’s brand new 4-core embedded module. With a small size of 48 x 24 x 3.5 mm, it packs an Intel Atom quad core processor that runs at 1.7GHz with 4GB LPDDR4 RAM and also supports 802.11ac which is the latest WiFi standard. Giving a tough competition to the specs of a desktop computer, Intel Joule also houses an integrated HDMI GPU graphics and 3.0 USB ports for your mouse and keyboard.

This mini-computer also features Intel’s RealSense depth-sensing camera. It’ll allow the makers to create advanced IoT devices that will possess the ability to capture depth-of-field information. This will also give an IoT device the ability to make decisions on its own.

Just like the popular developer board Raspberry Pi 3, Joule supports Linux flavours as well as Windows 10 IoT operating system.

Welcoming a new board to the Ubuntu family, here’s what Canonical has to say:

“Intel Joule is affordable and compact enough to be used in deployment, therefore Ubuntu Core can be installed to make any device it’s included in secure and up to date.”

Intel Joule comes in two hardware configurations. The higher end model comes with a price tag of $369.99. This price is expensive as compared to Raspberry Pi but these two shouldn’t be compared. Unlike the tiny development boards, Intel’s offering is a desktop class device in a small box.

For more information, you can visit Intel’s website and also have a look at the specs on the Intel Ark website. If you’re interested in grabbing Joule to turn your advanced IoT dreams into reality, feel free to visit Newegg.

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