AfterDawn: News

Intel's credit card sized computer is coming to refrigerators near you

Intel has announced that it will start the commercializing of a concept called Compute Card. This credit card sized computer concept is obviously incredibly small and light which means it will make a lot of new kind of computer applications possible, says Intel.

What makes the Compute Card great is that it allows the modular use of computer technology in a new way. When you can easily detach and reattach the computing part of whatever system is it a part of, this means that the separate hardware, whether it be the Compute Card or the remaining equipment can be modified or replaced easily.



This kind of feature would be essential in devices like TVs, refrigerators, and cars among other Internet of Things applications.

Compute Card will come available in four different models that vary in performance. The processors used include a dual-core and 1.2Ghz Kaby Lake Core i5-7Y57 and a less powerful quad-core Celeron 3450. All four versions of Compute Card include four gigabytes of RAM, 128 GB SSD storage, Wi-Fi (ac), and Bluetooth 4.2.




Written by: Matti Robinson @ 31 May 2017 14:56

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• 5 comments

• Bozobub

  *ptui*
  
  My fridge/freezer does NOT need this. Ever.

  31.5.2017 23:00 #1

• ivymike

  Raspberry Pi has had something similar for a year or two now.....
  

  1.6.2017 10:39 #2

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by ivymike: Raspberry Pi has had something similar for a year or two now..... RasPi has never made an x86 and they use slow microSD instead of fast SSD's. They are also not the type of thing that a company like Ford would want to build a dashboard around. The idea of putting a full distro of linux on a TV or car dashboard is appealing. Also, the idea of upgrades is nice. Look at a 10 year old car and the infotainment system is probably more of an annoyance than anything; half the time it just means that installing a single-din radio is a pain. But if you could put in a new compute unit and install a new OS it would continue to be useful for decades more. As for other uses, I'm not sure I would have any use for a x86 system in my refrigerator but it could mean that Smart TV's were actually smart, and that they could be smart 10 years later when the original screen is still fine but the original computer is a joke. Plus there is the hacker bit of it...I think I'd feel a lot more comfortable putting something like this in a high dust/high moisture/high shock environment than any of the single-board computers I have seen and it is also pretty thin.

  1.6.2017 11:36 #3

• ivymike

  The Raspberry Pi Compute Module as it's called doesn't have any SD or Micro SD slot on it. It looks like a stick of RAM with CPU chips on it. The user supplies the project board and whatever drive interface so it can be anything SD, SATA, etc. It is an ARM based platform but this shouldn't be too much of an issue with QEMU, Exagear, WINE and other emulators now available.
  

  2.6.2017 20:44 #4

• Bozobub

  A TV has a potential need for this level of processing. Most devices do NOT, however, and I'm tired of it.
  
  You can "upgrade" any smart TV already, btw; just plug in any half-decent ARM or x86 "stick" PC into the HDMI (or sometimes USB) and there ya go.

  2.6.2017 22:32 #5