Intel has announced a new way of building connected devices and appliances. The Intel Compute Card is a slim computer that is designed to be modular for easy upgrades and modularity of the Internet-of-Things. It also opens an entirely new way of designing connected machines.
The Compute Card has all the components of a full sized computer, including a processor, memory, onboard storage, and wireless connectivity. Intel is not sharing precise specifications at this point, but it would seem that the company is preparing to manufacture a range of these cards.
Ideally, these cards would be at the heart of connected devices like refrigerators, security cameras, and point of sales systems. The modular design means that owners of these devices will be able to upgrade their performance by simply swapping the cards out for a newer model. Of course, makers of the devices will first have to build their products to run on the Intel Compute Card in the first place.
Intel says that it is currently working with partners like Dell, HP, Lenovo and Sharp to get the Compute Card out to the market.
Regular consumers are not likely to get to play around with these sorts of things, but the Compute Card looks like it could also be made available for electronics enthusiasts. The design itself feels like a mashup between the Compute Stick and Intel’s IoT SoCs like SoFia.
