Intel Moves Into the Maker Space and Arduino Stands its Ground

The Maker Movement reaches out to those who make things (anyone) to share what they make (anything) and to in turn encourage that community (everyone) to reach out to others to learn and teach.  Especially Technology.  Flamboyancy and extremism are good.  The Maker Movement embraces new learning products and cool products for making things.  Think 3D Printer, 3D Scanner, Laser Cutter, Woodshop tools.  The Arduino.  Makers know that when they want to make things, there is the Maker Shed, there is Sparkfun, there is Adafruit and others.  Cool places to find things with which to make.

Earlier this year, I attended the Bay Area Maker Faire 2014 which was held in May in San Mateo, CA.  There I took these two videos, one at the Intel tent, and one at the Arduino booths.  Now that I'm back at home, I have time to think about what I saw.  Here are some thoughts...

Fact: Intel is a huge supporter of science learning for youth.  It's organized the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), recently held in Los Angeles, for decades.

Fact: Intel has supported the Maker Faire for many years.  In 2012 I volunteered for the Intel Education day, when thousands of youth attend the Maker Faire and preview some of the fun of the Faire.  Here is an interview I did with young Schuyler St. Leger. Last year, when checking out the new 3D printer offerings, I overheard someone from Intel talking about the 3D printers that Intel has in one of its spaces.  The Maker Faire (and Making) wouldn't be where it is without Intel.

Fact: Makers LOVE the Arduino.  You can take the Atmel chip that provides the smarts and add in a smattering of other parts.  Take your soldering iron to it, and Voila! Your very own hand-crafted computer board.  Then you can make things with it.

Fact: The board design is made available to those Makers who would build on it.  Make their own runs of the board.  Design in features that others haven't yet designed.  Open Source Hardware.  This enables a whole new variety of products that build on the open source designs that can be found... by anyone... online.

Fact: The Arduino is a low-cost platform.  The natural competition of the open source community helps to make this so.  You can buy an Arduino for as little as $10, if you go for a scaled down Arduino with few features.  A development board like the Arduino Uno R3 would cost you about $25.

Fact: The Arduino is easy to use.  I have shared it with youth as young as 9 years of age.  True, the conversation was limited, but they got it, and they were empowered.

Fact: Intel has introduced the Galileo development board.  At $84.99 (at the Maker Shed) it comes in substantially higher than the 16 bit Arduino.  BUT... It's got a 32-bit Pentium brand system-on-a-chip.  Intel Architecture and... get this... hardware and software compatible with shields designed for the Arduino Uno R3.  This means, my 9 year old readers, that you will be able to program the Intel Galileo with your Arduino development environment.  But there's a whole bunch more. 

You see, it's not just for the 9 year olds.  In addition to Arduino hardware and software compatibility, there are "PC industry standard I/O ports, and features to expand native usage and capabilities beyond the Arduino shield ecosystem. A full-sized mini-PCI Express* slot, 100 Mb Ethernet port, Micro-SD slot, RS-232 serial port, USB host port, USB client port, and 8 Mbyte NOR Flash* standard on the board."

Fact: Atmel, which makes the processor on all Arduino boards is developing a new backward-compatible development board, the Arduino Zero, with a 32-bit ARM Cortex processor and embedded debugger (Expected later this year).  All software and shields (special-purpose boards that provide additional functionality) will interact with the Arduino Zero.  Price point is as yet unannounced.  The Arduino Zero enables the consumer with a faster processor, more capabilities, Atmel Studio software and the ability to step out of the Arduino IDE and into the C programming language.

To what end all this technology?  More choices for me, for you.  University students who would make things.  High School students who would explore the Internet of Things (IoT).  Hobbyists who would make things.  Random members of the Robotics Society of Southern California (RSSC) and perhaps the Youth in the technology program at an International Youth Center.

What can you make with it?

If you missed the links:
Intel booth: http://youtu.be/EFpS7iffi9M
Arduino booth: http://youtu.be/vmIFoLRyiDA

About the Author:
Trish Tsoiasue blogs on the Patch and video blogs on her YouTube channel Squigglemom!  (Subscribe!) She loves playing with LEGO bricks, and has a dream of creating a Teen LEGO Club in Long Beach.  She is working on making an International Youth Center (which will focus on youth Education, Career Exploration and Entrepreneurship) happen at the Long Beach Sea Base.  And yes, she likes to make things.