The announcement of the final acquisition of Circuits.io came along-side more wonderful news from Autodesk. Intel will share the circuit design from Edison with Autodesk users to be shared on 123D Circuits.

Intel Edison

Intel announced a brand new technological advance with a wireless capable computer stored in the form of an SD-card. The unit is being touted as the next solution to wearable computing. Edison is built on the Quark core and chipset; which was unveiled by Intel CEO Bryan Krzanich at the 2013 Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco last year. According to an Intel representative, Quark is aimed at markets where power consumption and form factor take priority.

Intel Edison based on Quark  Intel Edison based on Quark

While the term ‘wearable’ is quite irritating, the SD card platform and possibilities thereof are quite amazing. The little chip comes with dual-core 22nm 400MHz Quark SOC (System on a chip). The complete x86 architecture based computer can run the Linux OS, and includes:

  • Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity
  • Wolfram language
  • Wolfram based Mathmatica computing
  • LPDDR2 and NAND flash storage
  • A wide array of flexible and expandable I/O capabilities

Mike Bell, Intel’s Vice President and General Manager for Intel’s New Devices Group noted that “Pairing Wolfram Language—the foundation of Wolfram’s initiative to apply sophisticated computation everywhere, in a universally accessible way—with Intel Edison is a significant advance for the future of embedded computation and the Internet of Things”

During Krzanich’s keynote presentation, he showcased the Mimo Kimono, part of Mimo’s baby monitoring technology built on the Edison platform.  This monitor’s various behavior’s of the baby, and connects the data to a monitoring solution, such as the app shown below for the iPhone.

Mimo baby monitor based on Intel Edison

Additionally, they set up a bottle warmer that started as the baby began to stir. These are simply two very small possibilities for the Edison platform.

Edison on 123D Circuits

If there was a really hopeful announcement, I think this was it.

This new technology being shared on 123D Circuits will provide a free template for anyone starting an electronics project. I think that sharing Edison there will not only attract a lot of new potential to 123D Circuits, but will spark a lot of new ideas and approaches from inventors and thinkers that might have felt that electronic design was beyond their scope of capability.

Nevertheless, I do have some questions beyond the grand scheme of things:

  • Will the programmable interface on 123D Circuits be specifically for coding the Wolfram platform?
  • Will Autodesk implement additional simulation UI to go beyond the breadboard?

The 123D Circuit’s new breadboard interface is nice, however I am interested to see what the Autodesk will do to visualize the simulation of transmitted data via Bluetooth and WiFi. Perhaps a WiFi breadboard of sorts? That would help users (very much like me), whom have some understanding of DC circuitry, but lack the key understanding of WiFi transmission technology.

Imagine how simple it could be:

  • Designing a physical solution to form fit into a need, with all the hardware available in both schematic and virtual form.
  • Coding the solution to direct the calculations and IO
  • Testing it inside and out, within a virtual platform
  • Pressing the build button to have it manufactured
  • Sliding the Edison into your SD card interface, and sending the code to the chipset
  • Insert the coded Edison into the manufactured solution that just arrived in the mail

I’m not saying it won’t need tweaking, but even the concept alone is so promising. I really hope it becomes that simple.

References and Links

Images and information were gathered from Autodesk as well as these sources:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/do-it-yourself/edison.html

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/6/5282472/intel-announces-edison-a-computer-the-size-of-an-sd-card

http://company.wolfram.com/news/2014/wolfram-language-on-intel-edison/

http://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/

http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/10/4715514/intel-quark-internet-of-things-wearable-computing

Intel’s Wearable Tech Factsheet

http://mimobaby.com/