UDOO X86 – Is This the Best Maker Board Ever?

2016-04-25 | By Maker.io Staff

Arduino

The UDOO Team takes the world of makers by storm with the new UDOO X86: 10 times more powerful than Raspberry Pi 3, able to drive up to three 4K screens at the same time, with an onboard Arduino™ 101-compatible microcontroller.

On Wednesday, April 13, 2016, the UDOO Team launched UDOO X86 on Kickstarter with a goal of $100,000 for a 55 days campaign. But it took just 7 hours for UDOO X86 to exceed its goal, and it’s now over $350,000 after just a week.

The UDOO X86 is a fully operational next generation PC, based on the Intel Braswell X5 Quad Core with up to 2.24GHz in CPU speed. The UDOO X86 is also cross compatible with the built-in Arduino 101 development platform, embedded within the same board.

“Once again we wanted to raise the bar, launching the most powerful maker board ever”, explains Daniele Conti, cofounder of UDOO, CEO of SECO and UDOO X86’s lead hardware designer.

This next generation UDOO computer is 10x faster than the current Raspberry Pi 3 and features a huge magnitude of additional features which allow it to dominate the rivalry it has with other traditional SBCs. The UDOO X86 is currently being funded on Kickstarter and comes in two versions, basic and advanced.

Figure 1: Board features

The UDOO X86 is able to drive up to three 4k screens at the same time due to its advanced hardware features. It is based on the Quad Core 64-bit next gen x86 processors made by Intel, specially designed for the computer markets. The processors are compact into a 14nm form factor and consume less than 6 watts of energy at any given time.

Figure 2: Three 4K screens

UDOO X86 supports a multi-boot configuration which allows it to boot from anywhere, creating a more flexible experience for a range of users. In terms of storage the UDOO X86 comes with 8GB eMMC on-board, a microSD card reader for easy hot-swapping of images, SATA M.2 and USB 3.0 ports to attach any portable hard disk device.

Figure 3: Storage solutions

But power isn’t the only benefit from the x86 architecture: “Not only is it the only maker board capable of running Windows, Android and Linux, it also can run all the software available for the PC world, from gaming to video streaming, from graphical editors to professional development platforms” remarks Maurizio Caporali, cofounder and Product Manager.

Figure 4: Applications

The Kickstarter campaign will last 55 days, the lowest pledge is $89 for UDOO X86 BASIC while the most powerful variant, UDOO X86 ULTRA - which also includes a performance kit with 128 GB of SSD - starts at $289.