Intel will not develop new Compute Cards, the company has confirmed to Tom’s Hardware. Compute Cards were Intel’s vision of modular computing that would allow customers to continually update point of sale systems, all-in-one desktops, laptops and other devices. Pull out one card, replace it with another, and you have a new CPU, plus RAM and storage.
“We continue to believe modular computing is a market where there are many opportunities for innovation,” an Intel spokesperson told Tom’s Hardware. “However, as we look at the best way to address this opportunity, we’ve made the decision that we will not develop new Compute Card products moving forward. We will continue to sell and support the current Compute Card products through 2019 to ensure our customers receive the support they need with their current solutions, and we are thankful for their partnership on this change.”
I’ve always been fascinated by the Compute Card’s concept, but it never seemed to receive much support from partners, stores, or even Intel itself. I’m not surprised they’re cancelling the product line.
Hm, this might be the first time I’ve heard about them; or Compute Cards were so niche/not-in-the-news that I forgot hearing about them…
This is probably more accurately the first time you’ve heard about them with that branding. This is the (third? fourth?) rebrand of what used to be Intel’s Xeon Phi line. Part of the issue is that they’ve kept changing the name and branding on them, so nobody knows what to call them.
These have nothing to do with Xeon Phi.
When computers-on-a-stick were all the rage (SoCs inside sticks with USB power on one end and an HDMI port on the other, with BT for mouse/keyboard), Intel came out with the Compute Card. It was supposed to make all-in-one computers (where the monitor is the computer) upgradable. Just pop the CC out, insert a new one, and carry on.
But, I don’t think they ever released an upgraded CC, just the original one. And it was pretty basic (Atom SoC or maybe a really low-end i3?)
The concept of pluggable CPU/RAM modules is great. The execution was retarded. Ideally you’d want to define an interface rather than a full “card” format, so that you could scale up to larger desktop-class components.
This sort of thing has been around for ages, only they were called Computer-on-Module (COM). Was this another example trying to reinvent the wheel and failing horribly? They just can’t seem the shake the ATX (and related) standard. Seems like every time they try to go into a new direction, the inertia of their legacy offerings brings everything else down.
I think Intel sees the writing on the wall. They’ve tried pushing the x86 platform every which way, probably realizing it won’t last forever, but you only ever hear about those efforts when they inevitably fail.