Imagination Technologies is taking on the likes of the Raspberry Pi with a device that the company hopes will help drive the Internet of Things.
The single-board microcomputer is being released for both Android and Linux developers and delivers both high performance and low energy consumption.
"When you look at the development boards that are out there, you have to make compromises," said Alex Vocia, marketing communications manager at Imagination Technologies. "We wanted to create a board that offers everything out of the box. The idea was to create a board that includes everything developers' wanted at an affordable price."
The CI20 comes with a 1.2 GHz MIPS32 processor, as well as 1 GB of RAM and PowerVR graphics processing with OpenGL 2.1 and ES 2.0 compatibility. PowerVR graphics can support 1080p video at 60 frames per second, making it possible for the board to be used for high-definition video. The device also features Ethernet connectivity, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 compatibility, and 4 GB of onboard storage.
The processor in the device has been used extensively in devices such as low-cost TVs, wearables and other electronics. These MIPS-based processors have been plagued with compatibility issues in Android tablets, so it will be interesting to see how this board combats this. MIPS, which is owned by Imagination, is a little different from ARM's architecture, which is found on the majority of development boards. It is also different from x86, which is found on boards from companies like Intel and AMD.
While it may seem like the device is aimed at competing with the Raspberry Pi, Tony King-Smith, executive vice president of marketing at Imagination Technologies, says that this isn't true.
"We're not trying to compete with devices like Raspberry Pi and Arduino, which many developers will already have -- we're giving them more options, and we believe this is a pretty rich offering," he said. "This will make IoT interesting, whether you're looking at a thermostat or a sensor or whatever, it's a compelling user interface that gets people excited."
Even if the board was supposed to compete with the Raspberry Pi, it costs over two times the price of the Pi, coming in at £50, or around $80. Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It's a bare-bones computer used by kids to learn programming, hobbyists and others for small embedded computing projects.
The company did not mention if the CI20 was compatible with the Arduino, which is a popular platform for software and hardware development for defining the functionality of hardware.
The Creator CI20 will be available in Europe and the U.S. by the end of January.
