Q: Where can I buy an Intel® Galileo development board?
Planned to be available on or about 20 December 2013 from these distributors.
Q: Where can I buy accessories for Intel® Galileo, such as resistors, LEDs, capacitors, jumpers, etc.?
Typical locations including Maker Shed*, Adafruit*, Sparkfun*, and local electronics parts store such as Fry’s* or Radio Shack*.
Q: Where can I buy shields for Intel® Galileo?
You can buy any shield from regular vendors of Arduino* boards. We recommend that you start with the list of supported shields. Typical locations including Maker Shed*, Adafruit*, Sparkfun*, and online vendors.
Q: Do you have list of tested/compatible shields that work on Intel® Galileo?
Tested and compatible shields are listed in the release notes.
Q: What type of power supplies can you use with Intel® Galileo?
Intel® Galileo is powered via an AC-to-DC adapter, connected by plugging a 2.1mm center-positive plug into the board's power jack. The recommended output rating of the power adapter is 5V, 3 Amp.
The power supply input voltage must be 5V. Galileo does not support an input voltage range of 7-12V like Arduino Uno and Due and must only be used with 5V power supplies.
Q: Where do I buy a power supply for Intel® Galileo?
Any power supply that meets the specs will work. Typical locations including Maker Shed*, Adafruit*, Sparkfun*, and local electronics parts store such as Fry’s* or Radio Shack*, and electronics parts online vendors.
Q: Can I use this board without a power supply?
No. You MUST use a power supply at all times.
Note: Galileo boards require a power supply at all times. If the board is not connected to a power supply when flashing, the board may fail or become unusable (bricked).
Q: Where do I find out more information about Intel® Quark?
For Intel® Quark SoC X1000, Intel® Quark datasheet, and product brief.
Q: Where do I find out more information about Intel® Galileo?
Intel Galileo in Arduino Community
Q: How do I reset the Intel® Galileo board?
To reset the currently running Arduino* sketch and any connected shield(s), press the button marked Reset.
You can also reset the board in software (recommended for faster rebooting).
To reset the entire board, you can trigger a reboot of the Intel® Quark SoC X1000 by pressing the button marked Reboot.
Q: Why are there two buttons on Intel® Galileo (a Reset button and a Reboot button)?
On an Arduino Uno, pressing the reset button resets the microcontroller and any attached shields. This also resets the currently running sketch. On Intel® Galileo you don’t need to reboot the Intel® Quark SoC X1000 to reset the sketch or any attached shields. If the Intel® Quark SoC X1000 is rebooted each time a sketch is reset or a new sketch is uploaded, it causes a full (and usually unnecessary) reboot of the Linux operating system .
Instead, Intel® Galileo provides a Reset button that can be used to reset the sketch and any attached shields without triggering a reboot of the Intel® Quark SoC X1000. If the Intel® Quark SoC X1000 needs to be rebooted, you can do this by pressing the Reboot button on the board.
Q: What development operating systems are supported?
Linux: Ubuntu 12.04 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Mac OS X version 10.8.5. Also tested on Mac OS X 10.6.8, 10.7.5, and 10.9 developer preview.
Windows: Windows* 7 (32-bit & 64-bit) and Windows* 8.
Q: Does Intel® Galileo come with embedded NIC/network card?
Yes, it comes with an integrated onboard NIC and the embedded Linux* on the board has the drivers for the NIC already.
Q: How do I connect Intel® Galileo to the internet?
Intel® Galileo can be connected to the internet by connecting the on-board Ethernet RJ45 connector to your home router. Intel® Galileo firmware includes DHCP for automatic configuration of the Ethernet interface with an IP address. It can also be connected wirelessly or over 3G via expansion on PCIe or shields.
Q: How do I set up wireless on Intel® Galileo?
Wireless is not included on the board. Intel recommends the Intel® Centrino N135 min-PCIe wireless module which has been pre-validated with the Intel® Galileo platform. Due to the size of the drivers associated with wireless devices, wireless capability also requires a micro-SD card (minimum recommended size is 4G). Follow the instructions in the Intel® Galileo Getting Started Guide to add our prebuilt Linux image to your SD card. Power-down your board, connect your SD card, and then reboot the board. Wireless support is now included. Refer to the Arduino* IDE Wi-Fi example sketch for usage from within an Arduino sketch.
Q: What level of Arduino* compatibility does Intel® Galileo support?
Arduino* Uno R3 is the compatibility. Some shields may not work properly due to hard coded registers in the shield drivers, but Intel is working with Arduino and shield owners to correct the drivers. There may be some errata which also cause some shields/functions to not be supported. Please see the latest Getting Started Guide and Release Notes.
Q: Is Intel® Galileo a desktop board?
No, but it does have I/O features often found on desktop boards or laptops and not easily found on an Arduino boards such as full USB host and PCI express capability.
Q: What type of ports does Intel® Galileo have and how many of each?
Intel® Galileo includes native Ethernet, SD, USB Host support, USB Client support, RS-232 serial port, and 10 pin JTAG ports. It also includes Arduino shield connectors compliant with the Arduino* Uno R3 connector definition. Finally it includes a native mini-PCIe connector for the addition of Wi-Fi (for example).
Q: Are there any thermal considerations to be aware of?
Intel® Galileo uses the recently announced Intel® Quark SoC which under normal room ambient temperature doesn’t require a heat sink. Under higher temperature conditions (beyond 55-60 degrees C), a heat sink is recommended. A thermal sensor is designed into the Intel® Quark SoC X1000 and will shut down the component if it gets too hot.
Q: Are there any jumpers on Intel® Galileo?
Yes, there are three jumpers:
• I2C Address Jumper to vary the slave address of the Cypress I/O Expander
• IOREF Jumper to vary the operating voltage of the board between 3.3V and 5V
• VIN Jumper to disconnect the VIN pin header from the on board 5V supply. This is to protect the Intel® Galileo board when more than 5V is required to be connected to VIN to support connected shields or external components.
Q: I want to design my own Intel® Quark based board, what should I do?
See the schematics, bill of materials (BOM), and Allegro* board files online. A derivative board can be produced using these files as a starting point.
Q: Can I produce a commercial product based on Intel® Galileo?
Several OEMs do base commercial products on Arduino* boards already. The Intel® Galileo board brings more advantages and makes an excellent base for a commercial temperature platform.
Q: Which programming languages can I use to program Intel® Galileo?
Intel® Galileo can work with any programming language that supports a .586 extension for x86 processors. Intel® Galileo currently runs on open source firmware based on C programming language. GCC and ICC compilers are supported.
Q: Can I run Linux on Intel® Galileo?
Yes. Intel® Galileo runs Linux out of the box. It comes in 2 flavors, the default is a small Linux. If you add an SD card to your kit, then you can add a more fully-featured Linux. Refer to the Intel® Galileo Getting Started Guide and Intel® Quark SoC X1000 IoT Development Kit Software GSG.
Q: Can I use Intel® Galileo without any Arduino* software?
Yes. Intel® Galileo runs Linux, everything you need to develop Linux applications for Intel® Galileo is available through Intel and the open-source community. You can even run Arduino* sketches and Linux applications concurrently if you wish
Q: What is the maximum I2C speed supported?
Intel® Galileo only supports I2C standard mode at 100 kHz. The Intel® Quark SoC X1000 supports both standard mode (100 kHz) and fast mode (400 kHz). However, the Cypress I/O Port Expander only supports standard mode, which limits the I2C speed supported on Galileo to 100 kHz.
Q: Can Intel® Galileo operate as an I2C Slave device?
No, Intel® Galileo only supports operation as an I2C master device.
Q: What is the maximum rate at which GPIO output pins can be updated?
The GPIO output pins on Intel® Galileo are provided by an I2C Port Expander that is running at standard mode (100 kHz). Each I2C request to update a GPIO requires approximately 2ms. In addition to software overhead, this restricts the frequency achievable on the GPIO outputs to approximately 230 Hz.
Q: What is the maximum SPI clock speed supported?
The default setting for the SPI clock on Intel® Galileo is 4 MHz, the same as Arduino Uno. Similarly, the SPI clock can be varied from 125 kHz to 8 MHz using SPI.setClockDivider(). The Intel® Quark SoC X1000 supports SPI clock frequencies up to 25 MHz, but this support is not yet added in the Arduino IDE.
Q: Can Intel® Galileo operate as an SPI Slave device?
No, Intel® Galileo only supports operation as a SPI master device.
Q: Does Intel® Galileo support the AREF pin?
No, Intel® Galileo does not support supplying an external reference voltage for the analog inputs using the AREF pin. The AD729 A/D as used on Intel® Galileo only supports using an internal reference voltage.
Q: What resolution does Intel® Galileo support for analogRead()?
By default, Intel® Galileo supports 10-bit resolution for analogRead(). The resolution can be increased to 12-bit resolution using analogReadResolution().
Q: What baud rate does the Intel® Galileo UART support?
Intel® Galileo supports the following baud rates via Serial.begin(): 50, 75, 110, 134, 150, 200, 300, 600, 1200, 1800, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200, 230400, 460800, and 500000.
The Intel® Quark SoC X1000 supports a baud rate up to 2764800 but this support is not yet added in the Arduino* IDE.
Q: How does Intel® Galileo provide Real Time Clock (RTC) support?
On the board, there is a header marked as “Coin”. This header can be used to attach a coin cell header and battery (for example, a CR2032). The coin cell battery powers the RTC and CMOS memory in the Intel® Quark SoC X1000 when Intel® Galileo is not connected to a power supply. This allows the time and date values to be preserved between power cycles of the board.