Microsoft and Intel have created their own Raspberry Pi-style board

Intel may reign supreme in the desktop and laptop space, but ARM is eating its lunch almost everywhere else. That’s not something the chipmaker can ignore, which is why it’s having another crack at the hobby/developer market with Sharks Cove. The board, designed with Microsoft, has the stated aim of helping developers build apps and drivers for Windows and Android devices that use Intel chips. Since it’s also available for everyone else to buy, it could also be quietly positioned as a more powerful alternative to boards like Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Unfortunately, as with the NUC, there’s a catch: the board will retail for $300.

Even Microsoft wants a piece of the development board market made famous by Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Microsoft has teamed up with Intel and hardware maker CircuitCo to design the $300 “Sharks Cove,”now available for pre-order. Described as a “development board that you can use to develop hardware and drivers for Windows and Android,” it contains an Intel Atom Z3735G, a quad-core chip with speeds of 1.33GHz to 1.83GHz. It has 1GB of RAM, 16GB of flash storage, and a MicroSD slot. Microsoft made its pitch in a blog post this past weekend: This “Windows compatible hardware development board” is designed to facilitate development of software and drivers for mobile devices that run Windows, such as phones, tablets, and similar System on a Chip (SoC) platforms. At $299, this is a board that we believe will find a home with Independent Hardware Vendors (IHVs) and hardware enthusiasts alike. That price not only covers the cost of the hardware but also includes a Windows 8.1 image and the utilities necessary to apply it to the Sharks Cove. When you additionally consider that the Windows Driver Kit 8.1 can pair with Visual Studio Express and are both free with a valid MSDN account, the initial outlay for Windows driver developers is a lot less cost prohibitive than it once was.