‘Designed in Ireland’ Intel Galileo board powers Dublin Maker event

28 Jul 2014

Kate O'Donovan (16) from Clonakilty, Co Cork, at the Intel Galileo hub at this year's Dublin Maker, which took place at Trinity College Dublin this past weekend

Intel this weekend showcased the newly released Galileo Gen 2 development board – designed by a team at the Intel campus in Leixlip, Co Kildare – at the Dublin Maker event at Trinity College Dublin.

The device is the latest in a family of Arduino-certified development boards based on Intel architecture and specifically designed for makers, students, educators, and DIY electronics enthusiasts.

The Galileo Gen 2 is an enhancement of the original Galileo, released in October last year, and this new board, and the Intel Quark SoC X1000 by which it is powered, both continue to be designed in Ireland.

Intel Ireland for the first time this year became involved as a main sponsor of the Dublin Maker event as part of the Festival of Curiosity, Dublin’s science festival.

The design team behind the first and second-generation Galileo boards is led by Philip Moynagh and Noel Murphy, who have guided the project over the last three years from a mere idea to the innovative piece of technology available today.

Since the Quark chip and Galileo board were first released last year, the Leixlip-based design team has grown from an initial group of 70 and is hiring staff into new roles on an ongoing basis.

The team works to identify transformation opportunities, translate them into silicon and software architectures, and build real-world solutions.

The project that has yielded these successes has been supported since its inception by IDA Ireland.

The maker revolution

The Dublin Maker event is a tented festival that takes the form of a ‘show-and-tell’ experience, where inventors/makers sourced through an open call have an opportunity to showcase their creations at individual booths in a carnival atmosphere.

Makers participating at the event ranged from tech enthusiasts to crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, artists, science clubs, students, authors, and commercial exhibitors. They were of all ages and backgrounds, coming from all over Ireland and beyond.

At Saturday’s Dublin Maker event, Intel demonstrated the power of Intel Galileo through a series of creative and diverse technology demos which were brought together in the specially penned ‘Galileo hub’.

Visitors to Dublin Maker, an event which was open to the public and free to attend, had the opportunity to see how artists, designers and other do-it-yourself enthusiasts – who often don’t have technical backgrounds – have created interactive objects or environments using Galileo technology.

Intel is a Silicon Republic Featured Employer, comprised of top tech companies that are hiring now

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com