I am interested is to compare Galileo and other DIY single board computers. In this post I want to analyze the Galileo board against the popular Rasberry PI. The first thing to note is that the Rasberry PI is not an Arduino compatible platform. However, there are now extension boards available that allow to use Arduino shields with Raspberry PI. Here are to examples: The first is the AlaMode for Raspberry Pi the second is the GertDuino: Add-On Board for Raspberry PI . Both boards are priced in the range of a Rasberry PI. So the combination of a Raspberry PI with an Arduino shield extension puts this solution right where the Galileo board is.
Have a look at the table below. It compares the two single board computer’s hardware. The technical data for the Raspberry PI are taken from WikiPedia.
| Rasberry PI Model A | Rasberry PI Model B | Intel Galileo | |
| Target price: | US$ 25 | US$ 35 | US$69 |
| SoC: | Broadcom BCM2835 (CPU, GPU, DSP, SDRAM, and single USB port) | Intel Quark X1000 | |
| CPU: | 700 MHz ARM1176JZF-S CPU | 400MHz 32-bit x86 Pentium Class CPU | |
| GPU: | Broadcom VideoCore IV @ 250 MHz | none | |
| Memory (DRAM): | 256 MBytes (shared with GPU) | 512 MBytes (shared with GPU) as of 15 October 2012 | 256 Mbyte |
| PCIe ports: | none | PCIe 2.0 | |
| USB 2.0 ports: | 1 Host | 2 Host (from LAN9512) | 1 Host, 2 Device |
| Video input: | A CSI input connector allows for the connection of a RPF designed camera module | none | |
| Video outputs: | Composite RCA (PAL and NTSC), HDMI (rev 1.3 & 1.4), raw LCD Panels via DSI | none | |
| Audio outputs: | 3.5 mm jack, HDMI, and, as of revision 2 boards, I²S audionull | none | |
| Onboard storage: | SD/MMC/SDIO 3.3V card slot | SD/MMC/SDIO 3.3V card slot | |
| Onboard network: | None | 10/100 Ethernet (from LAN9512) | 10/100 Ethernet |
| Low-level peripherals: | 8 × GPIO, UART, I²C bus, SPI bus with two chip selects, I²S audio +3.3 V, +5 V, ground | 16 × GPIO, UART, I²C bus, SPI |
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| Power ratings: | 300 mA (1.5 W) | 700 mA (3.5 W) | 550 mA (1.9-2.2W) |
| Power source: | 5 volt via MicroUSB or GPIO header | 5 Volt | |
| Size: | 85.60 mm × 53.98 mm (3.370 in × 2.125 in) | 106.68 mm x 71.12 mm (4.2 in x 2.8 in) | |
The Raspberry PI uses a SoC chip that was originally designed for the set-top box market. Therefore it shows a nice lineup of features on the video side. The integrated HDMI port and on-chip graphics accelerator are testimony to this. However for IoT applications the Quark X1000 SoC used by Galileo offers a really nice selection of interfaces.