Intel and Microsoft working on developer boards for Windows

Intel will release a motherboard with Atom chip for developers in the second half of 2014 at the initiative of Microsoft. The board, codenamed Sharks Cove, should make it cheaper and easier for developers to make Windows drivers for tablets, for example.

Microsoft admits developing Windows drivers for systems with socs. “Unlike PCs, which have PCI slots and USB ports, SOC systems such as tablets and clamshells contain energy-efficient internal interfaces that do not have standard connectors, plug-and-play support or similar mechanism,” notes Microsoft. In addition, according to the company, secure boot raises the threshold for the development and testing of drivers.

Intel’s Sharks Cove board should change that. The board has an Atom-soc and the interfaces gpio, i2c, i2s, uart, hdmi, the interface for sd cards and usb. While the parties have not yet announced a price, Sharks Cove should be inexpensive and available to purchase without licenses or other restrictions. Microsoft promises that all drivers for the board will be found in one place on MSDN and that scripts for installing from USB stick will also end up here on the internal memory.

Intel Shark Cove is bringing all the interface capabilities of the Atom soc to developers for driver purposes, but Microsoft is also considering releasing motherboards based on competing soc platforms to encourage Windows driver creation. Microsoft has a version for ARM with Windows RT, the company announced a Windows for the internet of things last week and the group is also working on a variant for the car.