Donald Norris - Programming the Intel Edison: Getting Started with Processing and Python

About the Author

Donald Norris has a degree in electrical engineering and an MBA specializing in production management. He is currently teaching undergrad and grad courses in the IT subject area at Southern New Hampshire University. He has also created and taught several robotics courses there. He has over 30 years of teaching experience as an adjunct professor at a variety of colleges and universities.

Mr. Norris retired from civilian government service with the U.S. Navy, where he specialized in acoustics related to nuclear submarines and associated advanced digital signal processing. Since then, he has spent more than 20 years as a professional software developer using C, C#, C + +, Python, Node.js, and Java, as well as 5 years as a certified IT security consultant.

Mr. Norris started a consultancy, Norris Embedded Software Solutions (dba NESS LLC), which specializes in developing application solutions using microprocessors and microcontrollers. He likes to think of himself as a perpetual hobbyist and geek and is always trying out new approaches and out-of-the-box experiments. He is a licensed private pilot, photography buff, amateur radio operator, avid runner, and, last but very important, a grandfather to a brand new baby girlheres to you, Evangeline.

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This book is dedicated to Linda Norris, who is a kind, loving, and generous person, and mother to Shauna, Heath, and Derek. She is also Mimi to grandchildren Hudson and Evangeline.

This book will serve both as an introduction to the Intel Edison computing module and also as a reliable and concise Getting Started Guide for interested readers. This computing module was introduced at the Intel Developers Forum 2014 held in San Francisco on September 10, 2014. Intel described the Edisons value as follows:

The Intel Edison development platform is designed to lower the barriers to entry for a range of inventors, entrepreneurs, and consumer product designers to rapidly prototype and produce IoT and wearable computing products.

The Edisons form factor, which will be described in detail later, is most definitely slated for applications demanding extremely compact hardware and, simultaneously, consuming miniscule power.

The Edison computing module is the latest in a progression of embedded technology devices that Intel has created over a long time frame. The Galileo Gen 2 development board was the most recent technology platform that just preceded the Edison. In many ways, the Galileo and Edison are quite similar except for one key aspect: The Galileo board may be used as is, meaning that all it needs is a power supply and interconnectivity to be accessed and operated. The Edison, on the other hand, requires some type of support board to provide both power and interconnectivity. The Edisons need for a support board is the reason that I believe Intel labeled it as a computing module instead of a development board.

The Edison contains some remarkable hardware despite its very small size. It was purposefully designed to be used as a very capable embedded control module operating within an encompassing system. Intels design philosophy was to make the module extremely compact with ultra-low power consumption. These attributes make it ideal to function as a wearable computer, which is described in much greater detail later in the book.

The foregoing was just a brief glimpse into what I will discuss in much greater detail in this book. Lets now delve into the Edison and see what makes it tick.

In this chapter, I will show you what makes up the Intel Edison computing module and introduce two supporting development boards that will be used in programming the Edison as well as allowing it to connect with other system components.

to see if the Quark supporting software has become available. I am sure that informative examples will also be provided to help you utilize the coprocessor.