The success of the Raspberry Pi has served as a direct stimulus for other similar projects that aim to create compact computers at a very low cost. The market already offers specific solutions like the Intel Compute Stick, but what we have here is the JaguarBoard, a system with a format similar to the Raspberry Pi, with the enormous difference that it uses an x86 SoC, and under the right conditions it could even run Windows 10.
BitTorrent boxes, dedicated firewalls, arcade machines, servers... I'm just scratching the surface of what can be done with a Raspberry Pi and a pinch of compatible software. What was once a computer intended for educational environments is now a fundamental piece that inspires the imagination of millions of enthusiasts. At the same time, the Raspberry Pi gave way to a whole new generation of competitors that try to strike the exact balance between price and performance. One of those competitors is the JaguarBoard, and like many other developments based on crowdfunding, it comes from China.
With a size of 101.9 by 64.5 millimeters, the JaguarBoard is a bit larger than the Raspberry Pi B+, but the differences don't end there. The computer is based on the Intel Atom Z3735G SoC, a quad-core chip that can reach 1.83 GHz in Burst mode. This forces its creators to use a slightly more robust passive cooling system; however, with 2.2 watts of TDP it doesn't need a fan. RAM amounts to 1 GB, it has 16 GB of integrated storage, a microSD card slot, three USB 2.0 ports (which should help eliminate the need for a hub), HDMI video output, dedicated buttons for volume and power, a 100-megabit Ethernet connector, 3.5mm audio interfaces, and four GPIO pins accompanied by two COM ports on the PCB. The adoption of the x86 architecture allows the JaguarBoard to offer broad operating system compatibility, including the most popular Linux distros, and both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.
The JaguarBoard reached Kickstarter looking for a minimum sum of three thousand dollars to start its production phase, and consumers responded by investing just over 40 thousand, which should guarantee a good number of units. At the end of the campaign, all stock of the JaguarBoard at a price of 45 dollars was sold out, and the store is not yet ready on its official page, but the first shipments are scheduled for this same month, so we are going to assume that there will be additional computers in the short term.
