Sharks Cove, Microsoft’s answer to Raspberry Pi, is now available for developers to pre-order.
Originally announced in April, the Sharks Cove development board is now available to pre-order, but it’ll cost you quite a bit more than the Raspberry Pi.
If you pre-order the Sharks Cove from Mouser Electronics, you’ll be required to pay £192.99. The latest Raspberry Pi Model B Plus retails for just under £25, which is quite a difference.
However, Microsoft’s option does offer considering more features and processing power than the Raspberry Pi and the Intel Galileo, which again is significantly cheaper at £42.
“That price not only covers the cost of the hardware, but also includes a Windows 8.1 image and the utilities necessary to apply it to the Sharks Cove,” said Microsoft Senior Developer, Michael Fourre. “When you additionally consider that the Windows Driver Kit 8.1 can pair with Visual Studio Express and are both free with a valid MSDN account, the intial outlay for Windows driver developers is a lot less cost prohibitive than it once was.”
The Sharks Cove runs on a quad-core Intel Atom Z3735G processor with 1GB of RAM and comes with 16GB of EMMC storage. That processor is clocked at 1.33GHz up to 1.88GHz and has 2MB of cache.
Along with a full size HDMI connector, you get a MIPI display connector, USB 2.0, micro USB and a variety of other connectors dotted over the motherboard.
One thing to consider is that the Intel Galileo, although doesn’t offer as many connectors or a copy of Windows 8.1, does come with an Ethernet port. You don’t get one on the Sharks Cove, but you can connect it via USB.
“We’re very excited and proud of the work done to make the Sharks Cove a reality. We are looking forward to seeing the amazing things that can be done with these boards,” added Fourre.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
