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​Intel drops Arduino 101 maker board and Curie module

Intel will stop making its Curie chip for wearables and its Arduino 101 maker board.
Written by Liam Tung, Contributing Writer
curie-button.jpg

An Intel Curie module button-sized prototype.

Image: Intel

Two years after launching the Curie-powered Arduino 101 maker board, Intel is calling it quits on the hardware.

The chipmaker has announced the end-of-life for its Curie Module, which launched in 2015. The module was integrated into the $30 Arduino 101, which became an Intel Quark-based alternative to the more common ARM-based Arduino boards.

With the end of Curie, the Arduino 101 will also shortly be removed from the market, though Intel claims it is "actively working with alternative manufacturers" to continue supplying the Arduino 101.

Intel has recently stepped back from a number of consumer products that it had talked up in 2014, with an eye on the wearables and consumer IoT markets.

In June, Intel announced the end for the Galileo, Joule, and Edison compute modules, but didn't mention Curie.

Last week CNBC reported Intel had axed 80 percent of its Basis smartwatch and fitness-tracker group. Intel's R&D unit, the New Technologies Group, has dropped wearables to focus on augmented reality, according to the report.

Killing Curie and the Arduino 101 effectively ends Intel's maker-market exploration, unless it revives the maker board with another manufacturer.

Curie will be available until September 15 and Intel will stop taking orders for the Arduino 101 on September 17.

"After September 15, 2017, Intel will make its online resources available for review only and maintain availability to the Intel Curie community until June 15, 2020. Files licensed under open source licenses will continue to be generally available in binary and source code on GitHub," Intel notes on its developer forum.

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