Galileo 2 is a microcontroller board based on the Intel® Quark SoC X1000 Application Processor, a 32-bit Intel Pentium-class system on a chip (datasheet). It’s the second generation of the board which is based on Intel® architecture designed to be hardware and software pin-compatible with Arduino shields designed for the Uno R3.

This is the Generation 2 version of the Intel® Galileo Development Board. Whats new with the Intel® Galileo Gen 2 board?

• 6-pin 3.3V USB TTL UART header replaces 3.5 mm jack RS-232 console port for Linux debug. New 6-pin connector mates with standard FTDI* USB serial cable (TTL-232R-3V3) and popular USB-to-Serial breakout boards. 12 GPIOs now fully native for greater speed and improved drive strength.
• 12-bit pulse-width modulation (PWM) for more precise control of servos and smoother response.
• Console UART1 can be redirected to Arduino headers in sketches, eliminating the need for soft-serial in many cases.
• 12V power-over-Ethernet (PoE) capable (PoE module installation required).
• Power regulation system changed to accept power supplies from 7V to 15V.

Digital pins 0 to 13 (and the adjacent AREF and GND pins), Analog inputs 0 to 5, the power header, ICSP header, and the UART port pins (0 and 1), are all in the same locations as on the Arduino Uno R3. This is also known as the Arduino 1.0 pinout.

Galileo is designed to support shields that operate at either 3.3V or 5V. The core operating voltage of Galileo is 3.3V. However, a jumper on the board enables voltage translation to 5V at the I/O pins. This provides support for 5V Uno shields and is the default behavior. By switching the jumper position, the voltage translation can be disabled to provide 3.3V operation at the I/O pins.

Of course, the Galileo board is also software compatible with the Arduino Software Development Environment (IDE), which makes usability and introduction a snap. In addition to Arduino hardware and software compatibility, the Galileo board has several PC industry standard I/O ports and features to expand native usage and capabilities beyond the Arduino shield ecosystem. A full sized mini-PCI Express slot, 100Mb Ethernet port, Micro-SD slot, RS-232 serial port, USB Host port, USB Client port, and 8MByte NOR flash come standard on the board.

Visit the FAQ page for further information.