These days Intel is presenting these days its new products and its new projects, among which you will find the Intel Joule boards, some hardware boards that work like a minicomputer as well as the brain of intelligent devices and that bring Ubuntu Core, a reduced version of Ubuntu as you well know.
These plates they are not considered as SBC boards rather, the acronyms of SOM or System are attributed in a Module. Far from copyright issues, Intel Joule boards offer the possibility of bringing all the power of Ubuntu Core to the world of IoT or Internet of Things.
Intel Joule has two versions, a version called 570x and another called 550x. The first of them is considered as high-end or is a premium version compared to the other. Both boards feature a 64 and 1,7 Ghz 1,5-bit Intel Atom processor. 4 and 3 gb of ram respectively, an Intel GPU that supports 4K resolution, 16 and 8 Gb of internal storage, multiple connection ports like USB or GPIO, Ubuntu Core as an operating system and support for Intel RealSENSE, an augmented reality camera from Intel.
The price of Intel Joule with Ubuntu Core will be much higher than Raspberry Pi with Ubuntu Core
The price of these boards is far from the classic price offered by Raspberry Pi, being around 300 euros the price of these plates. So comes the well-known question of whether Intel Joule is really an alternative to Raspberry Pi.
Personally I think not, on the one hand because despite having more power, it also has a high price that few will be able to afford and on the other hand because Ubuntu Core does not need so much power to offer the best of it. Already developers of Ubuntu MATE have shown that Ubuntu needs very little and what can be obtained the same with the power of Raspberry Pi, That is why you do not need a large processor such as the Intel Atom 64-bit or 4 Gb of ram, something that on the other hand can be achieved with three Raspberry Pi boards, Ubuntu Core and at a lower price. In any case, it seems that Intel Joule will be a board that Canonical and Ubuntu will consider, although hopefully not for reference.
As usual, very bad wording ...