Intel's MinnowBoard Max coming in late, commanding higher prices

The Max is like the Raspberry Pi, an open-source computer that has taken hobbyists by storm. The Max is a circuit board, with no case, that includes most components of a PC, including a CPU, memory and slots for add-ons such as storage and graphics. It's designed for people who want to build a basic Linux PC and for software developers looking to write x86 applications.

The Max was due to ship in June, priced at US$129 for a board with a dual-core Atom chip and $99 for a single-core board. Two retailers are taking orders for the dual-core board, but they're asking more than the list price. One of the retailers, Mouser, is selling the board for $146. It estimates the dual-core board will ship on Aug. 4. The other, Tigal in the U.K., is going even higher to €135.60 (US$182). Tigal said it hasn't determined a delivery date.

The single-core board will be available shortly, an Intel spokesman said in an email interview. The company did not comment on the retailers' prices.

Apparently, the demand for Max was so high that it disrupted Intel's product shipment plans, according to the MinnowBoard website.

"The dual-core version is available before the single-core because we ordered them for internal development. Purchasing demand has been so high, however, we decided to release some of those to distributors. Single-core parts will be available in the second run of boards, which will follow shortly," Intel said on its website.