Or another reason to go with a real computer on eBay vs a RPi and loads of other equipment.
In 2013, Intel made an attempt to make x86 suitable for embedded purposes with the Intel Quark microcontroller:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quark
and branded developer boards for it under the name Intel Galileo:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Galileo
As far as I aware the markets rather preferred existing microcontroller solutions instead of Intel's offer.
Intel did go far in set top boxes and smart TVs with their atom/canmore (SoC, not MCU) platform in ~2008 and onward. I ported some media software to it. I think a lot of that has been given back to ARM and Android since, however.
x86 routers are great. x86 phones aren't awful, and could have been amazing if Intel didn't cancel them right before Microsoft released Continuum.
Not sure if I've seen a smart thermostat on x86, but I dunno sure, as long as its got a common wire do it can pull power, should be fine.
Eating up life-cycles with broadcom/infineon issues sounds like one of the circles of hell , personally.
And yeah, I do in fact have an x86 router: it's probably going to last for a decade, with software updates and all.
And the Pi is not the only thing to use that chip, it’s just very popular.
So even if one’s attitude is “get a real computer” like the first post in this thread you may still find yourself with this same chip.
1. The chip works perfectly but it's documented badly/ wrongly, e.g. doesn't spell out the whole strategy needed for a periodic key renewal or does so confusingly - driver is written to match the docs or at least the best understanding of these docs, and unfortunately this defect arises after 10 hours but devs with the actual docs have never tested for that long.
2. The chip has a bug, it's not possible to use it correctly per se. Every few hours, just reset it and start over, thus a "good" driver should do resets when quiescent. e.g. After 2 hours, if you did no work for 60 seconds, reset it, after 4 hours make that 15 seconds, after 6 hours, 5 seconds, after 7 hours immediately on quiescence, and after 8 hours just reset immediately rather than wait for the bug.
[Edited to fix numerous typographical errors]