Back in 2017, WandBoard announced the release of an upcoming Raspberry Pi like SBC based around the NXP i.MX8M Quad applications processor, ARM Cortex-A53 + M4 architecture and Vivante GC7000 GPU called the WandPi 8M. The board was designed around the popular Pi (85 x 56 mm) form factor bringing 4K UltraHD with HDR video quality with pro audio fidelity. WandPi 8M was scheduled for the release in spring of 2018, but ever since WandPi 8M never came to life. It was suggested that the board must have gone to the SBC heaven. Back to 2019, a similar board was discovered recently on Hacker boards called the PICO-PI-IMX8M with almost similar design and specification. The PICO-PI-IMX8M board shown also features the same NXP i.MX8M Quad-core processor and the Vivante GC7000 GPU but relies on PICO-IMX8M system-on-module plus a baseboard inspired by Raspberry Pi form factor, and compatible with (most) HAT […]
UDOO X86 II SBC Combines Intel Braswell SoC with Microchip ATMega32U4 “Arduino” MCU
UDOO X86 development board was first introduced in a crowdfunding campaign in 2016 with a quad-core Intel Braswell processor coupled with an Arduino 101 compatible Intel Curie module for real-time I/O processing. Early July of next year (2019) the Intel processor and module seems to be going so well and have a bright future together with UDOO X86 board and accessories becoming broadly available. But life can be cruel at times, and Intel announced their plan to discontinue Intel Curie and other IoT projects just a few weeks later with the last shipment scheduled for July 2018. SECO, the company behind UDOO, could only order so much stock of Intel Curie module, so they had to design an alternative, and here we are with UDOO X86 II SBC offering many of the same features but replacing Intel Curie module by a Microchip ATmega32U4 MCU compatible with Arduino Leonardo. Two […]
Boardcon Idea3399 Features-Rich SBC Comes with M.2 NVMe SSD and 4G LTE PCIe Sockets
Back in 2017, Boardcon introduced EM3399 single board computer powered by a Rockchip RK3399 processor through the company’s PICO3399 SO-DIMM system-on-module. They’ve now designed another RK3399 SBC – Idea3399 – comprised of a baseboard and module, but instead of re-using the SO-DIMM module, CM3399 system-on-module with castellated holes was used instead. The new board comes with many of the same features as their first board but adds an M.2 NVMe SSD slot and mPCIe socket for 4G LTE modem on the back of the board. CM3399 SoM Key features and specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 dual Cortex-A72 @ 1.8GHz + quad Cortex-A53 @ 1.4GHz System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash 202 castellated pin (1.3mm pitch) with USB2.0 host, USB3.0 host, USB OTG, UART, MIPI, Ethernet, SPI, HDMI out, I2C, I2S, PCI Express, SDIO, SD/MMC, eDP, Camera, PWM, ADC IN, etc… Power – Supply Voltage: 5V; RK808 […]
Whiskey Lake-UE SBC & Fanless Embedded Computer Target Industry 4.0 & AIoT Applications
Industrial AIoT Vecow makes its latest entry into the industrial 4.0 and AIoT application market place with the announcement of the Whiskey Lake-UE based EMBC – 3000 3.5″ SBC and the SPC 5200 slim fanless computer system. The units are extremely similar, and it would seem the EMBC-3000 is inside the SPC-5200, so there are several options for the system features and setups. Whiskey Lake-UE processors, such as Core i7-8665UE, are the embedded, long-lifespan version of Whiskey Lake-U processors. Company Background Vecow has a long history in the embedded industrial computing industry, going back to 2011. Their latest embedded systems are a 3.5 form-factor SBC, the EMBC-3000 and the SPC-5200 slim build embedded computer, both built around the 8th Gen Whiskey Lake-UE processors with 15W TDPs. The EMBC-3000 are available with i-series or Celeron processors. EMBC-3000 SBC Intended Uses and Application The EMBC-3000 has been developed with machine vision and […]
Rock Pi X Intel Cherry Trail Board to Sell for as low as $39
Most low cost (sub $100) single board computers are based on Arm processors because Intel processors are normally more expensive, but there are some exceptions with AAEON Up Board and Atomic Pi both powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor and selling for $99 and $35 respectively. The former follows Raspberry Pi form factor and is easy to use, but the latter requires some more work to wire power supply unless you buy an extra baseboard. There should however soon be a third option for low-cost Intel SBCs with Radxa Rock Pi X board powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8300 Cherry Trail processor and is expected to sell for as little as $39. Rock Pi X just showed up in Hackerboards database, and there will be two models, namely Rock Pi X model A and Rock Pi X model B with the following specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8300 “Cherry […]
$70 NanoPi M4V2 SBC Gets 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, Power & Recovery Buttons
FriendlyELEC NanoPi M4 is a Rockchip RK3399 single board computer that follows Raspberry Pi 3 form factor, and was launched in a year ago for $65 with 2GB RAM, and $95 with 4GB RAM. Raspberry Pi 4 introduction brought some more competition, and helped the prices drop to $50 and $75 respectively. But now the company has launched a revision 2 of the board, NanoPi M4V2 that replaces LPDDR3 memory with faster LPDDR4 memory, adds power & recovery buttons, and the audio jack now also support microphone input. It’s only available with 4GB LPDDR4 memory, and the price is lower at $70. The rest of the specifications are mostly identical: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A72 @ up to 2.0GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5GHz, a Mali-T864 GPU with support OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, DX11, and AFBC, and a VPU with 4K VP9 and […]
NanoPi M4 SBC Metal Case Comes with an NVMe SSD Adapter and Cooling Fan
There are several single board computers that come with NVMe SSD either directly like on ODROID-H2 SBC or indirectly via an expansion board such as M2X extender board for Khadas VIM3. But if you’d like an enclosure for your system it either further adds to the cost, or you need to develop the case yourself. If you’d like an SBC that takes an NVMe SSD in a fairly compact enclosure and at a affordable price (under $100 excluding the SSD), NanoPi M4 metal case kit looks to be a good option and sells for $28 with SSD adapter and fan, or just $26 if you already own the SSD adapter. As a reminder, NanoPi M4 is a Rockchip RK3399 SBC that mostly follows Raspberry Pi form factor comes with 2GB or 4GB RAM with price starting at $50. See NanoPi M4 specifications for more details. One selling point of this […]
FriendlyELEC ZeroPi is a Tiny Allwinner H3 SBC with Gigabit Ethernet & USB, an Optional SPI Flash
Several years ago, FriendlyELEC launched NanoPi NEO board with Allwinner H3 quad-core Cortex-A7 processor followed by NanoPi NEO2 upgrading to the Allwinner H5 64-bit Arm Cortex-A53 processor. Both boards target low-cost headless applications with I/O headers, USB and Ethernet, but while the NEO2 comes with Gigabit Ethernet, NEO SBC only features 10/100M Ethernet. The company has now been working on a new family of boards called ZeroPi that’s very similar to NanoPi NEO boards, but they do not come with any I/O headers, and the first ZeroPi board features Allwinner H3 processor, and Gigabit Ethernet. ZeroPi specifications with highlights in bold or stricken-through showing differences against NanoPi NEO: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad-core Cortex A7 @ 1.2 GHz with an Arm Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 256 or 512 MB DDR3 Storage – MicroSD card slot, unmounted SPI flash Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet via Realtek RTL8211E PHY USB – 1x […]