Raspberry Pi supplies are improving, but trust may be hard to rebuild with makers

Raspberry Pi CM4 stock August 1

Last December, Eben Upon provided an update about Raspberry Pi availability and expected “unlimited supplied” by H2 2023. Nine months later, Raspberry Pi supplies have indeed improved a lot. Still, some makers with small-volume production have already moved on, and are using alternative solutions. This seems especially true for products based on Raspberry Pi CM4 modules. Tom’s Hardware has just had a fresh look at the Raspberry Pi supply situation, and based on Eben’s tweets noted an increased number of Raspberry Pi boards had shipped in 2023. Eben said June was the second-best month ever for Raspberry Pi Trading with 788,000 units sold, and July looks to breach if the one million units a month is reached, beating the March 2021 records of 814k units. He further expanded saying 119k Zero boards, of which 33k Zero 2 boards (almost entirely consumer), and estimated around 250-400ku went to the retail market. […]

Youyeetoo X1 – A Compact Intel Jasper Lake SBC going for $110 and up

Youyeetoo X1 SBC

Youyeetoo X1 is a compact Intel Celeron N5105 Jasper Lake SBC with up to 16GB RAM, optional eMMC flash of up to 256GB capacity, support for an M.2 NVMe or SATA SSD,  up to three video outputs, Gigabit Ethernet, and optional WiFi and Bluetooth or 4G LTE connectivity. In some ways, it reminds me of the Zimaboard, but the X1 SBC comes with an 11th Gen Jasper Lake processor instead of a 7th Gen Apollo Lake processor, it’s cooled with a fan and heatsink instead of being fanless and does offer more I/Os. Youteetoo X1 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N5105 quad-core Jasper Lake processor @ 2.0 GHz / 2.9GHz (Turbo), with Intel UHD Graphics @ up  to 800MHz; TDP: 10W System Memory – 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB LPDDR4 Storage Optional eMMC flash with 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB capacity M.2 Key-M socket for M.2 2280 NVMe or SATA SSD SATA […]

Liontron Rockchip RK3588 motherboard ships with 32GB RAM for $352

RK3588 motherboard 32GB RAM

We recently noted Firefly had started selling their Rockchip RK3588(S) boards with 32GB RAM, but pricing starts at $469, so lower cost options may be worth a look at, and Liontron sells a Rockchip RK3588 motherboard with 32GB RAM for $352 including shipping (note: it’s a brand new shop started in June 2023). The single board computer also comes with up to 128GB eMMC flash, SATA storage support, HDMI 2.1 video output, three LCD interfaces, dual Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, and more. All that is offered in a low-profile motherboard that’s only marginally thicker (14mm vs 11mm) than the RWA027-RK3588 SBC we covered earlier this week. Liontron RK3588 motherboard specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 CPU -Octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MP4 quad-core GPU with OpenGL ES3.2 / OpenCL 2.2 / Vulkan […]

UP 7000 is a powerful x86 alternative to the Raspberry Pi 4 SBC with an Intel Processor N50/N97/N100 CPU

UP 7000 Alder Lake N Raspberry Pi SBC

AAEON UP 7000 is an x86 single board computer with a layout similar to the Raspberry Pi 4 but based on a more powerful Intel Processor N50, N97, or N100 Alder Lake-N SoC with Gigabit Ethernet, three USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, HDMI 1.4 video output, and a 40-pin GPIO header. Not to be confused with the larger UP Squared Pro 7000 also powered by an Alder Lake-N processor, the UP 7000 is an update to the UP 4000 SBC with an Intel Apollo Lake processor introduced just last year. The new fanless board also comes with up to 8GB LPDDR5, 64GB eMMC flash, and an onboard TPM 2.0. UP 7000 (SKU: UP-ADLN01) specifications: Alder Lake-N SoC Intel Processor N50 dual-core processor up to 3.4 GHz with 6MB cache, 16EU Intel UHD Graphics Gen 12 @ 750 MHz; TDP: 6W Intel Processor N97 quad-core processor up to 3.6 GHz with […]

Banana Pi BPI-R3 Mini – A low-profile 2.5GbE router board powered by MediaTek Filogic 830 SoC

Banana Pi BPI-R3 Mini SBC

Banana Pi BPI-R3 Mini router board is powered by MediaTek MT7986 (Filogic 830) quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with 2GB DDR4, an 8GB eMMC flash, two low-profile 2.5GbE ports, and WiFi 6 support. It also comes with an M.2 PCIe socket that can be used with an NVMe SSD or a 5G cellular module. The BPI-R3 Mini is based on many of the same chips as found on the Banana Pi BPI-R3 board, but with a much more compact design that makes it suitable as a  2.5GbE firewall, wireless router or repeater, home security gateway, home automation gateway, NAS device, and more. Banana Pi BPI-R3 Mini specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT7986A (Filogic 830) quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with hardware acceleration engines for Wi-Fi offloading and networking System Memory – 2GB DDR4 RAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, 128MB NAND flash, M.2 2230 NVMe SSD socket Networking 2x 2.5GbE RJ45 ports via […]

BeagleV-Ahead quad-core RISC-V SBC offers BeagleBone Capes compatibility

BeagleV-Ahead

Beagleboard.org Foundation’s BeagleV-Ahead is a single board computer powered by the T-Head TH1520 quad-core RISC-V processor and following the form factor of the popular BeagleBone Black board based on a Texas Instruments Sitara AM3359 single-core Arm Cortex-A8 processor. The new board looks better in almost every way with a much faster processor, 4GB RAM, 16GB eMMC flash, Gigabit Ethernet, built-in WiFI and Bluetooth, a micro USB 3.0 port, micro HDMI video output up to 4Kp60, etc… and the same 80-pin headers as found on other BeagleBone boards. The main downside is that it comes at a significantly higher price as we’ll see further below. BeagleV-Ahead specifications: SoC – Alibaba T-Head TH1520 CPU – quad-core RISC-V Xuantie C910 (RV64GCV) processor @ up to 2.0 GHz, low power Xuantie E902 core GPU – Imagination BXM-4-64 GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.2, 50.7GFLOPS DSP – Xuantie C906 audio DSP @ […]

LicheePi 4A RISC-V SBC gets 16GB/128GB version, metal enclosure, 10.1-inch display, and more accessories

LicheePi 4A metal enclosure

LicheePi 4A quad-core RISC-V SBC is now available with 16GB RAM and 128GB eMMC flash, and Sipeed has also introduced various accessories such as a metal enclosure, a 10.1-inch touchscreen display, a PoE module, and a camera module. The Lichee Pi 4A board was first unveiled in December 2022, before the beta version launched in May 2023 with 8GB RAM and 8GB flash. Since then Sipeed also started selling an 8GB/32GB model, and now a new version of the T-Head TH1520-powered single board computer is now available with 16GB LPDDR4X and 128GB eMMC flash for $179 plus shipping. LicheePi 4A SBC While pricing is quite different, the LicheePi 4A was launched as a RISC-V alternative to the Raspberry Pi 4 SBC, so here are the specifications of the two boards side-by-side. Sipeed currently provides a Debian image based on Linux 5.10 and built with Yocto, but Linux mainline support is […]

Allwinner A523 octa-core Cortex-A55 processor to show up in tablets, SBCs

Allwinner A523 octa core Cortex A55 processor

Allwinner A523 is an octa-core Cortex-A55 processor clocked at up to 1.4/1.8GHz in big.LITTLE (DynamIQ) configuration and mainly designed for tablets with multiple display interfaces such as two 4-lane MIPI DSPI interfaces, two MIPI CSI camera interfaces, a Mali-G57 GPU, and more. But the block diagram below also shows two Gigabit Ethernet (GMAC) interfaces and HDMI 2.0 output among other interfaces meaning it will likely be used in Smart Home products as the Allwinner R828/MR828, and possibly automotive products as the Allwinner T527. I first discovered the Allwinner A523 last March via a tweet by 柚木 鉉 (GLGH_), but there was little information at that time. We now have further details about the processor and upcoming products such as the Teclast P26T, and a potential Allwinner A523 single board computer or module. Allwinner A523 preliminary specifications: CPU Application – Octa-core Arm Cortex-A55 @ in big.LITTLE configuration with four cores @ […]