La Frite

What the La Frite offers

While it can’t hold a candle to the Pi 4, the $15 La Frite comes close to matching the $35 Raspberry Pi 3 B+ in some key respects, using the same underlying Arm-based CPU and even offering faster DDR4 memory.

On paper, the La Frite also promises comparable video playback performance to the Raspberry Pi 3 B+, can output to 1080p displays via HDMI 1.4, and offers two USB 2.0 ports.

As you’d expect there are various cutbacks compared to the Pi and other Raspberry Pi competitors. The board is missing the Raspberry Pi 3 B+’s Wi-Fi support, offers a slightly slower wired Ethernet connection, and has a slightly slower processor.

Specs for the La Frite

• Quad 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 CPU Cores at 1.2GHz

• 2 Geometry + 3 Pixel ARM Mali-450 GPU Cores

• 512MB or 1GB DDR4 @ 2400MHz

• 128Mb SPI NOR

• HDMI 1.4 with 1080P Output

• 100Mb Fast Ethernet

• USB 2.0 Host

• USB 2.0 OTG

• IR Sensor

Where to buy the La Frite

The board is available to buy here for $15.

SEE: Raspberry Pi: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

NanoPi NEO4

What the NanoPi NEO4 offers

One of the cheaper six-core single-board computer to be released, while also boasting relatively modern features like USB 3.0 and support for 4K displays.

But there’s a catch, the board costs $45 but it only comes with 1GB of memory, has slower Wi-Fi, and fewer Type-A USB ports than the 2GB Pi 4, which costs the same price.

If you can work within limitations of the memory, the board also supports reasonably fast data transfer via its USB 3.0 and Gigabit Ethernet ports, as well as offering one USB 2.0 Type-C port. Additionally, there’s potential for adding fast SSD storage via a PCIe x2 interface and 4K video out via HDMI 2.0.

In tests I found the NanoPi NEO4 outperformed the Pi 3 B+in benchmarks, but it once again seemed to be another low-cost board saddled with so-so software support, which often made it painful to use. With the release of the Pi 4, the NanoPi NEO4 is an even harder sell.

NanoPi NEO4 specs

CPU 

Model: Rockchip RK3399; Number of Cores: big.LITTLE, 64-bit Dual Core Cortex-A72 + Quad Core Cortex-A53; Frequency: Cortex-A72 (up to 2.0GHz), Cortex-A53 (up to 1.5GHz) 

GPU 

Mali-T864 GPU, supports OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, DX11, and AFBC 

VPU 

4K VP9 and 4K 10bits H265/H264 60fps decoding, Dual VOP, etc.

Memory

DDR3 RAM 1GB DDR3-1866 

Storage 

eMMC: No Onboard eMMC, but has an eMMC socket 

USB Host 

USB 3.0*1: USB 3.0 Type-A ports; USB Type-C*1: Supports USB2.0 OTG and Power input; USB 2.0*2: USB 2.0 Host, one is Type-A, the other is 2.54mm header

WiFi 

802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 combo module
Antenna Interface
Antenna*1: IPX Connector

Video input

One 4-Lane MIPI CSI, up to 13MPix/s; Video Output: HDMI*1: HDMI 2.0a, supports 4K@60Hz, HDCP 1.4/2

MicroSD Slot 

MicroSD*1 for external storage up to 128GB

LED 

Power LED (Red)*1; GPIO Controlled LED (Green)*1

PCB Dimension 

8 Layer; 60*45mm

Power 

DC 5V/3A 

Where to buy the NanoPi NEO4

Available here for $50.

SEE: Raspberry Pi: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

NanoPi M4

What the NanoPi M4 offers

The NanoPi M4 may boast better specs than the Pi 4 in a few areas, but at $50 is still hard to recommend it over the $45 Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB RAM.

Notable features on the M4 include four USB 3.0 ports, a USB Type-C port, 2GB DDR3 memory, a six-core processor, support for 4K displays and hardware-accelerated 4K video playback, and 64 general-purpose input-output (GPIO) pins for hooking up hardware. It also includes an interface that supports two 13-megapixel cameras.

SEE: Raspberry Pi: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

While the Pi supports a far wider range of open-source operating systems, the NanoPi M4 is listed as supporting Android 7.1, alongside Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop and Ubuntu Core.

It’s also worth noting that some users of recent NanoPi boards, including myself, have also encountered driver problems and system setup issues.

NanoPi M4 specs

CPU

Model: Rockchip RK3399, six cores, 2GHz 64-bit dual-core Cortex-A72 and 1.5GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 

GPU

Mali-T864, supports OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, DX11, and AFBC
Supported codecs – 4K VP9 and 4K 10bits H265/H264 60fps decoding, Dual VOP 

Memory

Dual-channel 4GB LPDDR3-1866 (for an additional $30) or dual-channel 2GB DDR3-1866 

Storage

eMMC: no Onboard eMMC, but has a eMMC socketMicroSD
Slot: MicroSD for external storage up to 128GB 

Connectivity

Gigabit Ethernet  

WiFi: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo module, dual antenna interface 

Audio

3.5mm dual-channel headphone jack, or HDMI 

Audio Input

Microphone input interface 

Video Input

One or two four-Lane MIPI-CSI, dual ISP, up to 13MPix/s, supports simultaneous input of dual camera data

Video Output

HDMI 2.0a, supports 4K@60Hz, HDCP 1.4/2.24-Lane MIPI-DSI*1 

USB

4 x USB 3.0 Type-A ports 

USB Type-C: Supports USB2.0 OTG and power input 

2 x USB Host, included in GPIO2 2.54mm pitch pin header 

Pin-headers

40-pin GPIO, 2.54mm pitch pin-header
3 x 3V/1.8V I2C, up to 1 x 3V UART, 1 x 3V SPI, 1 x SPDIF_TX, up to 8 x 3V GPIOs, 1.8V 8 channels I2S
24-pin GPIO, 2.54mm pitch pin-header
2 x independent native USB 2.0 Host interfaces, PCIe x2, PWM, PowerKey
Serial Debug Port: 2.54mm pitch four-pin-header, 3V level, 1500000bps

LED

Power LED (Red), GPIO Controlled LED (Green) 

Others

RTC: Two-pin 1.27/1.25mm RTC battery input connector. Working Temperature: -20u2103 to 70u2103

Power

DC 5V/3A 

Where to buy the NanoPi M4

Available to buy here for $50.

Orange Pi 3

What the Orange Pi 3 offers

Orange Pi’s latest flagship board offers a few improvements over the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B for the price, such as more memory and double the number of USB 3.0 ports, but it’s a hard board to recommend.

The latest board in the Orange Pi family, the Orange Pi 3, packs a quad-core 1.8GHz CPU, 2GB DDR3 RAM, four USB 3.0 ports, support for 4K displays via HDMI 2.0a, Gigabit Ethernet, onboard mPCIe 2.0, and Bluetooth 5.0.

The makers of the Orange Pi 3 suggest their board has a similar range of uses to Raspberry Pi, from desktop computer to media center.

Android 7, Ubuntu, and Debian are listed as officially supported operating systems on the Orange Pi 3 and are available to download here.

However, it’s worth noting that in testing I found the board’s theoretical power to be difficult to tease out, with the software provided being so buggy that even basic features were hobbled and broken. 

The Orange Pi 3 also lacks the expandability of the Raspberry Pi, as it only has a 26-pin header for hooking up the machine to other electronics.

Orange Pi 3 specs

CPU

H6 Quad-core 64-bit 1.8GHZ ARM Cortex-A53 

GPU

High-performance multi-core GPU Mali T720
OpenGL ES3.1/3.0/2.0/1.1
Microsoft DirectX 11 FL9_3
ASTC (Adaptive Scalable Texture Compression)
Floating point operation greater than 70 GFLOPS 

Memory + Onboard Storage

Four Types:
1GB LPDDR3 (shared with GPU)+EMMC (Default Empty)
2GB LPDDR3 (shared with GPU)+EMMC (Default Empty)
1GB LPDDR3 (shared with GPU)+8GB EMMC Flash
2GB LPDDR3 (shared with GPU)+8GB EMMC Flash

Connectivity

AP6256, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, BT5.0 

Onboard Network

10/100M/1000M, ethernet RJ45 

Audio Input

Mic

Audio Output

HDMI 2.0a and 3.5 mm AV Jack 

Video Output

HDMI 2.0a and CVBS

Video Decoding

H265/HEVC Main/Main10 profile@Level5.2 High-tier; 4K@60fps, up to 6Kx4K@30fps
H264/AVC BP/MP/HP@level5.1, MVC, 4K@30fps
VP9, Profile 0/2, 4K@30fps
AVS+/AVS JIZHUN profile@level 6.0, 1080P@60fps 

PCIE

Supports RC mode
Supports x1 Gen2 (5.0Gbps) lane
Complies with PCI Express Base 2.0 Specification 

Power Source

DC input, MicroUSB (OTG)
PMU
AXP805 

USB

1*USB 2.0 Host, 1*USB OTG 2.0
4*USB 3.0 Host 

Low-level peripherals

26-pin
GPIO (1×3) pin
UART, ground 

LED

Power LED, Status LED, and USB 3.0 LED 

IR

Yes

Supported OS

Android 7.0, Ubuntu, Debian 

Where to buy the Orange Pi 3

The Orange Pi 3 is available to buy here for $35, with a 1GB version also available for $30. The boards are also available with 1GB RAM / 8GB eMMC Flash storage for $35 and 2GB RAM / 8GB eMMC Flash storage for $40.

SEE: Raspberry Pi: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

Rock Pi 4

What the Rock Pi 4 offers

The Rock Pi 4 promises a decent balance between price and power. The Rock Pi 4 starts at $39, making it the cheapest single-board computer based on the powerful Rockchip RK3399 system-on-a-chip.

The processor is capable for the price, with a dual-core 2.0GHz Arm Cortex-A72 paired with a quad-core 1.5GHz Arm Cortex-A53, smooth 4K playback is possible with the right media player courtesy of the HDMI 2.0 port and Mali-T864 GPU, fast SSD storage is also an option, via an M.2 interface supporting up to a 2TB NVMe SSD, and the ability to add up to 128GB eMMC storage to the board. The memory is relatively fast — 64-bit, dual-channel 3,200Mb/s LPDDR4 — and ranges from 1GB ($39) to 4GB ($75).

Portwise, there are four USB Type-A ports — one USB 3.0 host, one USB 3.0 OTG, and two USB 2.0 hosts. There’s also a 40-pin expansion header for connecting to other electronics, though this isn’t 100% GPIO compatible with the header on the Raspberry Pi. The $39 Model A lacks wireless connectivity, while the $49 Model B offers 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0.

The board supports more Linux distributions than some Raspberry Pi rivals, including: Android, Android TV, Debian, Ubuntu Server, Armbian 5.67, and retro-games OS Recalbox.

In testing the $75 Rock Pi 4 Model B, TechRepublic found the board comprehensively outperformed the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ and the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, but that both the Android and Debian images suffered from some instability and jankiness. The Rock Pi 4 Model B also came with a heatsink, so board wouldn’t fit into most Raspberry Pi cases.

Specs for the Rock Pi 4

 
CPU

64-bit hexa core processor dual core 1.8GHz Cortex-A72 with quad 1.4GHz Cortex-A53 

GPU

Mali T860MP4 supports OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1/3.2, Vulkan 1.0, Open CL 1.1 1.2, DX11 

Memory

64-bit dual channel LPDDR4@3200Mb/s between 1GB and 4GB 

Storage

Optional industrial compatible high performance eMMC module, 8/16/32/64/128GB available. uSD slot supports up to 128G uSD card. M.2 connector supports up to 2T M.2 NVME SSD 

Display

HDMI 2.0 up to 4k@60 

Audio

Audio 3.5mm jack with mic, HD codec that supports up to 24-bit/96kHz audio 

USB

USB 3.0 OTG x1, USB 3.0 HOST x1, USB 2.0 HOST x2 

Connectivity

Gigabit Ethernet with PoE support (requires additional HAT), 802.11 ac Wi-Fi & Bluetooth 5.0 (Model B only) 

Peripherals

MIPI DSI 2 lanes via FPC connector, HDMI and MIPI DSI can work at the same time, support mirror mode or extend mode, Camera MIPI CSI MIPI CSI 2 lanes via FPC connector, support up to 800MP camera 

Expansion

1 x UART, 2 x SPI bus, 2 x I2C bus, 1 x PCM/I2S, 1 x SPDIF, 1 x PWM, 1 x ADC, 6 x GPIO, 2 x 5V DC power in, 2 x 3.3V power pin 

Size

85mm x 54mm

Other

RTC battery connector for time backup (optional) 

Power

Supports USB Type-C PD 2.0, 9V/2A, 12V/2A, 15V/2A, 20V/2A power supplies. Qualcomm Quick Charge, supports QC3.0/2.0 adapter, 9V/2A, 12V/1.5A 

Where to buy the Rock Pi 4

The Rock Pi Model A costs $39 with 1GB, $49 with 2GB, and $65 with 4GB. The Model B, which adds wireless 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0, sells for $49 for 1GB, $59 for 2GB, and $75 for 4GB.
The Rock Pi 4 is available from various authorized resellers and you can get more information here.

SEE: Raspberry Pi: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

Pine H64 Model B

What the Pine H64 Model B offers

The Pine H64 Model B is again a hard sell compared to the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, due to the Pi offering largely better specs at a lower price.

The H64 sports up to 3GB memory, is capable of 4K video playback on paper, has USB 3.0, HDMI 2.0, and Gigabit Ethernet. However, it has fewer USB ports overall than the Raspberry Pi 3 or 4.

The board succeeds last year’s Pine H64 Model A, with the main improvement being support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Thanks to the possibility of hooking up storage, Wi-Fi cards, or USB 3.1 to the board’s mini-PCIe interface, the Pine H64 could be used as network-attached storage or as a server, on top of the usual use case of a software and hardware development board.

Unlike the Raspberry Pi, only a couple of operating systems, Armbian and Android 7.0, are officially supported by the single-board computer.

Pine H64 Model B specs

System-on-a-chip

Allwinner H6 

CPU

Quad-core, Arm Cortex A53-based processor 

GPU

Dual-core Mali-T720 MP2 

Memory

2/3GB LPDDR3 

Storage

eMMC flash module, micro SD card (bootable), 128 Mbit SPI flash 

Video

HDMI 2.0a output 

Audio

3.5mm stereo earphone/mic plug 

Connectivity

Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 

USB

2 x USB 2.0 host, 1 x USB 3.0 host 

Expansion

2 x 20 Raspberry Pi 2-compatible GPIO header, mini-PCIe connector, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module header, SDIO 3.0 and UART 

Misc.

IR receiver 

Where to buy the Pine H64 Model B

The board is available with The board is available with 2GB for $38.95 and 3GB for $48.95.

SEE: Raspberry Pi: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

Odroid-N2

What the Odroid-N2 offers

The $79 Odroid-N2 improves on the $55 Raspberry Pi 4 Model B in some respects, offering a faster CPU that is able to switch between four high-power and two low-power cores as needed.

It also doubles the number of USB 3.0 ports and includes up to 128GB of eMMC Flash storage. But it also falls short of the Pi 4 in some significant areas, lacking the Pi 4’s support for dual displays and built-in Wi-Fi — which makes it hard to recommend when it costs more than $20 more. 

Operating system-wise, it supports Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Android 9.0 Pie, although these are works in progress, with some features still being developed.

Odroid-N2 Specs

Form Factor
Dimensions: 90mm x 90mm x 17mm 
Heatsink Dimensions: 100mm x 91mm x 24mm 
Weight: 190g including heatsink

Processor
CPU: Amlogic S922X Processor (12nm) Quad-core Cortex-A73(1.8Ghz) and Dual-core Cortex-A53(1.9Ghz). ARMv8-A architecture with Neon and Crypto extensions 
GPU: Mali-G52 GPU with 6 x Execution Engines (846Mhz)

Memory
2GB or 4GB DDR4 with 32-bit bus width 
Data rate: 2640 MT/s (PC4-21333 grade) 1.2 Volt low power design

Storage
1 x eMMC connector (8G, 16G, 32G, 64G and 128G are available) 
1 x microSD slot (DS/HS modes up to UHS-I SDR104)

Networking
1 x GbE LAN ports (RJ45, supports 10/100/1000 Mbps) – Realtek RTL8211F (Ethernet transceiver) – LED indicators (Green: 100mbps, Amber: 1000mbps connection) 
Optional WiFi USB adapters

Video
1 x HDMI 2.1 (up to 4K@60Hz with HDR, CEC, EDID) 
1 x Composite video (3.5mm jack)

Audio
1 x Stereo Audio line-out (3.5mm jack) 
1 x HDMI digital output 
1 x Optional SPDIF optical output

External I/O
4 x USB 3.0 Host ports (shares one single root hub) 
1 x USB 2.0 OTG port for Host or Device mode. (No power input) 
1 x Debug serial console (UART) 
1 x Peripheral Expansion Header (40-pin, 2.54mm pitch) – 
2 x DC 5V, 2 x DC 3.3V, 1 x DC 1.8V, 8 x GND – 1 x SPI – 1 x UART – 2 x I2C – 25 x GPIO (Max) – 2 x ADC input (10bit, 1.8V Max) – All 3.3V I/O signal level except for ADC input at max 1.8Volt.

Other features
On board RTC(Real Time Clock), IC to keep date and time 
8MiB SPI Flash for future BIOS implementation 
IR receiver for remote controller 
Built with a large passive heatsink System 
LEDS Indicators: – Red (PWR) – Solid light when DC power is connected – Blue (ALIVE) – Flashing like heartbeat while Kernel is running. 
Active Cooling Fan Connector (5V 2-pin) – Optional 60x60mm Active Cooling Fan – Connector (2-pin, 1.25mm pitch)

Power
1 x DC jack : outer (negative) diameter 5.5mm, inner(positive) diameter 2.1mm 
DC 7.5V ~ 20V (up to 25W) – DC 12V/2A power adaptor is recommended 

Power consumption: – IDLE : u2243 1.9W (Performance governor) – CPU Stress : u2243 5.5W – Power-off : u2243 0.2W

Where to buy the Odroid-N2

The board is available to buy here for $79.

SEE: Raspberry Pi: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

Pyboard D-series

What does the Pyboard D-series offer?

The Pyboard D-series‘ ace-in-the-hole is its efficiency, with the board running MicroPython, a version of the Python 3.4 programming language customized to run on low-power microcontrollers with as little as 16KB of RAM.

Performance is further bolstered by not running a Linux-based OS, with MicroPython instead running bare-metal on the Pyboard, described by the board’s makers as “like having a Python operating system”.

However, while the Pyboard D-series may have trimmed performance overheads, the hardware is modest, offering a 216MHz CPU and ~256KB RAM, as part of the Pyboard D-series’ STM32F722 microcontroller.

The downside of the new board is its price, which at u00a343.80 (~$58), is considerably more than the $10 Raspberry Pi Zero W and $25 PocketBeagle.

Despite this cost difference and the Pyboard’s CPU’s relatively low clock speed, there’s debate over whether the optimizations on the Pyboard mean it’s capable of running embedded applications more rapidly than the 1GHz CPU found on the Pi Zero.

Pyboard D-series specs

• STM32F722IEK microcontroller

• 216 MHz Cortex M7 CPU with single-precision hardware floating point

• 512KiB internal flash ROM and 256KiB internal RAM

• 2MiB external QSPI flash with execute capabilities to extend internal flash

• Additional 2MiB external QSPI flash for user filesystem and storage

• Integrated, high-performance WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 (classic and BLE) via Murata 1DX module (with CYW4343)

• TCP/IP and Bluetooth stacks run on the main microcontroller, fully customisable

• On-board fractal chip antenna for WiFi and Bluetooth

• uFL connector for attaching external antenna, selectable via RF switch

• Micro USB connector for power and serial communication

• Micro SD card slot, supporting standard and high capacity SD cards

• Real time clock with highly accurate pre-calibrated external oscillator

• Physical electrical connectivity via 24 through holes, and a 40+40 pin mezzanine bus connector

• 46 independent GPIO, with 24 available via through holes

• Additional 11 GPIO shared with SD card, USB, USR button, BT audio

• 2x I2Cs, 4x UARTs, 3x SPIs, 1x CAN interfaces

• 3x 12-bit analog to digital converters (ADC), available on 16 independent pins

• 2x 12-bit digital to analog converters (DAC), available on 2 independent pins

• 1x 3-colour RGB LED

• 1 reset and 1 user button

• On-board 3.3V LDO voltage regulator to supply main microcontroller

• Additional, user switchable, on-board 3.3V LDO voltage regulator to power SD card and external components

• Dimensions: 33.5mm x 23.8mm

• 2 mounting points

• Custom DFU bootloader for easy upgrading of firmware

Where to buy the Python D-series?

The board is available for board is available for u00a343.80, for u00a358 with an additional high-speed USB interface and for $69 with a different model of microcontroller.

SEE: Raspberry Pi: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

Nvidia Jetson Nano

What the Nvidia Jetson Nano offers

The $99 Jetson Nano Developer Kit is a board tailored for running machine-learning models and using them to carry out computer vision.

Nvidia has shown the board being used to highlight people and cars captured by CCTV streams, running real-time object detection on eight 1080p30 streams simultaneously, using a ResNet-based model running at full resolution and handling a throughput of 500 megapixels per second.

The tiny board packs an Arm-based CPU and Nvidia GPU, based on the 2014 Maxwell architecture, which together deliver 472 GFLOPs of compute performance and consume as little as five watts.

Nvidia has released a series of benchmarks showing the Jetson Nano outperforming competitors when running various computer vision models. The results show the Jetson Nano beating the $35 Raspberry Pi 3 (no mention of the model), the Pi 3 with a $90 Intel Neural Compute Stick 2, and the newly released Google Coral board that uses the Edge TPU (Tensor Processing Unit).

SEE: Raspberry Pi: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

However, it’s not all good news for the Nano. A third-party Pi 4 benchmark measuring how it ran trained TensorFlow Lite image-recognition models showed it outperforming the Nvidia Jetson Nano board, despite the gulf in price between the two boards.

Nvidia Jetson specs

CPU
64-bit Quad-core ARM A57 @ 1.43GHz

GPU
128-core NVIDIA Maxwell @ 921MHz

Memory
4GB 64-bit LPDDR4 @ 1600MHz | 25.6 GB/s

Video Encoder*
4Kp30 | (4x) 1080p30 | (2x) 1080p60

Video Decoder*
4Kp60 | (2x) 4Kp30 | (8x) 1080p30 | (4x) 1080p60
USB
4x USB 3.0 A (Host) | USB 2.0 Micro B (Device)

Camera
MIPI CSI-2 x2 (15-position Flex Connector)

Display
HDMI | DisplayPort

Networking
Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45)

Storage
MicroSD card (16GB UHS-1 recommended minimum)

Other I/O
(3x) I2C | (2x) SPI | UART | I2S | GPIOs
M.2 Key-E with PCIe x1

Where to buy the Nvidia Jetson?

The Jetson Nano Developer Kit is available her for $99.