The Embest MaaXBoard is a single-board computer that looks a lot like a Raspberry Pi with a few extra connectors on the board. But instead of a Broadcom processor, it’s powered by an NXP i.MX8M quad-core chip… the same processor used in Purism’s Librem 5 smartphone.
Embest is selling a MaaXBoard with 2GB of RAM for $60, which makes it about one third the price of similarly-specced PICO-PI-IMX8M I wrote about last week.
Here’s what $60 gets you:
- NXP i.MX8M processor w/4 Cortex-A53 CPU cores + 1 Cortex-M4 core
- 2GB DDR RAM
- USB-C (5V/3A power input)
- USB 3.0 Type-A
- HDMI
- Gigabit Ethernet
- micorSD card reader
- 802.11ac WiFi
- Bluetooth 4.2
- MIPI-DSI display connector
- MIPI-CSI camera connector
- 40-pin GPIO connector (Raspberry Pi compatible)
- Audio expansion headers
- Dual LED lights
There are also three physical buttons on the board. One is for power, while the others can be used as back and home buttons.
Embest says the computer supports Android 9.0 or Yocto Linux, and that it can be used for a range of applications including education, AI and machine vision devices, “family entertainment,” and embedded computing.
via CNX Software and Linux Gizmos
Why is this so expensive?
Cortex-A53 is low power and is old technology.
A Raspberry Pi or any lower-end RK3399 boards will be 2x-3x more powerful and are cheaper.
I am all for OSS drivers but not at 2x the price.
If you’re unwilling to afford 30 $ for OSS (Open Source Software) drivers then saying “I’m all for OSS drivers” is simply untrue. 60 $ for this board is not much and comparing it to boards like the Raspberry Pi based on price only is comparing apples with oranges.
For a lot of applications the performance is more than sufficient and low power consumption a key feature.
Your post should say: Why is this so affordable ? I’m all for OSS drivers, this is great.
a53 boards are so 2016.