The folks at FriendlyARM produce a range of single-board computers including a model that basically looks like a Raspberry Pi (but which packs more power), and a few smaller models that are less than half the size, but which are still basically full-fledged computers that could be used for Internet-of-Things applications, or even as a tiny, low-power desktop.
FriendlyARM’s latest mini PC is called the NanoPi Neo Plus2 and at about 40mm x 52mm, it’s half the size of a Raspberry Pi computer. But it has a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of eMMC storage, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.0.
It’s a surprisingly versatile little computer given its small size. And it’s got a reasonably small price too: FriendlyARM sells the NanoPi Neo Plus2 for $25.
The system also has two USB 2.0 ports, a microSD card slot, a micro USB port (for power), and a set of GPIO pins for developers (or for connecting HATs to extend the little computer’s functionalit).
Equipped with an Allwinner H5 processor with Mali-450 graphics, FriendlyARM says the system supports mainline U-boot and Linux and the company offers Ubuntu Core 16 and Debian NAS operating systems. Don’t expected hardware-accelerated graphics in Linux anytime soon, but you might have better luck on that front with Android.
via CNX Software
Allwinner: license-violating shite
I checked out their website: https://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=69
They have several boards that are just plain better than the Raspberry Pi. There are less and less reasons to get an RPi over all these other SBCs.
True, but that last one refuses to go away. Video. If you don’t like an unaccelerated framebuffer you are stuck with the Pi.
Half the size of an RPi 2 / 3, but pretty similar to a Zero / Zero W (though Ethernet and normal USB A jacks are nice), for a higher price…
I got halfway through Googling before realizing that “micro USP port” was probably a typo and not a new standard of small form factor power jack 😛
What uses would accelerated graphics support provide with this device since it doesn’t have any video output? Can people run OpenCL code on the Mali GPU? That’d be interesting.