AAEON has been selling a line of Intel-powered single-board computers with under the UP brand since 2015, and the company’s newest model has… a kind of old processor. But the UP 4000 is still a small, versatile computer that looks like a Raspberry PI, but which supports a range of operating systems including Windows 10 and Linux.
The UP 4000 is available for pre-order now for $116 and up and it’s expected to begin shipping in August, 2022.
Like a Raspberry Pi Model B, the little computer is about the size of a credit card, but features features just about everything you need from a PC except the display, mouse, and keyboard.
AAEON offers models with up to 8GB of LPDDR4-2400 memory and up to 64GB of eMMC storage, and the system is available with three processor options:
- Intel Celeron N3350: 2-cores, 2-threads, 1.1 GHz base / 2.4 GHz burst, 6W TDP, Intel HD 500 graphics
- Intel Pentium N4200: 4-cores, 4-thread, 1.1 GHz base / 2.5 GHz burst / 6W TDP, Intel HD 505 graphics
- Intel Atom x7-E3950: 4-cores, 4-threads, 1.6 GHz base / 2 GHz burst, 12W TDP, Intel HD 505 graphics
Those chips are all based on Intel’s Apollo Lake architecture, which was launched in 2016 as a solution for cost and energy-efficient processors, and which is a few generations old at this point, having been followed by Gemini Lake, Gemini Lake Refresh, and most recently Jasper Lake architecture.
So don’t expect the UP 4000 to be a speed demon. It scores higher than a Raspberry Pi 4 in Geekbench single-core performance, but lower in multi-core performance. And because of the aging processor, it doesn’t meet the minimum system requirements for Windows 11.
But since Apollo Lake chips are based on x86 architecture, there’s support for a wide variety of operating systems including Windows 10 Home, Pro or IoT, most GNU/Linux distributions of BSD-based operating systems, and more.
The input/output options also look pretty versatile, including:
- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C (with DisplayPort 1.2 support)
- 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
- 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A
- 1 x HDMI 1.4b
- 1 x Gigabit Ethernet
The UP 4000 also has a 12V power input, a 40-pin GPIO header, a 6-pin wafer for audio input and output, a real-time clock, and support for an optional upcoming carrier board that add M.2 connectors for storage, cellular connectivity, or other add-ons.
The board measures 85.6 x 56.5mm (3.37″ x 2.22″) and list prices range from $129 for a model with a Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage to $259 for an 8GB/64GB model with a Pentium processor. But all models are on sale for 10% off for customers who pre-order by July 15, 2022.
via FanlessTech
Samsung 128GB micro sd cards are selling for $13 on Amazon… and these boards only work with soldered emmc up to 64GB? Booting from micro sd is a large benefit to using a RPi board.
i hate sd card
why not normal usb A flash?
Just curious, is it actually beneficial to anyone that this board uses the Raspberry Pi’s form factor?
Presumably the benefit is that it can utilize cases that are designed for the Raspberry Pi. However, this board has a drastically different IO port layout, and it has the SOC mounted on the bottom of the board, compared to the Raspberry Pi, which has the SOC mounted on top.
I’m not sure how many Pi cases are going to offer a cooling solution to interface with that bottom-mounted CPU. I know they’re not the first people to put a bottom-mounted SOC on a Pi-shape board, but ARM chips don’t always need heatsinks, and x86 chips absolutely do.
I’m also unsure which ones will have cutouts for those IO ports.
That barrel jack power connector will make this incompatible with most Pi cases as well… But personally speaking, having boards be in the same form factor as the Pi is a great thing because I can use the same cases when I switch to different boards.
Provided the mounting holes are in the same spot as raspberry pi’s, you could maybe stack this board on top of your raspberries.