Post by curious48 on Jul 13, 2016 16:08:11 GMT
For embedded applications, there is an interesting announcement of a $7.99 board with quad-core ARM and full USB host as well as OTG connections (also: ethernet), in an amazing form factor.
Source:
Smaller & Faster than Raspberry Pi Zero: Meet NanoPi NEO ARM Linux Development Board
Product page:
www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product%2Fproduct&product_id=132
This is what it looks like:
40 mm x 40 mm
The size comparison with the Raspberry Pi Zero is most interesting: 40 x 40 mm, meaning nearly 40% shorter (more than 1/3 its length shaved off, though at the expense of becoming 10mm wider). This is a reduction in size from 1950 sq. mm (or 3.02 sq. in.) to 1600 sq. mm (2.48 sq. in.), or in other words, from 3.54 full standard American postage stamps to 2.9 postage stamps.
I think it's very important to note the size. 40 mm starts being the diameter of a rather large men's watch.
For comparison, to show how tiny this is, here is what 40 mm diameter watch looks like, which is a standard, if somewhat large, watch size:
Nearly there: here is a 40mm diameter watch
Size comparison only, power profile
not appropriate for watch application
There is, of course, a downside: it is entirely headless, no display of any kind (including VGA). You will have to connect to it over ethernet or serial (for which it has developer pins). The power profile is unknown.
Main points of difference between the Raspberry Pi Zero:
- Much beefier, quad-core CPU.
- Taller vertically with default connectors including Ethernet and full USB + USB OTG + 2 more USB header pins (+ audio + IR).
- Amazing 40x40mm footprint
- $7.99 in 256 MB RAM configuration, $9.99 with 512 RAM
Likely to be available in large quantities for embedded application.
Unlike the Raspberry Pi Zero, we would expect support to be very poor, and also there is no HAT compatibility.
But congratulations to the Nano Pi team on a breakthrough form factor. Wow.
Click the source link for full(er) specifications, and feel free to leave your comments below!
Specifications (based on above link):
No screen or video out of any kind. SoC pins may support it, but no headers.
Price:
$7.99 @ 256 MB RAM / $9.99 @ 512 MB RAM
The NanoPi NEO ARM is very likely to give any other IoT boards a run for their money; provided that a headless application is appropriate. They're by far the smallest board we've seen in this price range. Check them out.
Admin note: our board is independent and does not receive affiliate fees. Our host, proboards, redirects to the provided link, for example we linked the product page as www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product%2Fproduct&product_id=132 which is accessed via a redirect from redirect.viglink.com/?key=bbb516d91daee20498798694a42dd559&u=http%3A//www.friendlyarm.com/index.php%3Froute%3Dproduct%252Fproduct%26product_id%3D132 If you click on any link, you should immediately end up at the actual link any poster included.
We do not have control over this, we do not receive any affiliate compensation, and we do not add the affiliate links. (Indeed, this practice should stop any spammers completely, since their affiliate links would be rewritten by the host.) Neither this nor any other post is an advertisement or paid content. If you wish to see the links as we included them, you can click "Quote" and they should be shown as written (use BBCode mode.)
Source:
Smaller & Faster than Raspberry Pi Zero: Meet NanoPi NEO ARM Linux Development Board
Product page:
www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product%2Fproduct&product_id=132
This is what it looks like:
40 mm x 40 mm
The size comparison with the Raspberry Pi Zero is most interesting: 40 x 40 mm, meaning nearly 40% shorter (more than 1/3 its length shaved off, though at the expense of becoming 10mm wider). This is a reduction in size from 1950 sq. mm (or 3.02 sq. in.) to 1600 sq. mm (2.48 sq. in.), or in other words, from 3.54 full standard American postage stamps to 2.9 postage stamps.
I think it's very important to note the size. 40 mm starts being the diameter of a rather large men's watch.
For comparison, to show how tiny this is, here is what 40 mm diameter watch looks like, which is a standard, if somewhat large, watch size:
Nearly there: here is a 40mm diameter watch
Size comparison only, power profile
not appropriate for watch application
As such, I consider it an astounding breakthrough in size for certain embedded applications. Of course, this is just to show how mind-bogglingly small this is. It is not yet small enough for a watch-size (and has a vertical height determined by the full USB and Ethernet), to say nothing about the inappropriate power profile of any ARM chip - but it is starting to approach the holy grail of an embeddable Raspberry Pi Zero-like PC. It should be absolutely perfect for a variety of IoT applications.
There is, of course, a downside: it is entirely headless, no display of any kind (including VGA). You will have to connect to it over ethernet or serial (for which it has developer pins). The power profile is unknown.
Main points of difference between the Raspberry Pi Zero:
- Much beefier, quad-core CPU.
- Taller vertically with default connectors including Ethernet and full USB + USB OTG + 2 more USB header pins (+ audio + IR).
- Amazing 40x40mm footprint
- $7.99 in 256 MB RAM configuration, $9.99 with 512 RAM
Likely to be available in large quantities for embedded application.
Unlike the Raspberry Pi Zero, we would expect support to be very poor, and also there is no HAT compatibility.
But congratulations to the Nano Pi team on a breakthrough form factor. Wow.
Click the source link for full(er) specifications, and feel free to leave your comments below!
Specifications (based on above link):
- SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.2 GHz with an ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU up to 600 MHz
- System Memory – 256 or 512 MB DDR3
- Storage – micro SD card slot
- Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet
- USB – 1x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port + 2x USB via headers
- Expansion headers: 24-pin header with I2C, 2x UART, SPI, PWM, and power signals
- Expansion headers (other side): 12-pin header with 2x USB, IR pin, microphone and Line OUT signals
- Debugging – 4-pin header for serial console
- Misc – Power and status LEDs
- Power Supply – 5V/2A via micro USB port or VDD pin on headers.
- Dimensions – 40 x 40 mm (Raspberry Pi Zero: 65mm × 30mm)
No screen or video out of any kind. SoC pins may support it, but no headers.
Price:
$7.99 @ 256 MB RAM / $9.99 @ 512 MB RAM
The NanoPi NEO ARM is very likely to give any other IoT boards a run for their money; provided that a headless application is appropriate. They're by far the smallest board we've seen in this price range. Check them out.
Admin note: our board is independent and does not receive affiliate fees. Our host, proboards, redirects to the provided link, for example we linked the product page as www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product%2Fproduct&product_id=132 which is accessed via a redirect from redirect.viglink.com/?key=bbb516d91daee20498798694a42dd559&u=http%3A//www.friendlyarm.com/index.php%3Froute%3Dproduct%252Fproduct%26product_id%3D132 If you click on any link, you should immediately end up at the actual link any poster included.
We do not have control over this, we do not receive any affiliate compensation, and we do not add the affiliate links. (Indeed, this practice should stop any spammers completely, since their affiliate links would be rewritten by the host.) Neither this nor any other post is an advertisement or paid content. If you wish to see the links as we included them, you can click "Quote" and they should be shown as written (use BBCode mode.)
