As many have pointed out, price wise it’s not competitive. But more than that, the main feature of the Pi is its software support. I buy a Pi not because it’s got the top specs but because I know I can load a rock solid OS with security support and I won’t have to think about it. This is a problem for every Pi competitor.
It’s not a rival. It is in a different sector. And it will rise or fall with the availability of software and support.
I don’t know if it’s still the case but kernel support and related was nearly always an issue when I tested Raspi alternatives for building homebrew robots. OS updates were a gamble and support and documentation was not good to say the least. Raspi also has every HAT you can imagine to extend their capabilities too.
Best way for pi alternatives I’ve found is to see which one is the most popular for the project / community I’m working with.
It isn’t always the latest and greatest but at least there will be plenty of support.
I think most of us moved on to X86 by now.
Price of ARM chips has gone up. Price of x86 has come down. X86 comes with a small energy penalty for a huge boost in speed. Also just a more versatile architecture, since most servers run x86.
ARM boards are just a pain to use right now. There’s always some stupid quirk or driver problem and that’s if you even manage to find an up to date image for your chosen OS that works (because I can just about guarantee the ‘generic ARM’ one won’t). Feels like every few months someone announces something that’ll make all these problems go away yet here we are.
It does seem more likely to not have dumb problems when you have a sane x86 bootloader.
I love ARM so much compared to x86, but speaking from a low-cost consumer server perspective, x86 is a great value, and it comes with a no compromises on software compatibility.
What is the difference between x86 and X86?
Autocorrect 😛
I find it interesting, manufacturers of laptops and maybe even desktops, are looking to switch to arm after decades of x86.
And home servers, which have run on arm for years, are now switching to x86
Could you install older windows systems on a single board x86? Like maybe xp? Or windows 7?
Why would you want to?
Because I don’t like Windows 10, and Windows 11 seems like a privacy nightmare.
And Windows XP and 7 are a security nightmare without any support.
Not too long until Windows 10 joins the list and that’s gonna be a real nightmare because there are so many PCs still running Windows 10 that run perfectly fine but aren’t “capable” or running Windows 11. People won’t just throw away their PCs and they can’t upgrade to 11. Sure, some will try Linux but too many won’t and they’ll be easy targets.
My main PC is Windows 7. About 10 years ago I remember I had to do something with the firewall. I remember turning it off. I legit do not remember if I turned it back on.
I really hope you’re joking because that’s a security nightmare.
Don’t forget also the app support, a lot more apps support x86, than ARM.
That’s what I was referring to about versatility
cost less than 200U$D
Some one on the comment section said that
“There’s no innovation here; it uses a Rockchip processor, which is from a Chinese company. Assembling a board with Chinese components isn’t a big deal. I know people who could make an even better board. Innovation would have been if the processor was designed by an Indian company and made entirely in India. But that’s not the case.”
Lol, changing the country of origin doesn’t constitute innovation from a consumer standpoint…
Now if this was using 5nm or chiplit or any of the other buzzwords of the day it could be marketed as innovative in the modern sense of the word.
Realistically there is no innovation left for ARM platforms. They all use the same core schematics. They only control data flow and peripheral IP as a manufacturer, unless they feel like building their own core from the spec (nobody really does that anymore as ARM has been desperately trying to standardize everything). The most “innovation” I’ve seen has come from stubbornness around keeping legacy bus architecture around instead of adopting AXI (even when all the IP they are trying to use already uses AXI and they keep having to make translation hardware).
How much is it?
Funny how 20 chrome tabs is being compared to 4K video playback.
There’s other RK3588 boards in the $60-$70 range (notably Orange Pi 5). What makes this one different?
You can get a Ryzen minipc for under $200 now.
Where at? Not finding any that low on Amazon
People don’t seem to understand Raspberry Pi’s at all. It is a market manipulation scheme that can not be beat commercially because it is not run like a capitalist enterprise. It is a scheme to prevent bottom up competition from beating Broadcom’s proprietary monopoly of low quality junk. The chips Rπ are selling are off of a trailing edge node with, and are a failed product line of TV tuners. The ARM core of the chip is only 1/4th of the actual die. The chips are made in a fab that only produces them when there is no other paid work. This entire supply chain is barely above cost. The reason Rπ is a foundation and a dot org is because the entire endeavor is a tax write off for Broadcom. The reason it is centered out of the UK is so that it distances public awareness of the scheme. Broadcom has no public documentation of the vast majority of their hardware. Between Qualcomm, that uses the same proprietary business model, and Broadcom, these are the two primary reasons behind why you no longer own your devices in a perpetual cycle of artificial deprecation. This entire scheme is designed to avoid scalability from the bottom up by companies like Rockchip. If this still doesn’t connect in your mind, think of Japanese cars in the USA and abroad. They build high quality low end cars and created value at the bottom first. With time they scaled that value and overtook all segments of the market. They even split up their companies to avoid the perception of their real dominance using Honda = Acura, Toyota = Lexus, and Nissan = Infinity, because the majority of the public is too stupid to see and understand such simple obfuscation measures in practice.
I don’t think the car brand comparison is a great one. While I get your point, the purpose of using different car brand names is not for confusion but actually to reduce confusion — to clarify which products are targeting a luxury market.
For a counter example, consider how Samsung sells premium and cheap smart phones. The cheap smart phones give Samsung a bad name which might be associated with the higher end offering in the eyes of a consumer.
It’s not fair to compare to Toyota to Lexus because a Lexus is targeting a different customer and making different trade-offs in their product, even though it’s the same company.
The recent Pi chips are heavily modified. They’re becoming less and less like their TV tuner roots. I wouldn’t exactly call it a failed product line either. I thought that IP went into numerous devices.