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The Raspberry Pi Foundation has unveiled a smaller, cheaper, lower-powered Pi 3, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+. The new model will sell for $25 USD and has lower power requirements with less RAM than the 3B+ (512 MB DDR2), only a single USB port, and no Ethernet port. However, it has the same BCM2837B0 quad core processor running at 1.4 GHz, a dual band WIFI networking, Bluetooth 4.2 Low Energy connectivity, the normal 40-pin GPIO header, and audio and video output.
OpenSource.com : New Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ unveiled
TechRepublic : Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+: A closer look at the new $25 board
CNX Software : Compact Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ Launched for $25
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New Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ Unveiled
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* m2 stares at the monitor... it looks like a hamburger...
m2 - that's a bad sign
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @02:58AM (3 children)
Different AC here.
Raspi community = untouchable by competitors.
Raspi power consumption was (maybe still is) pretty terrible. They used linear voltage regulators on (at least) the first few models they came out with. I had an original Panda board that was a couple years older than the raspi Bs that I got. The Panda used 1/4 the power at full load than the raspi used when idle. And, the Panda was at least twice as fast as the Raspi.
Raspi GPU requires a proprietary driver. Yes, even after Broadcom supposedly freed it; everything is in a proprietary blob with a zero function "free" shim (see https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?px=MTIxNDk&page=news_item [phoronix.com] ). The iMX6, iMX7 and iMX8 use the Vivaldi GPU, and there is a completely free (and working) driver available. You can have a proprietary blob free system based on the iMX series.
Lots of Chinese boards are cheaper and more powerful than the Raspi (too many to list, just think of just about every SBC you have heard of named something!=raspberry + pie.
Lots of boards that are more expensive (but not prohibitively), and still reasonably well supported with a reasonable sized community like everything from the odroid line (hardkernel).
The raspi boards that I have used suffered stability issues (sdcard / usb), while none of the other boards I have (representatives from most of the categories above) have had any such issues.
So, better SBCs exist, where "better" is defined as, more free (freedom), more powerful at near same price point, cheaper, use less power, are more stable, and many combinations of these attributes that make them better.
Depends on what is important to you, but with one exception, community, you can find better. But, props to raspi foundation for starting the trend of affordable dev boards / SBCs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @06:01PM (1 child)
https://www.pine64.org/?product=rock64-media-board-computer [pine64.org]
1GB at $25
2GB at $35
4GB at $45
The Mali GPU has a blob driver, but the open source Lima driver is available. The Rock64Pro comes in at a higher price point ($60/2GB $80/4GB), but has a PCIe x4 slot, better CPUs and GPU (the panfrost driver is also looking like it will be useable soon https://rosenzweig.io/blog/a-panfrostian-october.html), [rosenzweig.io] and also has mainline support on linux and the BSDs.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Wednesday November 21 2018, @05:30PM
Sorry for the late reply. I followed the link and am much impressed with the offerings they have there. Don't have time atm to investigate further, but am very much interested! Thanks so much!
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Wednesday November 21 2018, @05:10PM
I apologize for the late reply. Thanks a bunch for the info!
I had heard that there were issues with the sd card support, but was not aware of the power requirements being that high. Very much appreciate the confirmation and information!
Wit is intellect, dancing.