Hardkernel Launches $35 Development Board That Can Smash The RPi

[panda84]

this alone makes it worth it, hard to get a SoC with that anywhere near this price range.

OlinuXino-LIME2 gets near that:

https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/A20/A20-OLinuXIno-LIME2/open-source-hardware

This dual core, but it's Cortex A7, while the Hardkernel on is Cortex A5:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Cortex-A5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Cortex-A7_MPCore

The price is a bit higher (45? vs 35$), but with these price ranges, shipping takes a relevant role, and Olimex is based in Europe, while Hardkernel in South Korea.

[Kemosabe]

There is a very good chance that in terms of performance-per-watt, this board is far more efficient than the Pi.

Better Performance-Per-Watt does not solve the higher power consumption problem.
THIS is spec hunting

5$ the year just for a single RaPi are not nothing

[hajj_3]

$9 delivery makes it $44 not $35.

[AJSB]

No, it doesn't have a USB 3.0 connector...but same happens with the RPi.

BTW, at 65 USD and just a bit bigger, there's the UX3 Lite w/4 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0 for normal use, not to mention a lot more powerfull HW...but yeah, almost twice the price and bigger power drain.

[tidris]

It is good to see gigabit ethernet, but I wish it had at least one USB 3.0 port too.

[schmidtbag]

Spec hunting is for kiddies.
The real question is: How much more power does it consume?
As long as it needs more power (which is more than likely) this board cannot smash anything.

Hmm.... maybe if you did some spec hunting you would know how much power it consumes

But anyway, it's power protector IC supports 5v 2A. According to the tech specs, the device should use 0.5A if no USB devices are connected, though I'm not sure if that's under load.

The CPU is an A5, which is supposed to be very power efficient, however, Hardkernel has a tendency to overclock their devices. I think the A5 was only supposed to go up to 800MHz, but this is at 1500MHz. Pretty huge step up, however, it still doesn't appear to require a heatsink. That being said, it still must be pretty power efficient.


There is a very good chance that in terms of performance-per-watt, this board is far more efficient than the Pi.

[Luke_Wolf]

Spec hunting is for kiddies.
The real question is: How much more power does it consume?
As long as it needs more power (which is more than likely) this board cannot smash anything.

I'm sorry.... what? it's an ARM Single Board Computer... the power it draws is negligible so no that's not even a question.

[dehuszar]

horses for courses

Very interesting... I thought the U3 was nice but this might be more suitable to my needs. I really wish Hardkernel would make devices similar to C1 or U3 but with wifi instead of Ethernet.

I've been on the other side wanting gigabit ethernet, so this release is very nice to see. I have a few different boards of theirs, and each revision they keep doing one better and incorporating feedback, so definitely let them know your preference.

They do sell this little fella for pretty cheap: http://www.hardkernel.com/main/produ...=G137447734369

I've used it. Decent range/throughput for it's size and price. Not sure you'd want to stream Vudu in 5.1 with it, but it's totally viable.

[Kemosabe]

Spec hunting is for kiddies.
The real question is: How much more power does it consume?
As long as it needs more power (which is more than likely) this board cannot smash anything.

[schmidtbag]

Very interesting... I thought the U3 was nice but this might be more suitable to my needs. I really wish Hardkernel would make devices similar to C1 or U3 but with wifi instead of Ethernet.