ASUS Officially Enters the Mini PC Market
- A.J. Voiles
- Jan 25, 2017
- 2 min read
Will the Tinker Board be able to surpass the Raspberry Pi as king?
The Raspberry Pi has won quite a few hearts with Its low price and ever-improving power. Being the go-to IoT device for many DIYs and hobbies, It's gained quite a reputation among nerds. But maintaining low cost and high quality, the performance suffers a bit. This Is where ASUS intends to capitalize with Its new single board computer. With a Rockchip RK3388 SoC quad-core 1.8GHz ARM Cortex-A17 CPU and 2GB Dual channel LPDDR3 memory backing it, ASUS says the Tinker Board Is twice as powerful as the now one year old Raspberry Pi 3, while supporting 4k video.
Full Specs:
Quad core 1.8GHz ARM Cortex-A17 CPU
2GB Dual channel LPDDR3 memory
Gigabit LAN and Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR connectivity
802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
4x USB 2.0 ports
40-pin Internal header with 28 GPIO pins
Contact points for PWM and S/PDIF signals
1x 3.5mm Audio jack connection
CSI port for camera connection
DSI port supporting HD resolution
1x HDMI 2.0 port to support 4K resolution
Micro SD port supports UHS-I
Supports Debian OS with KODI
Power supply: 5V/ 2A Micro USB (not included)
For the time being, the price is not as nice as the forever $35 Pi. The Tinker Board launched In the UK market for £55 , which translates to about $70. So while the performance may be doubled, the price Is reflective of that, which may In turn cause consumers to skip the Tinker Board In favor of more cost effective alternatives. Regardless, this Is a powerful little machine, and I can't wait to get my hands on one and see If It lives up to Its claims.
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