The Raspberry Pi single-handedly started a revolution that now sees countless single-board computers appearing on the market for well below $100. But the Raspberry Pi continues to dominate thanks in no small part to the community it has built up around use of the boards.
Pine64 is certainly proving to be a tough competitor, though, and its latest board beats the Raspberry Pi both in terms of price and performance.
The latest Pine64 single-board computer is called the Rock64 and is set for release on July 31. At its heart is a 1.5GHz Rockchip RK3328 64-bit quad-core A53 processor complete with Mali-450 MP2 GPU. It ships in three configurations offering 1GB ($25), 2GB ($35), and 4GB ($45) of 1600MHz LPDDR3 RAM.
As LinuxGizmos notes, the Rockchip is faster than the Broadcom processor found on the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. At the same $35 price point of the Pi you also get double the RAM, where as the 1GB model is $10 cheaper. In terms of operating system support, there's initially Debian and Yocto Linux with more to come, but also Android 7.1 can be run.
There are other differences, for example, the Rock64 has one less USB port, but one of the three it does ship with is USB 3.0. The HDMI port is 2.0 and the Ethernet is Gigabit rated. However, the Rock64 doesn't include wireless on the board, relying instead on the user inserting a USB dongle. There's also no DSI (display) and CSI (camera) interfaces, but you do get a 3.5mm dedicated power jack.
The Rock64 does have a couple of nice features that's sure to be tempting for some. The first is support for 4K 60fps output, making this a great board if you've invested in a 4K-capable monitor or want to hook it up to a 4K TV. The second is the inclusion of a bootable eMMC socket alongside the more typical MicroSD. eMMC is what many cheap laptops use to offer those tiny 32GB boot drives. It's therefore possible to add a 16GB ($14), 32GB ($19), or 64GB ($31) bootable eMMC drive to the board if bought from Pine64.
If you just want a fast single board computer for running Linux, then the Rock64 is certainly worth considering. And for $10 more than the Raspberry Pi you get quadruple the memory as well as a faster processor, 4K output, and USB 3.0. Tempted?