A little bigger than the Raspberry Pi, but a lot more powerful (and expensive!)
The Raspberry Pi has created a whole ecosystem of SBCs (Single Board Computers), and while the Pi -- especially the new Pi 4 B -- is more than enough for most applications, sometimes you want something that's more powerful.
Sometimes a lot more powerful.
The Aaeon PICO-TGU4 offers just that.
Must read: Best Raspberry Pi alternatives in 2021
At 3.94" x 2.84" (100mm x 72mm), this board is a bit bigger than a Raspberry Pi 4 (3.37" x 2.22"/86mm x 56mm), but it does come equipped with an 11th-gen Intel Core -- and you can choose between an i3 or i5 to suit your power needs (and budget).
Aaeon PICO-TGU4
PICO-TGU4 tech specs:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel Core i5/i3/Celeron Processor SoC
- RAM: LPDDR4x on board memory, max 32 GB
- Networking: 2.5GbE Intel i225 + 1GbE Intel i219
- HDMI: 2.0b x 1, 4Kx2K + eDP, up to HBR3 8K
- M.2: 2280 M key (PCIE by4 GEN4/SATA) x 1
- SATA: 6.0 Gb/s x 1
- PCI: Full size mPCIe/mSATA x 1
- USB: 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 4 x USB 2.0
- Ports: RS-232/422/485 x 2
- Audio: Line-in/Line-out/MIC
- DIO: 8-bit
Coming back to budget, these boards are not cheap. The i3 version will set you back $615, while the i5 has a $949 price tag.
That's a lot of money, but you are getting a really powerful computer in a small package.
The manufacturer recommends fitting a separate cooler and heat spreader to get the best performance out of this system.