High-performance Raspberry Pi alternatives

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  • Huawei HiKey 960

    Huawei HiKey 960

    The Huawei HiKey 960 is essentially a PC running Android.

    At a whopping $239 it's not cheap, but it certainly has the horsepower to handle whatever task you want to throw at it.

    • Kirin 960 SoC Quad Core ARM (4 x 2.3GHz ARM A73 cores, and 4 x 1.8GHz ARM A53 cores)
    • ARM Mali G71 MP8 GPU
    • 3GB LPDDR4 RAM
    • 32GB of UFS flash storage

    More information.

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • Udoo Quad

    Udoo Quad

    A $135 quad-core board that's just as at home running Android as it is Linux.

    • Freescale i.MX 6 ARM Cortex-A9 quad core 1GHz CPU
    • Vivante GC 2000 + Vivante GC 355 + Vivante GC 320 GPU
    • Integrated accelerators for 2D, OpenGL ES2.0 3D and OpenVG
    • Atmel SAM3X8E ARM Cortex-M3 CPU (same as Arduino Due)
    • RAM DDR3 1GB
    • 76 fully available GPIO: 62 digital + 14 digital/analog
    • Arduino-compatible R3 1.0 pinout
    • HDMI and LVDS + Touch2 Micro USB (1 OTG type a+b)

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • Arduino INDUSTRIAL 101

    Arduino INDUSTRIAL 101

    A $40 Arduino that's idea for integration into a commercial or industrial product.

    • Atheros AR9331 processor
    • 64MB of RAM
    • 16MB of flash storage
    • USB 2.0

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • Banana Pi M3

    Banana Pi M3

    Banana Pi M3 is a super charged single board computer with an Octa-core processor and 2GB of RAM. It also features Gigabit Ethernet, 2 USB, SATA, WiFi, Bluetooth, and HDMI connection. It can run on a variety of operating systems including Android, Lubuntu, Ubuntu, Debian, and Raspbian.

    • Octa-core 1.8GHz CPU
    • 2 GB RAM
    • 8 GB eMMC flash storage
    • Wi-Fi and Bluetooth onboard

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • cloudBit

    cloudBit

    The easiest way to create internet­-connected devices - no programming, soldering or wiring required. IFTTT support allows it to connect with any web service, like Facebook, Gmail and Twitter, or hardware like NEST and Philips HUE.

    All for just $59.95.

    • Freescale i.MX23 ARM926EJ-S processor
    • 64MB of RAM
    • 802.11b/g/n

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • Parallella

    Parallella

    The Parallella computer is a high performance, credit card sized computer based on the Epiphany multi-core chips from Adapteva. Starting at $99, the Parallella can be used as a standalone computer, an embedded device or as a component in a scaled out parallel server cluster.

    • 16-core Epiphany RISC SOC
    • Zynq SOC (FPGA + ARM A9)
    • Gigabit Ethernet
    • 1GB SDRAM
    • Micro-SD storage
    • Up to 48 GPIO pins
    • HDMI, USB (optional)

    More information

    Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

  • Intel Edison with Kit for Arduino

    Intel Edison with Kit for Arduino

    At around $92, the Intel name doesn't come cheap, but this Arduino-compatible board is turning out to be a popular choice.

    • Dual-core, dual-threaded Intel Atom CPU with a 32-bit Intel Quark microcontroller
    • 1GB of RAM
    • 4GB of flash storage
    • Integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE
    • Support for Yocto Linux, Python, Node.js and Wolfram

      More information

      Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

    • PixelPro

      PixelPro

      The PixelPro features a i.MX6Q Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 running at 1.0 GHz, with 2D and 3D GPUs and an embedded 2GB 64-bit DDR3 RAM, which means that it is capable of running rich multimedia applications, embedded web servers, digital entertainment systems, industrial control systems, and high definition video.

      At $129.95, the PixelPro is not cheap, but you get a lt of power for the cash.

      • Freescale i.MX6Q SoC Quad Core ARM Cortex-A9 up to 1GHz
      • 2GB of RAM
      • WiFi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
      • Gigabit Ethernet
      • PCIe x1
      • USB 2.0

        More information

        Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

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      Want a high-performance single-board computer for a project? Here are some of the very best currently available.

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      Huawei HiKey 960

      The Huawei HiKey 960 is essentially a PC running Android.

      At a whopping $239 it's not cheap, but it certainly has the horsepower to handle whatever task you want to throw at it.

      • Kirin 960 SoC Quad Core ARM (4 x 2.3GHz ARM A73 cores, and 4 x 1.8GHz ARM A53 cores)
      • ARM Mali G71 MP8 GPU
      • 3GB LPDDR4 RAM
      • 32GB of UFS flash storage

      More information.

      Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

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