We already have available a new development board based on the Rockchip RK3399 SoC this time called NanoPi M4 which is but a cheap version of the NanoPC-T4 that we saw a while ago. This board has format compatible with Raspberry Pi which will allow us to use a large number of accessories and multiple images of operating systems ideal for development.
SoC, RAM and storage
The NanoPi M4 board includes as core the Hexa Core Rockchip RK3399 SoC, with a cluster with two ARM Cortex-A72 processors able to reach 2.0Ghz and another cluster with four ARM Cortex-A53 processors while at the GPU level it has a Mali-T860mp4 with support for codec decoding H.26 / H.264 and VP9 4K @ 60fps among others. We also have 2 / 4GB of DDR3 RAM, an eMMc 5.1 memory connector, microSD card reader and a PCIe X2 connector from where we can get a SATA port.
Other specifications
The wireless connectivity on this board is at the same level of the rest of the components as it includes WiFi dual band AC with a pair of connectors for external antennas and Bluetooth 4.1 LE. As for ports the options are multiple since we have 4 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB 2.0 Type-C, HDMI 2.0a output, Gigabit Ethernet connector, 3.5mm audio jack, 40-pin GPIO connector and another 40Pins between others.
In this motherboard we can run Android 7.1.2, Lubuntu 16.04 with acceleration by GPU / VPU and Ubuntu Core 18.04 64-bits among others that you can download from their Wiki.
Price and availability
- The NanoPi M4 development PCB is available in Friendly ELEC from about $65 (€56) in its cheapest version.
