There are more and more single-board computers, good and different. We recently wrote about a networking alternative to the Raspberry Pi , and now there's an even more interesting option. We are talking about Iconikal Rockchip 3328.
It is more modern than the Raspberry Pi 3, several accessories are supplied with it, and the price of this single board is almost four times lower. The device has already gone on sale on Amazon , although it was quickly sold out there.
Characteristics Iconikal Rockchip 3328
The basis of the PC is the Rockchip 3328 processor, hence the name of the device. It is an ARM processor with four Cortex A53 cores. The frequency of each core is 1.5 GHz. In addition to the processor, there is a dual-core Mali-450 MP2 video card.
The amount of LPDDR3 RAM is 1 GB. Unfortunately, the device does not have Bluetooth and WiFi modules.
Iconikal Rockchip 3328 has two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0, headphone out, HDMI and Ethernet. In addition, there is a 40-pin GPIO connector, plus a microSD slot for cards up to 256 GB. The memory card is used as a hard drive.
Power is supplied via a proprietary connector. Power adapter included. In addition, a memory card and a character monochrome display are supplied with the single board. It can display 32 characters at a time, 16 on each of the two lines.
A chic alternative to the Raspberry Pi 3
The main advantage of the new single board is its price. $ 10 is one of the lowest prices on the market for gadgets with similar specifications. Plus, Iconikal Rockchip 3328 is faster than the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B.
Compared to the newer Raspberry Pi 3 Model B +, there is almost no difference. The characteristics of the competitors are practically equal, if we do not take into account that the "Malinka" has a Bluetooth and WiFi module. But Iconikal Rockchip 3328 has accessories and a power supply at this price.
The new single board is a simplified version of Pine64's ROCK64. Software compatible with this device will work on Iconikal Rockchip 3328. Compatible OS: Armbian, Debian, LibreElec, SlackWare and Android.
Besides Iconikal Rockchip 3328, the "raspberries" there are other competitors . For example, the Odroid-C4 was released in South Korea earlier this year with specs ahead of the Raspberry Pi 4 and a lower price tag. Its cost is $ 50, while the price of the Raspberry Pi 4 is $ 55.
At the end of last year, the Chinese released another competitor to the fourth generation Raspberry Pi. We are talking about a single board Orange Pi Zero 2 with slightly worse characteristics, but smaller and lower price (only $ 20).
