Disclaimer: This article contains 114.514% of fluff and only includes qualitative complaints, without any substantial content.
If it contains any reference value, we sincerely apologize.
Group photo to kick things off
Since a politically incorrect probiotic turned human society upside down,
the price of Raspberry Pi has skyrocketed like a rocket.
The fluctuation is almost second only to the STM32, which saw its price multiply by 10 or even 9 in a short period.
Inflation
Delivery times have even extended to this year’s 911 and even next year’s 311
Complaining: Why are we in such hellish joke days?
Against this backdrop, domestic alternatives to Raspberry Pi have sprung up like bamboo shoots after the rain.
The vitality and competition are vividly in front of us.
(However, the first batch of open-source SBC makers have been washed away on the beach.)
Currently, the main players in the domestic Raspberry Pi alternatives probably include:
Radxa, with the flagship ROCK PI series:
– The predecessor of the 32-bit era is the Cubieboard (already sent off).
PS: The A80 they created is the peak performance of domestic SBCs in the 32-bit era.
The downside is that the power consumption is also quite insane.
Standby 5V1A, full load 5V4A, power consumption comparable to Dragon 810.
Then stuff this thing into a tablet.
I feel a hint of sadness.
– A comprehensive product line, including RK3308, 3328, 3399, 3588.
Basically, they are all flagship models from various generations.
– Most of the interface resources are quite rich:
USB3.0, Gigabit, PCIE, camera, these are basically standard configurations.
All have blue butts (USB3.0 interfaces).
Moreover, basically, every board has fast charging (yay).
– Mostly leaning towards Rockchip’s SOC, but there are exceptions.
Radxa Zero uses Amlogic’s S905Y2.
PS: Never know how many models can fit under the S905 alias
– One of the few manufacturers that have produced x86 products.
ROCK Pi X uses Intel’s Z8350.
And then it was sent off
– So far, this company has the most complete supporting system among these few.
But it’s just a weak chicken picking a less weak one.
I still have a good impression of their forum
– Almost all colorful interfaces.
Human factors engineering is well-reviewed.
Raspberry Pi’s all-black header pins are a nightmare for every beginner and those with a fear of tight spaces.
kksk↑
– The SD card significantly protrudes from the circuit board edge.
It’s a disaster for civilization (for sure).
Just a little carelessness and you could break the card holder.
Then either buy the expensive EMMC or try to replace the card holder yourself.
Or the whole board could be scrapped.
Everyone is an SD card
Why are you so protruding?
Orange Pi:
– Price-performance king.
Before the chip shortage, RK3399 was at the floor price.
After the chip shortage, RK3588S is at the floor price.
The only lower price is to pick up an advertising machine motherboard and gamble that it doesn’t have a locked bootloader.
– From the 32-bit era to now.
Strange architecture has increased.
– The product line is quite magical, the degree of subdivision is comparable to the old Huang’s knife method, and the level of activity is called the activity king.
You can see that they are really confident in their hardware design level
You can even see mobile phones in their product line.
– SOC seems to be mainly Allwinner, but all are welcome.
You can even find MediaTek SOCs here.
Of course, you can’t expect much from Linux.
– The form factor is very unique, basically, you can’t expect to screw this thing onto a Raspberry Pi cluster.
Operations that drive OCD crazy
– The power supply has shrunk significantly, it is recommended to use a large-capacity power supply and not to overclock it when bored.
No fast charging adapter, heavily reliant on 5V power supply for miracles.
Ordinary mobile phone chargers cannot power it, you need a high-power charger.
To be honest, the official power supply works quite well.
– Allwinner SOCs generate quite a bit of heat, and the wireless network card is basically ornamental.
Specifically naming the zero series (zero zero LTS).
Model: Allwinner XR819
PS: What’s the use of bringing a desktop image to a development board without video output?
– The lack of a wireless network card in the fifth generation is a significant flaw (of course, it also relates to the insufficient number of PCIE channels in the 3588s).
Wireless solid-state drive or not.
– High emotional intelligence: cheap is the hard truth.
Low emotional intelligence: fixing bugs relies entirely on the community.
Specifically naming the zero2: the official Ubuntu image simply won’t boot.
Banana Pi:
– From the 32-bit era to now.
You can even see products that benchmark the first-generation Raspberry Pi in their product line
– High emotional intelligence: diversified product line, strong technical strength.
Low emotional intelligence: you can never guess what they are making.
Yes, they even make open-source routers
Not soft routers that just use SOC to make up numbers, but real routers
Brother Fa’s scheme
– There’s nothing you can’t think of; they dare to use.
Can’t use the three major manufacturers is not a skill; if you have the ability, use the crab factory’s products.
Don’t ask me what this is; I don’t want to know.
PS: This SOC has 4 A7 cores, one arm926, and one 8051 core.
TI can’t even compare to you in terms of stuffing.
NXP, the tears of the era
You are not mistaken; it’s the Gree that makes air conditioners.
– The level of interface diversification is extremely high—however, it doesn’t really help.
You are not mistaken; SATA interface, native.
However, the original power supply cannot support the disk; what should drop will still drop.
– A system image suitable for treating low blood pressure.
M3: It takes more than a minute to boot into the desktop, lagging terribly.
M4: Only 1GB of memory, with 320MB allocated to the built-in DSP.
The problem is that the vast majority of people don’t need the DSP for encoding/decoding.
– Reliability depends on mystical factors.
Sometimes it can run continuously for several days, while other times it can panic three times within 24 hours.
Some even have poor contact with the SD card, causing it to randomly boot from the SD card or NAND.
The wireless network card can compete with the Allwinner solution; SSH can only connect when just booted.
– High emotional intelligence: cheap is the hard truth.
Low emotional intelligence: fixing bugs relies entirely on the community.
Friendlyelec’s NanoPi:
– SBCs are just a side business; the main business is various commercial-grade core boards.
Quality is quite good, but the price is really hard to bear.
– Exquisite Samsung furnace.
Once the main output, SOCs S5P4418 and S5P6818.
One idles at 48 degrees, the other at 62 degrees.
– The three major SOC manufacturers have been used, and even Samsung was added.
Which legitimate manufacturer does armlinux?
– Maintaining the smallest area record for RK3399 so far.
The downside is that it’s unaffordable.
Khadas:
– High emotional intelligence: exquisite craftsmanship, quality choice.
Integration is indeed high.
The A311 from the 3588 era is the top configuration of this type of SBC.
– The product line style is highly similar.
From Khadas VIM1 to now, it has always been this style.
– SOC leans towards Amlogic, but there are exceptions.
There are also sub-models of 3399 and 3588.
– The small ones are also very cute~
The height of the VIM series is the lowest among boards with network ports.
Even the fixed interface uses M2 pillars.
The WIFI signal is the strongest among these boards.
– Very HIFI (literally).
In their peripherals, they really include HIFI sound cards
What? You ask about the price?
Next question.
China’s Hitman Master (didn’t expect that, right):
– Solid as a rock (vague).
– Computer motherboard manufacturers making SBCs can only be said to be unprofessional.
They even made a series
And even released up to 5
BeagleBone (control group):
– TI’s favorite.
Only uses TI’s SOC, but the problem is that TI’s SOC has been in a state of abandonment for a long time.
– The eternal old eight.
Due to TI’s SOC being abandoned for a long time, it has been using AM3358 for a long time.
Single-core A8 can still be sold in 2023, who else could do that?
PS: TI’s documentation is really complete.
Manufacturers still using AM3358 to reheat leftovers in 2019 are trash.
However, to be fair, the long-tested 3358 is indeed stable in scenarios that do not require computing power.
– No decent products.
Since TI awakened strange multi-core heterogeneous integration skills, the SOCs produced have become strange:
2 ARM + DSP, a total of 8 cores
Looks like an ordinary 4+1 5-core ARM SOC
Didn’t expect, right? It also stuffed a Cortex R5F.
One SOC has gathered three types of ARM cores.
3 types, 2 ARM + 2 DSP, a total of 11 cores
Let’s just say this thing is not any decent product.
So the question arises, what do these evil SOCs have to do with BeagleBone?
Take a guess, keep guessing, keep guessing.
How crazy do you have to be to consider messing with this thing?
Other low-quality forces:
– The significance of messing around is greater than the actual significance:
Removing the RK3328 from the top right of openailab.
The remaining three are all good hands in the RISC-V camp.
– Allwinner D1: A large single-chip microcontroller; in terms of CPU architecture, it’s even worse than the AM3358 that was just criticized.
It’s worth mentioning that someone on Zhihu predicted that Allwinner would never return from the ARM + RISC-V mess.
– JH7100/7110: This time it’s finally not a toy, but the supporting documentation/drivers are like a joke:
JH7100/7110 blown up to the sky in PPT,
In reality, one dual-core barely matches a quad-core A35,
One initial version image doesn’t recognize all the memory.
As for peripheral development? Difficult as climbing to the sky.
Summary: The entire RISC-V camp is in a state of chaotic neutrality; it’s not impossible to use while pinching your nose, but be prepared to tinker.
Chaotic evil camp:
– Represented by manufacturers Canaan and Bouffalolab.
Whether what they produce can still be considered SBC is a question.
Specifically naming the large 64-bit microcontroller K210:
No MMU, can only use RTOS.
But it’s a 64-bit machine.
Good news: it’s not that difficult to develop (referring to running demo code).
Bad news: try moving the bottom layer.
Second candidate BL808:
Despair.jpeg
Even if RISC-V is easy to stuff, is it too much to stuff three architectures with different widths?
Good news is that this time it finally has an MMU, can run Linux.
Bad news is that this thing has different core instruction sets, and you’ll lose all your hair trying to get it to work.
Let’s not call it the head brother anymore; let’s just call it the bald brother.
Third candidate: K510
Good news: it can finally run Linux,
Bad news: it can only run Linux:
The default system has no package manager like apt, dnf, or yum.
No gcc.
At least they didn’t optimize out dpkg.
The Linux system only says it can enter the shell.
Commenting out the demo program that starts automatically can cause a kernel panic.
It belongs to the low blood pressure treatment device.
Summary of the chaotic evil camp: If you don’t want to become Bald Brother, don’t touch this thing.
As for hoping that RISC-V can overtake in the curve, I’m not optimistic in the short term; the RISC-V system is very fragmented, often stacking cores or heterogeneous cores to play core wars, the PPT posters are all high, and the ecology conference boasts even more, but in the end, the stock that can be bought is all these quirky things that are more curious than practical. This kind of fragmented system temporarily has no possibility of replacing the ARM system; the development boards received even have delayed announcements of source code and images, and even the drivers are not complete, which is indeed a bit outrageous.
By the way, I want to complain about some domestic manufacturers; relying on PPT to stack a pile of bizarre peripherals + strange cores cannot achieve curve overtaking, only curve flipping (not naming a certain A7/A53 with RISC-V lighter manufacturer here). It is more important to do supporting projects well than to make good hardware; I don’t ask for it to enter the mainline, nor do I ask for it to have a single image like Raspberry Pi, but at least there should be stable release version images, and all device drivers should be gathered. If you can’t even drive your own peripherals, and fixing bugs and porting systems rely on the community, doing this kind of bad work every day really has no future.
If these aspects can be resolved, it may indeed be a new opportunity for domestic open-source hardware.
