Polish Raspberry Pi Clone Sports M.2 Socket, Real-Time Clock
Things are improving, but it can still be difficult to find a Raspberry Pi in stock. Meanwhile, companies around the world continue to offer their own alternatives to the world’s most popular single-board computer. It is a product of Polish electronics manufacturer EVEO. arve board pie (opens in new tab) It has the same dimensions and almost the same layout as the Raspberry Pi 3B / 3B+, but incorporates unique features such as an M.2 SSD port, real-time clock, and Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) connector.
available now $90 worth (opens in new tab)On the Polish webstore TEM, the Urve Board Pi has the same 85 x 56 mm size blank PC PCB as the Pi 3B, with nearly identical ports in the same locations, so it should fit in the case. Accepts Pi 3B / 3B+.
Instead of the Pi 3B’s micro-USB charging port, there’s a USB-C port, and like the Raspberry Pi, there’s a block of four USB Type-A ports, one of which is USB, which only the Pi 3 had. 3.0. USB2.0. One of the USB 2.0 ports is a USB OTG host. Video output is provided by a single full-size HDMI 2.0 port capable of outputting up to 4K at 60 fps, with a Gigabit Ethernet port and 3.5mm audio jack appearing in the same location as the Raspberry Pi.
Also like the Raspberry Pi, the Urve Board Pi has a MIPI CSI camera connector and a MIPI DSI display connector. Its set of 40 GPIO pins has a pinout that appears to match that of all modern Raspberry Pi computers. So it’s quite possible that some of the best Raspberry Pi HATs will work with it.
More importantly, there’s an M.2 socket that the company lists as an M.2 SATA port on most spec sheets, but an M.2 PCIe 2.0 NVMe SSD in the instruction manual. Unknown as the socket looks like an M key as you would normally find on an NVMe SSD. Either way, you get much faster storage than the built-in eMMC flash memory or one of the best microSD cards.
There’s a coin cell battery slot for the real-time clock (RTC), which keeps time even when the Urve Board Pi is unplugged. There are also pins for Power-over-Ethernet connectivity (PoE) and there is some kind of microphone connector on the underside of the board. The board has Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth connectivity.
processor | 1.8 GHz Rockchip RK3566 quad-core, Cortex A55 |
GPUs | Mali-G52 (up to 4K, 60fps) |
RAM | 2GB LPDDR4 |
Onboard storage | 8GB eMMC |
video output | 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x MIPI DSI |
storage connector | microSD reader, M.2 SSD |
USB | 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB 2.0 OTG, 1x USB 3.0 |
networking | 1x Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2 |
camera port | 1x MIPI CSI port |
Power | 1x USB-C, 1x PoE connector |
Audio input/output | 3.5mm audio, mic input |
GPIOs | 40 GPIO pins |
size | 85×56mm |
weight | 50 grams |
The Urve Board Pi is powered by a Rockchip RK3566 Quad Core Cortex A55 CPU running at 1.8 GHz. It’s unclear if this is faster or slower than the Raspberry Pi 4B’s 1.5 GHz Broadcom BCM2711 Cortex-A72 chip, but it is likely much faster than the Raspberry Pi 3B+’s 1.4 GHz BCM2837 Cortex A53 CPU. It comes standard with 2GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 8GB of internal eMMC flash memory.
Like other Raspberry Pi competitors, it cannot run the Raspberry Pi OS, but it can run Debian 11 (the Raspberry Pi OS is based on Debian) and Android. However, if it works with the Raspberry Pi HAT and accessories, it could well serve as a viable replacement for the Raspberry Pi 3B+.
via Lilliputting (opens in new tab)