Khadas' Latest Arm PC And SBC Now Available to Buy
It's not an SBC, it's an 'Arm PC'
Khadas Technology has announced the availability of a slew of its single-board computers, including one so refined it’s referring to it as an ‘Arm PC’ instead. Alongside this are more familiar SBCs for OEMs and makers and audio products, including a DAC and a Bluetooth receiver.
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The Shenzen-based company has produced many Raspberry Pi alternatives in the past, such as the VIM4 we reviewed earlier this year, but neither of its new releases fit that category. The biggest news is the Edge 2, the machine it’s calling an ‘Arm PC’. It sees Rockchip’s eight-core RK3588S SoC (four Cortex-A76 cores at 2.25GHz paired with four Cortex-A55 cores at 1.8GHz) snuggle up with Arm’s Mali-G610 MP4 GPU and an NPU rated for 6 TOPS. Add to this the ability to specify 8 or 16GB of RAM, and up to 64GB of built-in flash storage, and you’ve got yourself a tasty little system, especially as it’s capable of handling an 8K display (with a total of four screens supported) via its HDMI port.
You also get things like Wi-Fi 6, a 7-pin Pogo connector, three MIPI-CSI interfaces for cameras and displays, USB 2 and 3 ports, and a whole expansion module that adds SD card support and UART. Supported operating systems include Android and Ubuntu, power comes via USB-C, and the whole thing is available in a rather nice case, which adds proper buttons above the reset and power switches, as well as what appears to be a heat sink.
Khadas claims its 3D abilities are enough to play online games and some triple-A console titles, while its desktop-class performance should also bring it to the attention of software developers. Its ability to push four displays also means it will find a home in digital signage applications.
The other board released is the VIM1S we recently previewed. A cost-effective and power-efficient solution, it features an Amlogic S905Y4 SoC that combines four Arm Cortex-A35 cores at 2GHz with a Mali-G31 MP2 GPU, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of flash. It supports the decoding of four 1080p video streams, though it only has a single HDMI port. The board can run Android and Linux, and has USB 2 ports, along with a 40-pin GPIO and 30-pin FPC connector, for expansion. It should find a home in HTPC boxes thanks to its IR remote sensor, as well as nano servers and computing clusters.
Khadas’ audio products include the Tone 2 and Tone 2 Pro audiophile DACs, while the BT Magic adds Bluetooth audio streaming to the Tone products, with broad codec support.
The Edge 2 and VIM1S are available now from the Khadas online store, with the Edge 2 receiving an early-bird discount of around $40. A full Arm PC kit for the Edge 2 is also available for preorder.
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Ian Evenden is a UK-based news writer for Tom’s Hardware US. He’ll write about anything, but stories about Raspberry Pi and DIY robots seem to find their way to him.
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bit_user Do want! But the Edge2 could use a second HDMI, especially to compete with the Pi 4.Reply
The starting price isn't too bad, not least due to what Pi 4 is selling for these days! It's sure a lot better than the Firefly board, but that has the advantage of being mini-ITX and having a PCIe, SATA, and a M.2 slot.
Other thoughts:
It's a good call that they start at 8 GB.
There's also a 16 GB model, but that adds $100. :(
I'm really not too happy about the fan. They don't say how many RPM is typical or max, but it's small so I think you'll probably hear it.
Seems to have neither integrated wifi nor ethernet? Not happy about that. I mean, you can add a dongle, but those are ugly and for the price I'd expect at least wifi.
I hope ODROID comes out with a RK3588 board. They have other Rockchip boards, so it could happen. -
jefferzbooboo Replybit_user said:Do want! But the Edge2 could use a second HDMI, especially to compete with the Pi 4.
The starting price isn't too bad, not least due to what Pi 4 is selling for these days! It's sure a lot better than the Firefly board, but that has the advantage of being mini-ITX and having a PCIe, SATA, and a M.2 slot.
Other thoughts:
It's a good call that they start at 8 GB.
There's also a 16 GB model, but that adds $100. :(
I'm really not too happy about the fan. They don't say how many RPM is typical or max, but it's small so I think you'll probably hear it.
Seems to have neither integrated wifi nor ethernet? Not happy about that. I mean, you can add a dongle, but those are ugly and for the price I'd expect at least wifi.I hope ODROID comes out with a RK3588 board. They have other Rockchip boards, so it could happen.
Beginning of the third paragraph, "You also get things like Wi-Fi 6" -
bit_user Reply
Thanks. I had actually gone straight to the manufacturer's product page, followed the "Buy" link, and eyeballed the specs on that page, as well as searching them for "wifi" and "ethernet". I see they also mention "Wi-Fi 6".jefferzbooboo said:Beginning of the third paragraph, "You also get things like Wi-Fi 6"
Good to know I simply missed it, but I'm still not happy about no Ethernet. 2.5 Gbps would've been very nice, at this price point.
Also, bummed not to see a M.2 slot. I think that's an even bigger deficit than lack of Ethernet.
I really hope somebody besides Firefly builds a mini-ITX board with this SoC. I think Firefly's is cool, but having the CPU and RAM on a daughter card seems to add cost & complexity. I'm sure someone like ASUS or ASRock could do it a lot cheaper.