Khadas VIM3, the Raspberry Pi rival, launches for US$99.99 with an SoC capable of achieving 5.0 TOPS
You may remember our previous coverage of the Khadas VIM3, the US$69.99 SBC powered by an Amlogic S922X SoC. Well, the manufacturer has stuck to its word, with two VIM3 listings going live earlier this week. However, a few things have changed, and it has become between US$30 and US$40 more expensive.
The VIM3 still comes in two flavours, both of which now come with an Amlogic A311D SoC, which packs a more powerful neural processing unit (NPU) than the S922X. Both SoCs integrate four ARM Cortex-A73, two Cortex-A53 cores and an ARM Mali-G52 MP4 GPU, but the former has an 800 MHz NPU that can push out 5.0 tera operations per second (TOPS); double what the S922X can. The NPU also supports Tensorflow, Caffe and other deep-learning frameworks. Khadas has also added a MIPI CSI camera interface to both boards. The two models are as follows:
| Model | Basic | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| SoC | Amlogic A311D | Amlogic A311D |
| Processor | 4x ARM Cortex-A73, 2x Cortex-A53 | 4x ARM Cortex-A73, 2x Cortex-A53 |
| GPU | ARM Mali-G52 MP4 | ARM Mali-G52 MP4 |
| Storage | 16 GB eMMC 5.1 | 32 GB eMMC 5.1 |
| RAM | 2 GB LPDDR4/4x | 4 GB LPDRR4/4X |
| SPI flash | 16 MB | 16 MB |
| Price | US$99.99 | US$139.99 |
Both boards measure 82.0 x 58.0 x 11.5 mm and weigh 28.5 g. Khadas includes four M2 mounting holes and sells several accessories including an M2X extension board for adding an M.2 2280 SSD or a nano-SIM, a DAC, a heatsink and a 3705 cooling fan. You can see all the accessories that Khadas currently sells for the VIM3 here.
Both models will come pre-loaded with Ubuntu 18.04+, while Khadas claims that the board will support Android 9.0 Pie, Armbian and LibeELEC. The VIM3 is available to pre-order from Khadas now, with the company estimating that it will start shipping the boards on August 10.
Update
The Amlogic S992X does not integrate an NPU, Khadas had originally included a dedicated NPU that could output up to 2.5 TOPS. The company has also stated that the SBC comes preloaded with Android 9.0 Pie too.
Source(s)
Khadas via CNX Software
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