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Khadas VIM3, the Raspberry Pi rival, launches for US$99.99 with an SoC capable of achieving 5.0 TOPS

The Khadas VIM3 is now powered by the more powerful Amlogic A311D. (Image source: Khadas)
The Khadas VIM3 is now powered by the more powerful Amlogic A311D. (Image source: Khadas)
Khadas has changed the VIM3 slightly from when we previously reported on it earlier this month. The single-board computer (SBC) now features a more powerful Amlogic SoC, the hexa-core A331D, which can output up to 5.0 TOPS. The VIM3 now starts at US$99.99 and will ship worldwide from August 10.

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.

(Image source: Khadas)

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2019 06 > Khadas VIM3, the Raspberry Pi rival, launches for US$99.99 with an SoC capable of achieving 5.0 TOPS
Alex Alderson, 2019-06-27 (Update: 2021-09-28)