[GTALUG] inexpensive X86 Single Board Computer

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

Seeed sent me an ad/newsletter describing a potentially interesting SBC.

<https://www.seeedstudio.com/Rock-Pi-X-Model-B-4GB-p-4277.html>

(Seeed is a Chinese company that's a bit like Adafruit.  If you like
SBCs and playing with circuit's, Seeed's newsletter is worth
subscribing to.  It's not just advertising.)

Summary: quite a bit of machine for the price.  But fairly niche.  You
will likely want to add a case , a power supply, and a battery for the
clock.  Software support is really easy since it is X86-64.

Details:

Rock Pi X B4E32 pre-order: US$75 + shipping

- Atom X5-Z8350 (old Atom; 64-bit)

- 4GiB RAM (64-bit dual channel)

- 32G eMMC. Should be faster than SD.  Large enough for a full Linux
  distro.

- microSD socket

- HDMI 2.0 up to 4k at 30Hz (I would have expected HDMI 1.x; this doesn't 
  seem to match Intel's spec for the chip)

- WiFi 802.11ac

- BlueTooth 4.2

- gigabit ethernet

- one USB 3.0 (OTG: can be host or device, if I understand correctly)

- three USB 2.0

- a 40-pin expansion header for hanging your circuits off


My Impression:

- quite a lot for the same price as a Raspberry Pi 4 with 8GiB of RAM

- processor is old: introduced in early 2016 but little different from 
  z8500 introduced in early 2015.  "Cherry Trail"

- I have a tiny PC (a Kangaroo) with the similar z8500 processor.  It 
  doesn't quite cut it for streaming video under Windows 10 at FullHD.  
  By that I mean:  it works but sometimes struggles.  Intel's site 
  suggests that the Z8500 should be faster but perhaps cooling is an issue 
  on my Kangaroo or the 2 GiB RAM is pinching
	<https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?productIds=85474,93361>