ODroid-X is a quad-core alternative to the Raspberry Pi for $129

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Korean outfit Hardkernel has launched a new development platform that could be a solid alternative to the Raspberry Pi if you need a little more oomph. Priced at $129, the ODroid-X is equipped with a Exynos 4412 system-on-a-chip that houses a quad-core 1.4GHz Cortex A9 CPU and Mali 400 GPU -- the same solution inside Samsung's Galaxy S III smartphone. By comparison, the Raspberry Pi is powered by a Broadcom BCM2835 SoC with a single-core 700MHz ARM 11 CPU and a Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU.

The ODroid-X also packs 1GB of DDR2 RAM (quadruple the Pi's), a full size SDHC card slot, six USB 2.0 ports, 10/100Mb/s Ethernet, a Micro-HDMI output, audio jacks, a UART console port and a 50-pin I/O expansion port for LCD/I2C/UART/SPI/ADC/GPIO interfaces. Hardkernel also offers various optional accessories, such as a Wi-Fi antenna and a Bluetooth dongle. Given the amount of connectivity, the ODroid-X is about double the width of the Raspberry Pi, measuring 90 x 94mm versus 85.60 x 54.98mm.

The board is being sold as a mobile development platform, so Hardkernel ensures compatibility with Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4 and will even ship a preconfigured Class 6 or Class 10 SD card for $13. However, the ODroid-X is also shown running Ubuntu 12.04, and it can presumably handle other Linux distros that support ARM chips. The product page has five YouTube videos that show the system in action, including a four-player session of Mario Kart 64 and a demonstration of the device running four webcams.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/49373-odroid-x-is-a-quad-core-alternative-to-the-raspberry-pi-for-129.html

 

[Guest]

while I am still inclined to use samsung galaxy y (180mb internal storage, 16gb microsd support) and/or samsung galaxy pocket (3gb internal storage, 32gb microsd support) for "normal mobile internet", the gingerbread android OS supported by these two phones is now highlighted as a letdown, imho.

raspberry pi and its more powerful odroid-x cousin is now getting more attention.

after separate installations, one could simply insert a microsd card and then boot linux, or insert another microsd card and then boot ICS.

10$ more for an affordable housing for the odroid x and I'm sold!

 

[Guest]

I fail to see the valid comparison with the Pi - the whole point of which is the ultra low price. I got an Intel itx mobo for less than this thing.

 

[Kibaruk]

This is not like RPi, at all. RaspberryPi is a cheap alternative for everyone to have access to a development machine, by cheap I mean cheap, it's almost as cheap as ripping each of the odroidx core into a single computer.

This? This is for other uses.

 

[oldikes]

its also 4 times the price of the RasPi. The point was people could have a cheap way to mess around with development and mod hardware.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

There are valid comparisons to draw from an enthusiast perspective, I'm not comparing the goals and underlying purpose of each device. They're both cheap palm-sized machines that can be used for various home projects, and the ODroid-X opens the door to some more demanding tasks.

 

[Kibaruk]

Sorry but I don't have the same perspective, as an enthusiast for the same price or a couple more bucks you can get a 2nd hand nettop or a barebone and add a cheap hdd or even a USB drive, a $10 memory and can do much more with it. The RaspberryPi on the other hand is cheap, for real.

 

[Guest]

I think cheap nettop is not in the same league as raspberry pi and odroid x.

if I'm not mistaken, these two devices are based on arm soc which has a different set of instruction set from the x86 capable nettop.

am I missing something? or are there any arm-based barebones out there capable of running linux, android, and possibly windows surface rt?

 

[Vrmithrax]

I think cheap nettop is not in the same league as raspberry pi and odroid x.

if I'm not mistaken, these two devices are based on arm soc which has a different set of instruction set from the x86 capable nettop.

am I missing something? or are there any arm-based barebones out there capable of running linux, android, and possibly windows surface rt?

I think you are just missing a minor point in the comparison... Up until recently, you really didn't have a choice with nettops, generally stuck with x86-based systems (and their associated premium costs). Many are viewing products like the RaspberryPi and ODroid as potential building blocks for their own nettop systems, and the software is catching up to that concept rapidly. It's a matter of scale and function when you compare these ARM SOC systems with more "traditional" nettop systems - many of the existing nettops are overkill for the basic operations that users might want, where the ARM systems are just right. They are asically an example of "you get what you pay for" but inside-out: you don't have to overpay for included stuff you don't need.