Hobbyists and makers will soon have yet another tiny computer at their disposal in the Onion Omega 2, the follow-up to last year's Omega.
The Onion Omega2, currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, is described as a Linux computer designed specifically for building connected hardware applications - or in other words, an IoT computer.
The modular computer is Arduino-compatible and can accept a variety of expansion cards for added functionality including GPS, cellular and Bluetooth 4.0, just to name a few. The base model is powered by a 580MHz CPU alongside 64MB of RAM and 16MB of storage and comes with integrated 802.11 b/g/n/ Wi-Fi.
The Onion Omega2 has blown past its modest $15,000 goal with nearly $360,000 pledged as of writing from more than 9,000 backers. A pledge of just $5 - yes, that's the same price as the larger yet more powerful Raspberry Pi Zero - puts you in position to be among the first to own an Onion Omega2 board (it's more of a chip, no?) this November.
Reward tiers scale up from there and offer a variety of perks including expansion components, docks and more. What's more, for an additional $4, you can bump up to the Omega2 Plus which doubles the RAM and local storage to 128MB and 32MB, respectively. This model also includes a microSD card slot for further expansion.
The Raspberry Pi Zero, in comparison, features a 1GHz ARM11 processor and 512MB of RAM but no onboard storage or Wi-Fi. Both appear to be excellent options although which works best for you will largely depend on what you want to do with it.
The campaign wraps up on August 23 so if you're interested, you've got about a week remaining to get about the business of backing it.