
ASUS Launches Raspberry Pi-Esque 'Tinker Board' with 4K Support - rcarmo
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/01/asus-launches-tinker-board-its-raspberry-pi-competitor-with-4k-support/
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epall
Sweet! Another compelling option for sub-$100 SBCs. I've been keeping track of
them in a Google Sheet at
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TCugLk0GSukeWjhsLu73...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TCugLk0GSukeWjhsLu732GR4nfMneLGSvZd7W0PHr2A/edit).

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rickyc091
Thanks for compiling it! You should add affiliate links on it. I was just
trying to get to the product page so I ended up googling it instead, but if it
was one click away... :)

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epall
Great idea! Thank you.

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niftich
I know there is a fine line between imitation, flattery, and blatant cloning,
but I for one applaud that the board and port layout match those of the RasPi.

This means cases and HATs and certain other peripherials are interchangeable
(at least) at a mechanical level, which is a very good thing, instead of
promulgating another custom form factor.

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pavlov
It's great that vendors are standardizing on the layout. The same thing
happened with the IBM PC/AT motherboard, and that spawned the entire PC clone
industry:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT_(form_factor)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT_\(form_factor\))

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glup
Can someone explain what prevents a board like this from supporting USB3 (vs.
the Odroid boards)?

I either want something much smaller and cheaper for IoT tinkering or
something with USB3 and gigabit ethernet for NAS and high-bandwidth sensors
(cameras and depth cameras). Does anyone know a board in the latter category?

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tyingq
>what prevents a board like this from supporting USB3

The choice of which CPU/SoC (system on chip) drives that. The Odroids that
support USB3 have an Amlogic CPU that includes USB3. This board has a Rockchip
RK3288 that does not support it.

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analog31
I know there's some controversy about the open-source-ness of the Raspberry
Pi. Can anybody here guess from the specs whether this device will have
similar issues?

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dogma1138
There isn't much controversy unless you follow stalmanisn (not that there is
anything wrong with it).

The SoCs require some closed source blobs to work this is the case for just
about any computing device out there.

The board designers are also somewhat limited in what they can release because
they often are under an NDA again nothing wrong with that it's just how it is.

You can try and build everything from OS components but you'll fail or will
end up with something which isn't very useable or useful.

I rather have good modern boards that are mostly open than a completely open
clone of a 1982 era computer.

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analog31
Thanks. Admittedly, I own four RPi's, and have not worried too much, but was
just curious.

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suprjami
Stick with your Pi boards. Better experience all round.

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giancarlostoro
I think the minute it sells in the US I would order one, though I may have to
wait if too many orders happen. If it stays at that under $80 range that is. I
love the idea of having something the size of a RPi and being able to slap
Linux on it and put services I can use in my LAN. Also of course the ability
to be able to do much more with it. I wonder if there's a reason it hasn't hit
the US yet.

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mastazi
Has this been officially launched? There is no word about it on the Asus USA
website, I have searched other Asus global sites with no results either. I
couldn't see the Asus logo on any of the pictures published on CDC.

Lifehacker and CDC are sufficiently reputable sources but isn't the above a
bit strange?

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bayesian_horse
I wonder if this board is cost-effective for non-gpu datascience, especially
in terms of power consumption.

I have read a paper on several single-board computers, saying that they were
almost there, despite being ARM processors.

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dogma1138
You might want to look at the Pi compute boards they come with stronger cups
and don't have any of the crap you don't need.

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bayesian_horse
The problem with the compute boards is that they don't have anything you may
need, like something to talk with each other.

If I wanted to build a cluster out of them, I'd probably have to break out the
USB connections in some way, probably meaning a whole custom PCB or
something... Given that there are more powerful Pi clones out there I don't
get the appeal for this particular usecase.

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jahnu
I wonder if it has hardware HEVC decoding support?

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nimbs
It's based on Rockchip RK3288.[1] And according to wikipedia[2] RK3288 has "K
H.264 and 10bits H.265 video decode, 1080P multi video decode"

[1] [https://liliputing.com/2017/01/asus-tinker-board-
raspberry-p...](https://liliputing.com/2017/01/asus-tinker-board-raspberry-pi-
like-mini-pc-rk3288-processor.html) [2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockchip_RK3288](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockchip_RK3288)

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vamur
Has only 2GB RAM. A version with 4GB for $20 more would perform better as a
limited use desktop PC.

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Jedd
I heard a delightful retort recently to this kind of comment:

"And if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bicycle"

Who's to say that the architecture can support 4GB, or that adding the
components in would only bump up the price by $20, or that ASUS wanted to make
something different to the device they made but just didn't know how, or that
the goal is to have a device targeted at the 'limited use desktop PC' market,
or that users of a limited use desktop PC would find memory the biggest
constraint on this device for their particular choice of OS ... and so on.

It's easy to identify ways that you could improve the specifications, and
increase the cost, of pretty much any device. It's hubris to believe designers
/ vendors of hardware are ignorant of this.

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vamur
It supports 4GB - [https://www.amazon.com/Development-Rockchip-
Cortex-A17-Proce...](https://www.amazon.com/Development-Rockchip-
Cortex-A17-Processors-Bluetooth/dp/B00VGE1HZ6) \- and with modern browsers 4GB
is required for comfortable use.

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static_noise
What about 3D acceleration; does it come with drivers which fully support
OpenGL?

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tmuir
You said the magic word: drivers. There are already plenty of boards with
superior hardware to the Raspberry Pi. But one of the Pi's advantages is its
driver support. That support in itself is a function of the enormous community
that has sprouted up around it.

So thats what remains to be seen: are the drivers going to be written/debugged
to make all of that hardware play nice with each other.

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Nanite
Agreed, a while ago I tried one of the Orange pi boards for a mere $10. While
you get a lot of bang for the buck, the support community for alternative
boards is tiny. I spent quite a bit of time working out the kinks to get to
similar utility of a raspberry out of the box.

