Look out Raspberry Pi, there’s a fearsome new competitor in town
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Hong Kong-based single-board computer maker Pine64 is reportedly on the cusp of taking over the Raspberry Pi with its upcoming Ox64, according to CNX software (opens in new tab).
The Ox64 will be built on RISC-V architecture to directly challenge the Raspberry Pi Pico W. While Pine64 hasn’t made an official announcement yet, wiki post (opens in new tab) gives us a pretty detailed hint as to what to expect.
The CPU has two Alibaba T-head cores, one 62-bit and the other 32-bit, and the machine has 64MB of DRAM (compared to the Pico W’s 264Kb). It also uses a Bouffalo Lab AI engine for video and audio detection and recognition.
Pine64 Ox64 Specifications
In terms of connectivity, like the Raspberry Pi Pico W, there is built-in Wi-Fi. The Ox64 uses the same Wi-Fi 4 standard and only connects to 2.4GHz channels. While Wi-Fi 6 is starting to gain serious traction on home appliances, Wi-Fi 4 should be enough for most microcontroller users.
There is also Bluetooth 5 with support for Bluetooth Low Energy, and for smart home enthusiasts, Zigbee (specifically IEEE 802.15.4).
The onboard storage is limited to 128MB/16MB, but there is support for SDHC/SDXC microSD cards. Further expansion comes thanks to a USB 2.0 port, 26 GPIO pins scattered around the exterior of the module with SPI, I2C and UART functionality, and a USB-C port for power supply.
Like the Raspberry Pi Pico W, the Ox64’s footprint measures 51x21mm. However, it is slightly thicker than the Pico W at 19mm (compared to 3.9mm for the Pico W or 12.9mm for the Pico WH).
Little is known about the future uses of the Ox64, although it will likely support a Linux operating system, including many of the Raspberry Pi distributions readily available. It is also expected to be less than $10 / £10, just like its main rival.
TechRadar Pro has contacted the company for more information on the Ox64 and will update this article accordingly.
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