5 of the Best Single Board Computers of 2022
5 minute read · September 30, 2021
Single Board Computers are available through oemsecrets.com from leading suppliers and manufacturers like Adafruit, Beagleboard, Intel, Raspberry Pi, Seeed Studio & more.
In this blog we will be shining the light on a few SBCs and highlighting various aspect of the product based on our research which will include:
- We’ll show you what the product is like physically
- We’ll explain what sets this product apart from its competition
- We’ll highlight any comparable products
- We’ll highlight pro and cons we found
- We’ll highlight what people think of the product
We will be keeping you updated as new SBCs gets released, so without further ado, let us go straight and discuss the Best Single Board Computer of 2021!
What is a Single Board Computer (SBC)?
Single board computers also referred to as simply SBC came into light in the 1970. They can be defined as computers that have their interfaces, processor and, memory, soldered in place on a breadboard or one circuit board. The most popular one which we’ll start with today is the Raspberry Pi and Arduinos.
1. Raspberry Pi 4
Raspberry Pi 4 was released in 2019, however, in 2020, an updated 8GB of RAM version was released, making the Raspberry Pi 4 a worthy candidate for tasks that require more memory in comparison to the smaller variants of 2019. The variants included 1,2 and 4 GB RAM versions.
Raspberry Pi is now a household name and has the biggest support and development community which is why this product is the best for anyone new to a single board computer.
At the time of writing RS components had the best price at £58.40 for the Pi 4 8GB model B.
Raspberry Pi is now a household name and has the biggest support and development community which is why this product is the best for anyone new to a single board computer.
At the time of writing RS components had the best price at £58.40 for the Pi 4 8GB model B.
What's special about this Raspberry Pi 4?
According to the manufacturer notes, this board offers 90% greater performance than its predecessor and even better it uses power, more precisely 20% less.
The price is affordable, and we know it can run some high performance tasks like video scaling because of features like its powerful graphics processing unit (GPU).
The price is affordable, and we know it can run some high performance tasks like video scaling because of features like its powerful graphics processing unit (GPU).
Features:
CPU: Broadcom BCM2711,
Quad core Cortex-A72
(ARM v8) 64-bit SoC 1.5GHz
GPU: Broadcom VideoCore VI
Memory: LPDDR4 SDRAM
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0,
Dualband 2.4 & 5GHz wireless,
Gigabit ethernet, PoE
2. Rock Pi 4 Model C
Rock Pi 4 Model C stacks up well against the previous Raspberry Pi 4 we’ve discussed above. However, its currently available only with 4 GB RAM. Its manufactured by Radxa from China and can run on either Linux or Android.
At the time of writing Distrelec had the best price at £58.40 for the Rock Pi 4 model C.
At the time of writing Distrelec had the best price at £58.40 for the Rock Pi 4 model C.
What's special about this Rock Pi 4 Model C?
According to the manufacturer notes, this supports both Linux and Android and we liked it because it supports multiple storage options and supports AI stack with GPU acceleration which you would agree is great for computer vision applications and robotics. It comes with an onboard antenna and is compatible with the Raspberry Pi camera. It has an additional embedded Multi-Media Card (eMMC) interface meaning it has both flash memory and flash memory controller integrated onboard silicon.
A few things we thought they could improve is the level of support as this could be a problem since they haven’t got a bigger community base like Raspberry Pi do. affordable, and we know it can run some high-performance tasks like video scaling because of features like its powerful graphics processing unit (GPU).
A few things we thought they could improve is the level of support as this could be a problem since they haven’t got a bigger community base like Raspberry Pi do. affordable, and we know it can run some high-performance tasks like video scaling because of features like its powerful graphics processing unit (GPU).