UP Core Dev Board Boasts Quad-Core Intel Atom x5 Grunt To Challenge Raspberry Pi
At the heart of the UP Core, which measures just 56.50mm x 66mm, is a powerful (for its size) Intel Atom x5-Z8350 quad-core processor running at 1.44GHz (1.92GHz Boost). The system can be configured with up to 4GB of RAM and up to 64GB of onboard eMMC storage. With regards to connectivity, you’ll find HDMI, eDP, two MIPI-CSI camera interface ports, one USB 3.0 host and 2 USB 2.0 pin headers. Wireless connectivity is handled via 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0 LE.
Expansion Boards
There will also be two expansion boards available to add capabilities to the base UP Core, which connect via a 100-pin I/O connector:
Expansion board A carries high-speed signals such as PCI-express, GbLAN and USB3.0 whereas expansion board B exposes low-speed signals such as RS-232/422/484, I2C, I2S, and GPIO. You may choose either one of the two boards or stack both of them beneath UP Core. The high speed signal expansion board shall always be the first layer beneath UP Core if you intend to use up to 3 expansion boards.
The UP Core is actually the third board to come from this manufacturer via Kickstarter. The first generation UP, which had a Raspberry Pi form-factor, launched in 2015, while the UP2 opened up its funding run last year. The new UP Core is priced from about $78 for a board with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage. Opting for 4GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC will cost you $134.
The UP Core is capable of running Windows 10, Windows 10 IoT Core, Linux and Android, although it’d be hilarious to see someone trying to run full-blown Windows 10 with just 1GB of RAM.
