The Rock Pi X Will Run Windows 10
An x86-based single-board computer for just $39?
I don’t generally pay much attention to Intel-based boards. There have been the odd exceptions, but usually run too hot, and are just too expensive, to be particularly interesting. But it looks like there might soon be one more board added to the short stack of exceptions, the new Rock Pi X.
The Rock Pi X from Radxa occupies the relatively sparsely populated low-end of the x86 single-board computer market, powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8300 Cherry Trail processor it will be priced starting from $39.
The board will ship with 1, 2, or 4GB of RAM, and in two separate models, the Model A and Model B. The cheaper Model A lacking both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support. Both, however, will have a microSD card slot, eMMC flash storage, an HDMI 1.4 port, a headphone jack, a single USB 3 port, and two USB 2 ports, as well as a USB Type-C OTG port, and a Raspberry Pi-like 40-pin connector with two ADC, two PWM, and two I2C connectors.
The board also shares the same footprint as the Raspberry Pi, and apart from the Intel processor shares a lot of similarities with Radxa’s Rock Pi 4, based around the Rockchip RK3399, which they released at the tail end of last year.
Interestingly of course, because of the Intel processor, the new Rock Pi X board will be able run Windows 10. Although if you opt for the cheapest model, with only 1GB of RAM, you’ll be restricted to running Windows in 32-bit mode as the 64-bit edition requires a minimum of 2GB of RAM.
There isn’t any news on availability quite yet, but the Rock Pi X Model A will ship priced at $39 for the 1GB model, $49 for the 2GB model, or $65 for the 4GB model. While the Model B, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, will ship at $49 for the 1GB model, $59 for the 2GB model, or $75 for the 4GB model which represents the top end specification available.
[h/t: CNX Software]
