The ZimaBoard is a small, fanless computer powered by a 6-watt Intel Apollo Lake processor with support for hard drives and SSDs. Apart from having an Intel CPU (vs an ARM processor) this computer also has 2x SATA III, 1x PCIe 2.0 and 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports to set it apart from a Raspberry Pi. So it is more readily usable with expanded storage capabilities and dual networking. It is also a lot cheaper than buying an Intel NUC with a single network port.
It can be used as a media server, software router, personal cloud, VPN and Firewall, smart home monitoring, file sharing and collaboration applications, embedded projects, or personal server applications.
Yes it will cost more than a Pi, and it is a Kickstarter project (with 20% off the final retail price), but I see DBTech has just received one to review on YouTube, so it does actually exist.
See https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/icewhaletech/zimaboard-single-board-server-for-creators
#technology #server #zimaboard #raspberrypi #hardware
Any word on whether this board will be able to install generic x86 ISOs like a PC? IMO, that’s the only real-world benefit that x86 still has over ARM.
Also kind of interesting that a Shanghai company to be using HK dollars for their crowdfunding.
I did see mention of Windows etc somewhere in the documentation. It is an Intel chip so should be fine, but have a read through as they do mention something but I did not read that in detail.
Found the original article that I first read, which mentioned this, so it was not on the link that I linked to: “Both models should be able to support a range of operating systems including server-specific options like pfSense, LibreELEC, or OpenWrt as well as desktop (or mobile) operating systems including Windows, various GNU/Linux distributions, or Android.” From https://liliputing.com/2021/01/zimaboard-is-a-hackable-single-board-server-with-intel-apollo-lake-crowdfunding.html.