Banana Pi has revealed (opens in new tab) its next-generation board, generally known as the BPI-M6, which follows the identical design development because the Raspberry Pi (opens in new tab) and options an NPU alongside a quad-core CPU, an M.2 socket, and an HDMI enter.
Whereas it could appear like one more small blue SBC, there’s loads happening right here. The BPI-M6 has a CPU made up of 4 64bit Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.1 GHz, with an extra Cortex M3 core, a 32bit processor typically seen in microcontrollers (opens in new tab), IoT units, and which acted because the movement co-processor in Apple M9 units, such because the iPhone 6S. Given the outstanding quantity of labor you may get out of the Raspberry Pi 4 (opens in new tab)’s 1.5GHz Cortex A-72 cores, this sooner and extra succesful CPU ought to be a pleasant improve, although it could require cooling.
The Creativeness GE9920 is Banana Pi’s GPU of alternative for this board, and is bundled with the CPU and a 6.75 TOPS NPU right into a package deal generally known as the VideoSmart VS680. There’s additionally 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 16GB of eMMC flash (which will be specced as excessive as 64GB) and a Micro SD slot, whereas because the again fringe of the board is an M.2 socket able to holding Key E units, which embody Wi-Fi and Bluetooth playing cards – helpful, as there isn’t any on-board wi-fi functionality. Video output is as excessive as 4K60, and it may run a 4K display by way of a micro-HDMI port in addition to a 1080p display related by way of MIPI DSI.
The opposite micro-HDMI port is an enter, pointing to potential makes use of in DIY set-top bins or different video processing and IoT purposes. The remainder of the board will certainly look acquainted to Raspberry Pi (opens in new tab) aficionados, with 4 USB ports (all 3.0) and a Gigabit Ethernet socket at one finish, and 40 GPIO pins. There’s additionally a header for PoE, and energy is delivered by way of a USB-C port.
There is no data but about software program assist for the brand new board, although earlier Banana Pi SBCs such because the BPI-M5 (opens in new tab) have had Android, Ubuntu, Debian and even Raspbian pictures accessible for them. Costs and availability have additionally not been introduced, however there’s a wiki article (opens in new tab) detailing the {hardware}.