Embedded computing specialist Banana Pi has launched a new Raspberry Pi-style single-board computer (SBC), this time powered by the Rockchip RK3506J system-on-chip: the BPI-Forge1, which includes two Ethernet ports for firewall and router operation.
“Banana Pi BPI-Forge1 [is designed] with [the] Rockchip RK3506J,” the company explains of the new board. “The RK3506J is a high-performance triple-core Cortex-A7 application processor designed for intelligent voice interaction, audio input/output processing, image output processing, and other digital multimedia applications. It features an embedded 2D hardware engine and display output engine to minimize CPU overhead and meet image display requirements.”
Banana Pi’s new BPI-Forge1 has somewhat dated specifications, but should excel in a low-power network appliance role. (📷: Banana Pi)
An Arm Cortex-A7 chip may sound a little dated, and the rest of the specifications are unlikely to convince you otherwise. The board, brought to our attention by Linux Gizmos, has the three Cortex-A7 cores running at up to 1.5GHz plus a single Cortex-M0 core for real-time workloads, a 2D-capable graphics accelerator with no 3D capabilities, and just 512MB of DDR3L memory — plus the same amount as on-board NAND storage, expandable via microSD Card.
Other features of the board include a single USB 2.0 Type-A host port plus a USB Type-C connector for power, a single MIPI Display Serial Interface (DSI) video output, a 12V DC input, analog audio, an expansion header carrying a RS485 bus, CAN bus, two microphone inputs, and a speaker output, and a 40-pin general-purpose input/output (GPIO) header “partially compatible” with the Raspberry Pi and featuring UART, SPI, I2C, and I2S buses plus pulse-width modulation (PWM) capabilities.
The board includes 512MB of NAND flash on-board, plus a microSD Card slot for expansion. (📷: Banana Pi)
The board’s most interesting feature, though, is at the side: not one but two Ethernet ports, highlighting Banana Pi’s vision of the board as a low-power device for network operations including firewall, border router, and gateway. Sadly, as with the processor powering everything, these are somewhat dated Fast Ethernet ports with a maximum throughput of 100Mb/s each.
More information on the board is available on the Banana Pi wiki, while it has been listed for sale on AliExpress at $32.20 plus shipping.