It was recently announced Banana Pi BPI-M6, a mini-PC the size of a credit card that, as its name indicates, tries to follow the trend started by the popular Raspberry Pi. Obviously, it goes without saying that it is a computer that uses an ARM processor.
Digging into the details, the Banana Pi BPI-M6 implements a SenaryTech SN3680 processor with four Cortex-A73 cores, one Cortex-M3 real-time core, one Imagination GE9920 graphics accelerator, and one Neural Processing Unit capable of up to 6.75 trillion operations per second (TOPS) performance.
Continuing with more hardware features, the Banana Pi BPI-M6 incorporates 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM accompanied by 16GB of data storage in eMMC format. The board includes a 40-pin header, an M.2 2232 slot, a MIP-DSI interface, and a microSD card reader.
At the connection level, it has four USB 3.0 Type-A (rectangular) ports, a USB Type-C (reversible) for power, an RJ45 connector for Ethernet and two micro HDMI ports, with one dedicated to output and another for input. input, which opens the door to using the Banana Pi BPI-M6 as a video capture device. It is capable of playing 4K video and rendering two video streams simultaneously at 1080p and 60fps using the H.264 or VP8 codec..
One thing to keep in mind is that the Banana Pi BPI-M6 does not support wireless connections, so these must be supplied by the user through the USB ports. Its dimensions are 92 x 60 millimeters, so it is slightly larger than the Raspberry Pi Model B. Data such as the price and availability of the Raspberry Pi Model B are still unknown, but everything indicates that it will officially support Linux and Android .
Mini-PCs with ARM architecture have been in vogue for a long time, and despite the small size they usually have and the fact that they are not a substitute for a high-performance x86 PC, there are quite a few models capable of fulfilling functions such as that of a server for a SMEs, with all the cost savings that can result both in terms of the equipment itself and energy consumption.
