AAEON has expanded its line of single-board computers with the Up Squared Pro 7000. Faced with the majority use of ARM processors, this SBC debuts Intel N processors for the occasion, which undoubtedly gives it greater potential.
You already know that the Intel N (or Alder Lake-N) are the latest bet from the chip giant to power the input range of personal computers, filling the gap left by the Celeron and Pentium solutions that were discontinued. They are built on the latest process technology, Intel 7 under the new Gracemont microarchitecture. Compared to the hybrid architecture of their older brothers that combine P and E cores, they only use E (efficient) cores in quantities of 4 or 8 native processing cores/threads. but obviously are ideal for low cost and consumption solutions like the one at hand.
Up Squared Pro 7000, very good potential in SBC
The new AAEON plate has dimensions of 102x102mm and will be available in four different processor options. The most interesting is the Intel Core i3-N305, with 8 cores/threads with a maximum frequency of 3.8 GHz, 6 Mbytes of third-level cache, Intel UHD GPU with 32 execution units and a maximum frequency of 1.25 GHz. Its TDP is 15 watts.
All versions support up to 16GB of LPDDR5 memory and up to 64GB of eMMC storage, both soldered onto the motherboard. Storage can be expanded with an M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 3 slot and also with a SATA 3 connector for a hard drive or SSD. There is also an E-Key M.2 2230 slot for a wireless card that supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless standards.
Among the available ports we can mention:
- 1 x HDMI 2.0b
- 1 Display Port 1.2
- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C
- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
- 2 x USB 2.0 type A
- 1 3.5mm audio combo
- A 40-pin header.
- 2 2.5GbE Ethernet
- 2 RS232/422/485 serial ports
The board supports connection of up to three screens using the HDMI, DisplayPort and USB Type-C ports simultaneously. Taking into account that the Intel N supports TPM 2.0, you will have no problem running Windows 11 officially and also Linux such as Ubuntu 22.04 that is expressly mentioned.
Although the computer is a low power PC designed to be fanless, the available header allows you to connect a fan for active cooling. AAEON will also offer a kit that includes a chassis with integrated heat sink and a more complete kit with a chassis, heat sink, a power supply and a power cable, turning this SBC into a mini-PC.
No prices have been provided, but they should be around 179 and 219 dollars What does the previous version cost? More expensive than a Raspberry SBC, but certainly with much more potential.
