Raspberry Pi A+-sized $10 La Frite Linux board has better specs at half the price
Libre Computer’s $10 La Frite board offers a cheap alternative to the Raspberry Pi A+.
- Playlist
- 0:58 / 10:48
-
AUTOPLAY: ON
- Fullscreen
Libre Computer, a maker of Raspberry Pi clones, has launched the La Frite single-board computer, which is available on Kickstarter from $10.
The La Frite board is a follow up to Libre Computing’s $25 Le Potato board and is “loosely based” on the design of the Raspberry Pi A+ — a smaller and cheaper Pi than the $35 Raspberry Pi B+ — due to the 40-pin GPIO header setup.
It’s currently available to backers on the device’s Kickstarter page and will be generally available in November.
The cheapest $10 option is a La Frite with 512MB of RAM, while for $15 and up, backers can get a La Frite with 1GB of RAM.
The La Frite is running on an S805X system on chip that features a quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 at 1.2GHz and Arm Mali-450 GPU Cores, according to Libre Computer’s specs sheet.
As noted by ZDNet’s sister site TechRepublic, the La Frite can output video to 1,080p displays via HDMI 1.4, making it comparable to the Raspberry Pi 3 B+, while the La Frite offers faster DDR4 memory.
The computer has two USB 2.0 Type ports, 100Mbps Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, a microUSB power socket, and an eMMC interface.
Running a data center today, no matter the business, is an exercise in managing and overcoming complexity. In this report, we’ll look at how a strong foundation in both the cloud and internal data centers is empowering organizations to not only get the most out of their IT infrastructure today, but is also preparing them to be able to better take advantage of new technologies already on their way.
Key features the Le Frite is missing compared with the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support. But that could be expected as these were also missing from its predecessor, the $25 Le Potato.
Libre Computer says the board supports Ubuntu, Debian, LibreELEC, Lakka, RetroPie, Android Oreo, and other Linux distributions.
Other boards the Shenzhen-based company has launched include the $35 Renegade, which runs on a Rockchip RK3328 quad-core Cortex A53 processor, and the pricier and more powerful Renegade Elite with a six-core Rockchip RK3399 CPU.
Image: Libre Computer
The Le Frite campaign has already raised twice its $10,000 target, which means it will be funded with shipments commencing in November.
PREVIOUS AND RELATED COVERAGE
Raspberry Pi-like price, tiny six-core NanoPi NEO4 could be the perfect pocket server
The NanoPi NEO4 is the cheapest board based on a Rockchip 3399, but the catch is there’s only 1GB RAM and you may need a separate heatsink
A Raspberry Pi-style computer you can build yourself: Blueberry Pi
Provided you can think of something useful to do with a board with only 64MB of on-chip RAM.
Google AI on Raspberry Pi: Now you get official TensorFlow support
Google’s TensorFlow team makes it a whole lot easier to get AI up and running on a Raspberry Pi.
Raspberry Pi-style Renegade Elite runs Android Oreo on six-core, 4K board
If you’re specifically not looking for a Raspberry Pi, the Renegade Elite could be the board of choice.
Raspberry Pi meets AI: The projects that put machine learning on the $35 board
Explore the projects pushing the limit of what’s possible on the budget board.
Raspberry Pi space rover: NASA open-sources its mini Mars robot
Now you can have you’re own six-wheel, rock-climbing rover robot for Earth exploration.
Raspberry Pi goes Android Auto: Now you can build your own cheap car head unit
Why buy a finished Android Auto head unit when you can hack one together with a Raspberry Pi 3?
Raspberry Pi’s ‘app store’ lands with new Raspbian OS update
Raspberry Pi Foundation is hungry for beginners to try out its device, hence a new setup wizard and app store.
Raspberry Pi-style Renegade Elite runs Android Oreo on six-core, 4K board
If you’re specifically not looking for a Raspberry Pi, the Renegade Elite could be the board of choice.
Google includes a Raspberry Pi in a DIY smart speaker kit CNET
The updated kits are rolling out to Target and include everything you need to build your own smart speaker or smart camera.
Raspberry Pi: A cheat sheet TechRepublic
Everything you need to know about the tiny, ultra-cheap computer that has taken the world by storm.
Bruce's Blog 