Aaeon PICO-WHU4 microcomputer with Intel processor, competitor to Raspberry Pi (4 photos)

Compact Single Board Microcomputers Becomedemanded in solving various applied problems. The benchmark in this sector is the Raspberry Pi computer. However, some tasks require more computing power, which can be provided by the microcomputers of the Thai company Aaeon, which launched the PICO-WHU4 microcomputer
Aaeon PICO-WHU4 is manufactured inaccording to the Pico-ITX standard. The dimensions of the computer board are 100x72 mm, while the main competitor of Raspberry Pi 4 has slightly smaller parameters and amounts to 85.6 × 56.5 mm.

PICO-WHU4 hardware runs on x868th generation Intel processor (Whiskey Lake). For comparison, the Raspberry Pi 4 uses a 4-core ARM processor (Cortex A-72, frequency 1.5 GHz). Nevertheless, Aaeon developers take into account various user requests and also launched computers with 2 or 4-core chips on the market. In this case, the TDP can be in the range from 12.5 W to 25 watts.

The PICO-WHU4 computer is also more advanced,than the competing Raspberry Pi 4 B device, RAM with a SODIMM DDR4 slot, which provides for the installation of DDR4-2400 RAM with a capacity of up to 16 GB. Meanwhile, Raspberry’s LPDDR4-3200 only offers 1, 2 or 4 GB of memory.

Another significant advantage of AaeonPICO-WHU4 is the ability to use multiple connectors: SATA 3 for drives, one mSATA / mPCIe x 1 and M.2 2230 slot, two COM connectors with support for RS-232/422/485 and HDMI 1.4b for monitors.
GPU allows you to work with4K resolution (3840 × 2160), and two Realtek RTL8111G controllers allow you to use two Ethernet ports. There are also two USB 3.2 Gen 2 connectors and one USB 2.0.

An important parameter of the PICO-WHU4 is securitymoisture resistant and high operating temperature range. Aaeon microcomputer can operate at humidity up to 90% and temperature up to 60 degrees Celsius. You can also increase the heat dissipation from the computer’s working area by using a separately purchased radiator ($ 12) or a cooler for $ 25.

High technical parameters for whichAaeon microcomputer undoubtedly surpasses Raspberry Pi 4 B, they require high production costs and therefore such a device will enter the market at a higher price. Aaeon has not yet provided a price list for all products in this series, but it is known that a PICO-WHU4 model with an Intel Core i5-8365UE chip will cost about $ 783 (without memory cost). Meanwhile, the main advantage of the Raspberry Pi 4 B is the low cost of $ 35.

Source: tomshardware