Tiny Quad Core Module Available Soon

We get a lot of new product announcements here at Hackaday, and we run across even more. As excited as a manufacturer might be about their latest Raspberry Pi killer or cheaper Arduino clone, we usually don’t have much to say about new products unless there is something really interesting about them. Our attention was piqued though when we saw the Neutis N5. Shipping in April, the device packs a quad-core ARM processor running at 1.3 GHz with 8 GB of flash memory and 512 MB of RAM, has an extended temperature range, WiFi (802.11N), and Bluetooth (including BLE). There’s also a crypto chip, and all this is packed into a tiny package. Really tiny. Less than 41×30 mm square and less than 4.5 mm thick. There’s a Debian-based distribution and a development board. Oh and the really interesting thing is the price, which is $49 in single quantities.

Some of the I/O ports are multiplexed, but there are plenty of options including audio, Ethernet, HDMI, USB, and more. They clearly mean for these to be put into products. The module claims UL and CE certification, each unit has a unique serial number, and there is a gang programming capability.

For comparison purposes, an SD card is 32 mm x 24 mm and not quite as thick (2.1 mm). So the N5 is a little larger, but not by much. A Raspberry Pi is huge by comparison at just under 86 mm x 57 mm. Even a Pi Zero is 65 mm x 30 mm.

Admittedly we haven’t seen one of these yet, and everything always looks good on paper. Still, if it lives up to its promise it could give a run for the money to the Raspberry Pi and Beaglebone markets. Especially if you are trying to build it into something.

We have seen lots of cheaper or smaller Pi killers, like the Orange Pi. If you want to go the opposite direction on the price and performance scale, there is always try the HiKey 290.

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