For those who’re a Raspberry Pi aficionado in search of options to the sought-after microcomputer, you is perhaps happy to know that Rockchip-powered boards will now be out there from the UK-based on-line retailer OKdo.

Rockchip, a producer primarily based in Fuzhou, China produces standard Raspberry Pi options underneath the “Rock” model identify, such because the Rock Pi 4.

The announcement, revealed through eeNews Europe, comes because the longstanding relationship between RS Group, proprietor of OKdo, and the Raspberry Pi Basis lapsed after virtually a decade. 

What does this imply?

OKdo says the transfer will enhance the provision of customizable single-board (CSB) computer systems because of its engineering experience, expertise, ecosystem companions, provide chain and international distribution channels.

The vary of merchandise consists of the ROCK Four SE, a cost-reduced model of Radxa’s ROCK 4C Plus board that makes use of the RK3399-T six-core ARM processor. 

The motherboard boasts two Cortex-A72 cores with a efficiency capability of 1.5GHz and 4 1.0GHz Cortex-A53 cores, in addition to ARM’s T860MP4 Mali GPU with 4GB of 64bit LPDDR4 RAM.

Immediately’s information could possibly be music to the ears of {hardware} tinkerers or these merely concerned about upskilling their python growth, as Raspberry PI has suffered some critical shortages prior to now 12 months.

In an interview with The Verge (opens in new tab), the boss of the buying and selling arm of Raspberry Pi basis Eben Upton described the shortages as “very unhealthy”.

He added: “We offered the identical variety of Raspberry Pis final 12 months that we offered the 12 months earlier than, however we entered final 12 months with a couple of half-million unit buyer backlog, and we left final 12 months with a number of million items of buyer backlog.” 

Richard Curtin, Co-Founder and CTO of OKdo, believes Raxa, a Rockchip design companion, is especially nicely suited to weathering the storm of the availability chain disaster.

Curtin mentioned: “Contemplating the availability chain constraints that Taiwan Semiconductors have had currently, there’s a important danger of inventory shortages when the manufacturing of semiconductors is solely situated in Asia or in a single wafer fab.”

He added that Rockchip’s use of a number of various kinds of wafers “was one of many predominant attraction factors once we initiated the design, manufacture, and distribution partnership with Radxa”.

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