As usual, a lot has changed in just a short time since our last update. Here are some of the highlights from industry news.
First and foremost, the RaspberryPi 3 has continued to be the most popular ARM single board computer. It now includes WiFi and Bluetooth, and the official Raspbian operating system has been upgraded to include support for the new features. While it has a 64-bit processor, for the time being it still uses a 32-bit operating system.
Just a few days ago, we got some detail on the Cavium ThunderX2 processor that is forthcoming. This is an enterprise-grade processor that will have 54 cores and support up to 100gb of ethernet bandwidth. It will deliver 2x to 3x the performance of the current ThunderX processor, and should be able to compete head-to-head with Xeon’s in many workloads.
Finally, the Pine64 has been shipping in volume now, with most Kickstarter backers having received their boards. The Pine64 is based on a 64-bit Allwinner A64 processor, which is not the most powerful around, but it sets a new low-price for 64-bit ARM hardware. At just $15 for the entry level Pine64, the price of 64-bit ARM hardware has dropped from $3,000 to $15 in the course of about 1 year. Talk about rapid innovation!