Recently Radxa released the X4, which is an SBC containing not only an N100 x86_64 SoC but also an RP2040 MCU connected to a Raspberry Pi-style double pin header. The Intel N100 is one of a range of Alder Lake-N SoCs which are based on a highly optimized version of the Skylake core, first released in 2015. These cores are also used as ‘efficiency’ cores in Intel’s desktop CPUs. Being x86-based, this means that the Radxa X4 can run any Linux, Windows and other OS from either NVMe (PCIe 3.0 x4) or eMMC storage. After getting his hands on one of these SBCs, [Bret] couldn’t wait to take a gander at what it can do.
Installing Windows 11 and Debian 12 on a 500 GB NVMe (2230) SSD installed on the X4 board worked pretty much as expected on an x86 system, with just some missing drivers for the onboard Intel 2.5 Gbit Ethernet and WiFi, depending on the OS, but these were easily obtained via the Intel site and installed. The board comes with an installed RTC battery and a full-featured AMI BIOS, as well as up to 16 GB of LPPDR5 RAM.
Using the system with the Radxa PoE+ HAT via the 2.5 Gbit Ethernet port also worked a treat once using a quality PoE switch, even with the N100’s power level set to 15 Watt from the default 6. The RP2040 MCU on the mainboard is connected to the SoC using both USB 2.0 and UART, according to the board schematic. This means that from the N100 all of the Raspberry Pi-style pins can be accessed, making it in many ways a more functional SBC than the Raspberry Pi 5, with a similar power envelope and cost picture.
At $80 USD before shipping for the 8 GB (no eMMC) version that [Bret] looked at one might ask whether an N100-based MiniPC could be competitive, albeit that features like PoE+ and integrated RPi-compatible header are definite selling points.
The spec sheet is…lacking. No specific chipsets. Why is that a potential issue? Because for something like nearly a decade Intel hasn’t been able to make a 2.5G ethernet card that works properly. They keep saying “oh we got it this time” aaaaand nope. Hilariously, Realtek makes great 2.5G ethernet chipsets.
Did FreeBSD’s issues with Realtek 1G adapters ever get addressed? Always amused me that they shouted about how bad the chipsets were when they worked great on linux.
Not sure if you’re referring to the specs noted in the original post (I was the author!) but there’s a lot more detail at https://radxa.com/products/x/x4/#downloads if that’s your thing, I was just giving offering quick overview 😄
There isn’t much along the lines of “chipsets”, it’s an SoC…..
According to https://dl.radxa.com/x/x4/radxa_x4_v1.11_schematic.pdf the WiFi/BT chip is a AW-XM548NF part, and Googling results in https://www.azurewave.com/img/nxp/AW-XM458_DS_DF_G_STD.pdf
Schematic says the Ethernet chip is an Intel i225 (nothing more specific). I’d hope 225 is fixed by now.
No RAM slot boo. Looks cool otherwise, I guess the performance will be passable (still better than raspi) but the real selling point is software support because of x86_64. Also RP2040 on board is cool, I like that.
I’m undecided if these relatively “high performance” SBCs really have a point now that used laptops are so ubiquitous and cheap. Remove the screen and they’re far more powerful, far cheaper headless machines with a lot of upgradeability.
And as for GPIO and all that stuff, I’d much rather connect a RP2040 over USB, and let it do everything.
Maybe I’m not the target demographic, but I can’t see who needs these boards. If they were exceptionally low power then I could see the point. I guess they are just for curious hobbyists to play around with?
Operative is “remove the screen”. On the bright side it comes with a UPS.
I’d love to get my hands on one of these to really compare (and do need to read through the documentation more carefully), but this on paper so far looks like the perfect RPi 5 upgrade or at least alternative for folks that need a bit more performance or specific expansion options, but don’t need camera or display. Probably will end up being a touch physically larger with the heatsink requirements integrated, but still comparable to a Pi. The Intel GPU aught to have better functionality in all workloads than the Broadcom one in the Pi if not outright more performance too, more PCIe lanes, 2.5G Ethernet, memory capacity is potentially higher and its is faster memory as well by the looks of it… Not sure if the Wifi and Bluetooth chipset is better or worse, but the one in the Pi 4 at least is only adequate IMO, so it might be a better choice there too.
Not sure how you would get ram slots on something this small without much worse sacrifices, it is in that credit card SBC form factor and already loaded with more important I/O connectors… Which is one area these sort of things excel compared to anything but perhaps a framework laptop (or at least can do – the pi’s certainly do). As they are consistently available, at a reasonable price to performance, in a consistent layout – laptops when you actually want a SBC you are buying a heap of e-waste, and if you build the laptop into something there is no certainty at all the next time you want to buy that model to replicate or repair your project the current version will actually fit and function the same.
Also this is in effect connecting to the RP2040 over USB, just without any messy wiring or added bulk from the connectors – integrated here is ideal if you want to embed actual computing performance and the more FPGA like realtime magic and GPIO of the 2040, or to use the 2040 to interface with the wide range of HATs that should be directly electronically compatible from my skim read.
“I’d much rather connect a RP2040 over USB”
That’s what this does, it just uses PCB traces instead of a cable. The only real difference is that a couple of the N100’s own gpios are used for bootsel and reset (instead of a button and manually removing power), and it also has SWD (I think referred to as UART in the article, which isn’t quite correct) routed, which would be convenient for the 0.0001% of people who use that on the pico.
The top-level block diagram also shows the RP2040 connected to the fan header, but the schematic doesnt seem to reflect that, so the RP2040 seems to exist *just* for the gpio. Seems pretty ideal to me!
Once you add the heatsink and shipping the total cost of this board gets up well above $100. If you need PoE and GPIO that is still a great deal by anyone considering a desktop replacement N100 mini PC might be better off just buying a turnkey setup that comes with a SSD, case, heatsink, fan and PSU plus a Windows license (if that is your thing). Right now they seem to start at $149 shipped on Amazon but I have definitely seen them cheaper from time to time.
Has anyone tried using the RP2040 tool chain on the Radxa X2 or X4 boards?
Yeah, at that point a 5060 or 5070 looks really attractive at $30 or $40. The costliest thing there would be upgrading the SSD if it’s one of the 8GB ones (or EMMC), unless you’ve got a small image to use (I’m fine with the 8GB, pretty easy to do if you’re going headless).
The disadvantages are that it’d be significantly slower (only ~3/4 the N100’s max turbo, and DDR3/DDR4 rather than DDR5 ram), only gigabit networking, and you’d need a Pi Pico or similar taped to the case for similar GPIO capability (which I wouldn’t typically need/want), which kind of mitigates the benefit of the included case.
For what I use these kinds of machines for, I’m very happy with those tradeoffs, I can typically use them fresh from eBay with no changes. Not everyone would be, though.
I could see these replacing POS terminals in any retail location pretty quickly if it was installed directly inside the monitor.
I hope they make a lattepanda mu competitor in this price range.
I just bought a micro-itx N100 motherboard and it wasn’t that much more expensive. It’s a complete motherboard with a heatsink and all the ports you need for video and NVMe and a RAM slot. If I want to do I/O I can plug a microcontroller into one of the USB ports and communicate with it using software. This is a better option if you want to run Windows or Linux.
But not for those that want an embedded computer and lots of GPIO… And as this thing is so darn close to equally ideal even if you just want to an OS (at least on paper), and so much smaller than micro-itx. So pick your poison…
“Not much more expensive”? What I’m seeing is roughly double the price of an 8GB X4 with 64GB eMMC plus a heatsink, *without memory or storage*. The ITX mobos seem to only make sense if you’re doing something the X4 easily can’t (NAS, 10G router, that kind of thing).
Just FYI, it suffers from the usual gambit of x86 speculative execution vulnerabilities. Whatever you put this thing in, don’t execute foreign code on it.
Well, on one side it is nice competition to Pi5 but on the other side there are many N100 based mini PCs that already come in nice metal boxes and have memory slots and more expandability and are in similar price range so why to get something with Raspberry Pi style form factor and expandability limitations? Do they at least offfer more openness like e.g. bios updates/modding or even coreboot bios?
I think for the thermal strip he conflated 13.8W/MK with dissipating 13watts.
I would have thought you would put the thermal strips on the MOSFETs and use paste (or Honeywell PTM 7950) on the bare die 🤷🏼♂️.
Likes: Small Size and included 2230 M.2 port.
Would have liked to see: more IO, either another M.2 or edge connect PCIe x4 would have been sweet.
Price is what it is, oddly the AliExpress store page 404’s for me (oddly /after/ the picture loads).
Interesting product/niche. Wonder why with it so cut down already they used N100, maybe there are more EUs in the GPU? Intel does amazing work with the integrated GPUs on low power, then falls flat by not letting them get enough power to shine. Even 15-20w to the GPU will let it really stretch its legs and play a surprising amount of games. Wish AMD would compete here. Even something like half a SteamDeck APU would stomp all over an N100 🤷🏼♂️