First Thoughts on “Le Potato,” a Raspberry Pi-Like Single-Board Computer

The movement towards the Raspberry Pi form factor as a de facto standard for the burgeoning single-board computer market seems to be gathering pace. In recent months we’ve seen the big commercial manufacturers like ASUS with their Tinker Board, as well as smaller manufacturers like Pine64 with their ROCK64, FriendlyARM with the NanoPi K2, and even hobby projects like the Z-Berry, duplicate the form factor.

Now Libre Computer has brought us “Le Potato,” currently raising on Kickstarter.

Like the FriendlyARM’s NanoPi K2, the new board from Libre Computer is based around the Amlogic S905 processor, a 64-bit Quad Core ARM Cortex A53 SoC.

It’s worth noting that if you’re looking to pick up the 2GB model of “Le Potato” then the NanoPi K2—which comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth which this board surprisingly doesn’t seem to support—is pretty much the same cost with similar performance.

However, that said, the 1GB version of the board is significantly cheaper. Perhaps enough to make up for the absence of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth if you don’t really need them, and can get by with the lower amount of RAM.

The board has an HDMI connector, 4×USB connectors, and a 100MB Ethernet socket—it also has an IR receiver. It’s bootable both from an eMMC daughter board, or from a micro SD Card, and along with a collection of other header blocks comes the Raspberry Pi-compatible 40-pin header block for PWM, I2C, I2S, SPI, and GPIO.

The Libre Computer Board is now on Kickstarter, pledges start at $25 for the 1GB model, or $35 for the 2GB model. Shipping is an extra $7 if you live in the United States, India, or Hong Kong, or an extra $13 for other destinations.