“Utilite” has single- to quad-core Cortex-A9 chip and up to 512GB flash storage.
A new ARM-based Linux PC with a host of capabilities—including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, two Gigabit Ethernet jacks, and five USB ports—goes on sale next month starting at $99.
“Utilite,” offered by Israeli company CompuLab, won’t be as cheap as a Raspberry Pi, but the specs justify the cost. With dimensions of 5.3” × 3.9” × 0.8”, Utilite comes with a Freescale i.MX6 system-on-chip with a single-, dual-, or quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor (which uses 3-8 watts of power). It will have up to 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz memory, up to 512GB of SSD storage, and a microSD slot allowing another 128GB.
The PC can be purchased with either Ubuntu Linux or Android.
The rest of the specs are as follows:
- Graphics Processing Unit supporting OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0, OpenVG 1.1, and OpenCL EP
- Video Processing Unit supporting multi-stream 1080p H.264, VC1, RV10, and DivX decoding
- HDMI 1.4 up to 1920×1200 @ 60Hz
- DVI-D up to 1920×1200 @ 60Hz
- Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
- Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
- Bluetooth 3.0
- Stereo line-out and stereo line-in
- S/PDIF (electrical through 3.5 mm jack)
- Four USB2.0 high-speed ports, 480 Mbit/s
- USB OTG port, 480 Mbit/s
- Two RS232 serial ports, ultra mini serial connector
CompuLab says it envisions Utilite being used for applications such as a “media player, IPTV, infotainment system, digital signage, thin client, and [as a] small-footprint desktop replacement.”
CompuLab and its resellers will start accepting orders for the little computer in August. Full pricing wasn’t announced, with CompuLab saying only that “Utilite will be offered in several configurations starting from $99.”
Utilite is a follow-up to CompuLab’s previous PC, the Nvidia Tegra 2-based Trim-Slice. That computer ranges in price from $213 to $338.
