The Raspberry Pi has a new rival as Imagination Technologies enters the microcomputer race with the Creator CI20.
A more substantial piece of hardware than its illustrious rival, the Creator CI20 pairs a powerful CPU and GPU collaboration with integrated Wi-Fi and SD expansion units as standard.
The idea of the compact developer board – which has already been used to create everything from robots to smart home devices – is to offer a simple, powerful, direct-from-the-box development platform.
“When you look at the development boards that are out there, you have to make compromises,” Alex Vocia, Imagination’s Marketing Communications Manager said speaking with TrustedReviews.
He added: “We wanted to create a board that offers everything out of the box. The idea was to create a board that includes everything developers’ wanted at an affordable price.”
While at £50 the Creator CI20 is relatively easy on your wallet, this price tag is more than twice the asking price of the Raspberry Pi.
So, what does this extra outlay get you? Well, quite a lot actually.
The CI20 is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor based on Imagination’s MIPS32 technologies. With a PowerVR SGX540 GPU thrown into the mix alongside 1GB of DDR3 RAM, the device is capable of 1080p Full HD video playback at 60 frames-per-second.
The Creator CI20’s components list is further enhanced by 4GB of flash storage, expandable via the accompanied SD card insert.
On the connectivity front, the Creator CI20 is well supported. With both an Ethernet port and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi options included, Bluetooth 4.0 is also present alongside a single HDMI port and a pair of USB connections.
With an audio jack, expansion headers and a camera interface controller also squeezed onto the compact board, eager owners have a choice of systems on which to develop.
Moving with the increasingly mobile-centric times, Imagination is launch both Linux and Android based Creator CI20 models.
For those eager to snap up the device, pre-orders can be placed right now through Imagination’s online store ahead of a January 2015 shipping date.
Read More: 10 of the best Raspberry Pi projects