W e’re used to seeing Raspberry Pi competition come and go. Over the years many boards have featured better-looking specifications, yet have been hamstrung with lacklustre software and support options that disappear as fast as the parent companies. However, one model that’s stuck around is the Rock Pi, which is now available as the Pi 4 Model C+. This is a reduced-cost version of the Pi 4 Model B+.
The Rock Pi looks almost identical to the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, and is based around the Rockchip RK3399T. This is a Big.Little Arm design that utilises two Cortex-A72 cores, similar to those in the Pi 4, but running at 1.5GHz. In addition there are four more “little” cores: Cortex-A53s running at 1.4GHz. Also appearing on the specs sheet is 4GB of RAM, microSD and M2 storage, Gigabit LAN, WiFi 802.11ac and the 40-pin GPIO.
For software the boards can run Debian, Ubuntu and Android with Panfrost drivers for its Mali T860MP4 GPU. It costs $60 plus shipping so could be worth considering if you’re struggling to locate a genuine Pi.