HUAWEI and Linaro launching Raspberry Pi-like computer board for Android

ARM hardware developer Linaro, in partnership with Huawei, is readying a new computer board product capable of running Android with current-gen CPU and GPU technologies.

The HiKey 960 is intended to act as a tool for Android devs to test software and drivers, but it could also be used in the production of robotics, drones, and digital home devices. Google, ARM, Archermind, and LeMaker all had a hand in the board’s development, but it was Linaro’s aim of bringing “access to the latest ARM technology to the developer community,” that seems to have been the driving force behind the project.

As for the specs, the HiKey 960 will ship with an octa-core Kirin 960 processor (as you might have already guessed) with four high-performance ARM Cortex-A73 and four low-power Cortex-A53 cores, a Mali-G71 GPU and 3 GB of LPDDR4 RAM. That means the board will be roughly as powerful as the HUAWEI Mate 9 — though that houses an extra gigabyte of RAM.

The HiKey 960 also delivers two USB 3.0 Type-A ports and one USB 2.0 Type-C port, dual-band 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1, in addition to a microSD slot and PCIe m.2 slot for extra storage.

Finally, the board includes 40-pin and 60-pin connectors and multiple high-definition outputs, including an HDMI 1.2a slot for 1080p displays.

The HiKey 960 will launch in the US, Europe and Japan in early May priced at US$239. Worldwide availability will roll out later — as will support for Linux.

Check out the HiKey 960 Amazon listing here and let us know in the comments what you’d do with it in the comments.