Huawei HiKey 960 news: Huawei to launch Raspberry Pi's replacement

The new Huawei HiKey 960.Huawei/96boards

Huawei is launching a new tool for developing software aimed to replace the Raspberry Pi.

Referred to as Huawei HiKey 960, the new tool promises more speed and power for developers. The main intent of the Huawei HiKey 960 is to serve as an Android computer that will help developers to write or test their applications. Aside from this, it can also create robots, drones, and other smart devices.

The Huawei HiKey 960 is expected to perform like the high-end smartphones in the market. It runs on an octa-core Kirin 960 octa-core processor, with four Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.4 GHz, and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz. On the other hand, it comes with the Mali-G71 MP8 for its graphics processing unit (GPU), which enables output of 4K graphics. However, the Huawei HiKey 960 comes with a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) 1.2a slot, which means that the display output is only up to 1080 pixels.

Aside from these, the Huawei HiKey 960 comes with 40-pin and 60-pin connectors that will enable the user to attach hardware such as cameras. Along with this, it comes with PCIe M.2 slot that will boost the speed of the 32 GB internal storage on board. As for the RAM, the Huawei HiKey 960 comes with 3 GB memory.

Huawei has teamed up with Google, ARM, Archermind, and LeMaker in order to deliver the new board. Along with this, the development board was backed by Linaro, a company that develops software packages for Android operating systems (OSs) and advanced RISC machines (ARM) architectures.

Last month, George Grey, CEO of Linaro, pointed out how Android developers still have to use x86 chips in writing codes. With this, he encouraged the organization to work on a fast computer that will make the work of the developers more efficient.

The Huawei HiKey 960 is expected to be shipped to the United States, Europe, and Japan sometime next month. Meanwhile, it is anticipated to come to the rest of the regions at a later date.