Yes but RPI 4 has usb 3.0 ports that you'd really struggle to saturate with a gigabit connection - I used to see the lack of sata as a major problem with that platform but nowadays it really doesn't matter.
Not the pi, but the vaguely-similar (better, IMHO) https://www.pine64.org/rockpro64/ has a 4x pcie. Works great for a sata/raid controller, but still has plenty of "embedded" limitations - you can't just plug a graphics card into it.
The RPi 4 is the first one with an Ethernet interface that isn't connected over USB. All the earlier RPis are seriously handicapped for networking usage by that limitation.
The RPi4 SoC has a lot constraints wrt PCIe and frankly appears to not implement the PCIe spec completely or correctly. A lot PCIe devices simply don't work with it.
>Something like an RPi 4 but with more disk I/O and RAM.
Have you seen the RISC-V based VisionFive2?
Uses 4x SiFive U74 cores, so it is actually between rpi3b and 4 in CPU performance, but using way less power (especially idle).
The SoC has an industrial operating range: It can go up to 125C, it doesn't use or need a heatsink; at full load in human room temperatures it won't even reach 70C.
GPU performance is supposedly 4x that of RPi4. As for I/O, it has 2x GbE and a M.2 slot, besides USB3 and a RPi-like GPIO header.
4GB and 8GB versions are available, but 8GB won't ship until February. Both versions are <$100.
CPU Quad-core ARM Cortex-A57 64 bit
DRAM Two DDR3 SO-DIMM sockets
SATA Two SATA ports
USB Two USB 3.0 ports
Console USB-micro port for console support
Ethernet 1 GBe Ethernet
PCIe x16 PCIe G3 slot
not sure about the RTC, but the PI is way far from any of
the arm 'standardization' efforts, being a low end 'standard' unto itself..
I don't think it beats anything, but I am sure IO improves fairly significantly.
One of the things I found to be a problem is that most container images found on different registries are built for x86_64. You would need to rebuild those containers yourself on the RPI.
The Pi4 isn't PCIe Gen 4, though. It's only PCIe Gen 2. Max speed of PCIe Gen 2 is 5GT/s, which equates to the same speed as standard USB3.0/USB3.1 Gen1/whatever its called nowadays.
I'm looking at buying the raspberry pi 4 right now, as I've been thinking of getting something to replace my odroid-c1 for a while now.
My understanding is that the RockPro64 has pcie slots on it, which allows Sata boards so you can connect drives directly without usb. Personally, I'm more interested in the odroid-h2, with the native Sata. Unfortunately, it costs far more ($111 without ram) and has no wireless connectivity built in.
The RPi4 doesn't have sata.
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