There’s a new competitor in town for Raspberry Pi. It’s name is SAMSUNG ARTIK Smart IoT platform.
We are not talking about a single board computer, actually. It’s instead a family of modules, sensors and, forgive the repetition, single board computers, all part of the same solution targeting startups and designers of Internet of Things devices and appliances. This is indeed a single offering that uniquely addresses the emerging needs for rapid prototyping, IP protection and guidance in the stormy sea of IoT.
But hey, where’s the news? Since we all already know ARTIK. But today we are going to meet the two latest additions to the family picture: ARTIK 0 and ARTIK 7.
ARTIK 0
ARTIK 0 is a lightweight, low-power consumption device, mainly expected to be used in HVAC and lightning systems as well as health activity trackers. Based on the widely used Cortex-M microcontrollers, ARTIK 0 shines for connectivity and flexibility, supporting protocols such as low-power wireless standard, ZigBee, Thread, Bluetooth 4.0 and also networking stacks, radio frequency (RF) components – all of this with a precertification for regulatory approval.
Given the “zero” in the name and the focus on cost-optimization, we expect the device to enter the market of low-end single board computers / microcontrollers – from here on out just “boards” – that share a price tag of $5 to $10 USD – an increasing trend in DIY electronics started by CHIP and popularized by Raspberry Pi Zero.
Placing the product on this price range would also mean that ARTIK has an eye for makers, teachers and students – something that would seriously put the device as a viable alternative to Raspberry Pi Zero.
It’s worth noting that Samsung says “ARTIK 0 family” and “ARTIK 7 family” rather than using the bare name of the devices. This means we should expect more modules and sensors, in a “board-first, modules-second” strategy that its’ common to pretty much all the field.
ARTIK 7
ARTIK 7 is the medium-heavy weight (should we say welterweight?) of the product range, meant for high-end gateways and multimedia. The board features a stunning 8 cores, and not so often we see octacore boards. The CPU is 64-bit ARM Cortex A53, which puts the product in the high-end of the market. After all, since the launch of Pine 64 we are seeing nothing but 64-bit platforms!
As its little brother, ARTIK 7 has no rival when we start talking about connectivity: built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Thread, GbE MAC interface.
The board also supports accelerated video and audio and, drum roll, a pre-installed Linux OS, which is totally an uncommon (and much appreciated) thing to have in a single board computer.
Finally, as ARTIK 0 and all the ARTIK products, ARTIK 7 speaks the language of the enterprise, with deep roots in the ARTIK cloud and world-class security both for makers and enterprise customers.
