Gooseberry board, the Rasperry Pi alternative

Rasperry Pi took the world by storm, winning hearts and minds with the concept of an extremely cheap and fully functional PC. Yet the Rasperry Pi concept, that is: a passively cooled cheap system-on-a-board, is very much in its infancy. We have already seen VIA take a shot at the same market with their $50 APC. Now an entrepreneur is launching something called the Gooseberry board, being dubbed the Rasperry Pi alternative. Featuring three times the amount of processing power and an included power charger for just £40 compared to the Rasperry Pi which costs £16~, the Gooseberry board should make a solid alternative for anyone fed up of waiting for the Rasperry Pi. The unit will ship with Android 2.3 but is capable of Ubuntu Linux and Android 4.0 (ICS) as demonstrated below:

Specifications

• CPU : A10 1 GHz overclockable to 1.5 GHz  (1.2 GHz highest stable overclock on Android)
• Graphics Processor : Mali 400 MHz
• Operating System : Android 2.3 (Can be easily upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0)
• Onboard Storage: 4GB (upgradeable by Micro SD memory card- 16 GB)
• Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n
• Connectivity: AC jack, 1x 3.5mm Earphone Jack, 1x Mini USB, 1x HDMI Out, Micro SD slot

Requirements to get the board running

• Mini Hdmi cable to connect the board to an tv or monitor
• Male Micro usb to female usb cable to connect usb peripherals  (mouse, keyboard, usb hub)
• Powered USB hub to connect power hungry peripherals such if required such as External Hard drives

As you can see the specifications are impressive given the low price tag, and the addition of Wi-Fi instead of LAN may be more convenient for many users who do not want to be limited to sitting near their home router.

GooseBerry vs Raspberry Pi

• The gooseberry board is roughly 3 x more powerful in processing power than the Pi
• The gooseberry board has a newer arm architecture meaning it is compatible with newer software such as Ubuntu which the Pi can not run
• The gooseberry board has double the ram of the Pi (512mb)
• The board does not have a Lan  port, although Wifi is present
• The board does not have analogue video and so can not connect to old TV’s
• Only a limited OS (android) is supported as of yet fully, the board however is capable of running other Os’s such as Ubuntu (currently without graphics acceleration).

Source: Gooseberry