Samsung has scrapped its Raspberry Pi 3 competitor called Artik 10 as it moves to smaller and more powerful boards to create gadgets, robots, drones, and IoT devices.
A last remaining stock of the US$149 boards is still available through online retailers Digi-Key and Arrow.
Samsung has stopped making Artik 10 and is asking users to buy its Artik 7 boards instead.
“New development for high-performance IoT products should be based on the Samsung Artik 710, as the Artik 1020 is no longer in production. Limited stocks of Artik 1020 modules and developer kits are still available for experimentation and small-scale projects,” the company said on its Artik website.
The Artik boards have been used to develop robots, drone, smart lighting systems, and other smart home products. Samsung has a grand plan to make all its appliances, including refrigerators and washing machines, smart in the coming years, and Artik is a big part of that strategy.
Samsung hopes that tinkerers will make devices that work with its smart appliances. Artik can also be programmed to work with Amazon Echo.
Artik 10 started shipping in May last year, and out-performed Raspberry Pi 3 in many ways, but also lagged on some features.
The board had a plethora of wireless connectivity features including 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Bluetooth, and it had a better graphics processor than Raspberry Pi. The Artik 10 had 16GB flash storage and 2GB of RAM, both more than Raspberry Pi 3.
The board’s biggest flaw was a 32-bit eight-core ARM processor; Raspberry Pi had a 64-bit ARM processor.
The Artik 7 is smaller and a worthy replacement. It has an eight-core 64-bit ARM processor, and it also has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee. It supports 1080p graphics, and it has 1GB of RAM and 4GB of flash storage, less than in Artik 10. Cameras and sensors can be easily attached to the board.
The Artik boards work on Linux and Tizen. The company also sells Artik 5 and Artik 0, which are smaller boards with lower power processors.