Of note:

• RPi 1 = 700 MHz Arm11
• RPi 2 = 900 MHz ARM Cortex-A7, 1 GB RAM (all 2 and 3 models)
• RPi 2 = 900 MHz ARM Cortex-A53
• RPi 3 = 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A53, arm64.
• RPi 3 B+ = 1.4 GHz ARMv8, arm64, 1 GB RAM.
• USB/Eth combined with 30 MB/s max.

https://www.zdnet.com/pictures/top-12-raspberry-pi-alternatives-2018-edition/

Similar clones:

• NanoPi NEO4, $45
• Rockpi4
• Libre.Computer “Le Potato”, $45 on Amazon with 2 GB RAM
• UDOO makes the NEO (an RPi like), an x86+arduino, and the Dual is some kind of Android/Arduino DUE mix. One has SATA.
• VoCore has a super-mini linux box (1 inch square), limited RAM, etc.

Depends on needs:

• For very low computing, the VoCore seems interesting. The Nano/Rock Pi are just clones with no specific advantages (cpu speed maybe?)
• Le Potato looks interesting, until one reads the comments about the limits of the Linux distro with specific builds made for it.

The problem with those is the custom linux kernels. It means no “default debian” install (even with the RPi3), but at least Raspbian is well maintained (and the official way to go). For some of the other boards, the deal is more muddy, with typically a single image to deal with, no updates. For example the BeagleBoards have precompiled kernels and linux images to be installed as a whole. This is good from an IoT “fire and forget” standpoint but much less attractive to customize the distro & keep up-to-date with security patches.

Maybe I should take another look at BeagleBone/Board (board matrix): the Black is a bit under an RPi 3 (1 GHz Arm A8, 512 MB RAM, $65 Amazon, $55+s/h e14/mouser), the SanCloud version has 1 GB RAM & Gigabit eth ($60-80). [Note: names were BeagleBoard before 2010, and BeagleBone after 2010].

I happen to have a BeagleBone Black. I should use it. Which rev? What specs?

• Markings: “PCB Rev B3” (in black other side of power plug). “STM-5 94V-0 1013” next to eth, proc “XAM3359AZCZ100”, eMMC U13 “3DA18 JW896”, DDR3 U12 “2ZE12 D9PXV”.
• BeagleBoard images & instructions: https://beagleboard.org/latest-images
• List of revision changes: https://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack#Board_Revisions_and_Changes
• Rev B has 2 GB of eMMC (Armstrong Linux pre-installed); Rev C has 4 GB of eMMC with Debian pre-installed.
• The one I have appears thus to be a Rev B with 2 GB of eMMC.
• Confirmed by eMMC Micron JW896 [FBGA part search] ⇒ Micro part MTFC2GMVEA-0M WT, and “MT FC 2G” is the Micron model code for a 2 GB NAND Flash [link].