Libre Computer Refreshes the Le Potato Line with the New, PoE-Capable Sweet Potato SBC

Libre Computer has announced a surprise refresh to its Raspberry Pi-like Le Potato single-board computer (SBC), turning it into the "Sweet Potato" — offering the same form factor but with Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) and USB Type-C power options.

"[The] Libre Computer AML-S905X-CC-V2 Sweet Potato board is an all digital complimentary design to the long term supported AML-S905X-CC(-V1) Le Potato platform," Libre Computer says of its latest board design, brought to our attention by Linux Gizmos. "Like Le Potato, it is designed for 4k media, with a 40-pin header compatible with a variety of HATs [Hardware Attached on Top boards]. It does not replace Le Potato since it is designed to address different markets."

Those "different markets," Libre Computer hopes, are "commercial and consumer applications" who would seek to integrate the new variant into product designs. As a result, most of the changes are connectivity-related: the analog audio/video (AV) jack has been removed to clear room for a Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) header, which can be used in place of the new USB Type-C connector to power the board; there's a general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pin for controlling power to the on-board microSD card reader; support for eMMC modules, plus 16MB of SPI flash for boot storage; and an internal USB header, along with the board's existing four USB Type-A ports.

"The internal 5-pin USB header enables the use of USB Video Class (UVC) cameras in embedded designs," Libre Computer explains. "As a high speed bus, it [also] enables a whole new classes of applications not available previously. The pinout sequence is the same as the standard PC 9-pin header. Another application for this header is for attaching custom RF [Radio-Frequency] solutions such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Matter, and even software-defined-radio (SDR)."

Elsewhere, the board's features are the same as its predecessor Le Potato: four USB Type-A ports, a single 10/100 Ethernet port, a Raspberry Pi-compatible 40-pin GPIO header, a dedicated three-pin header for a debug UART, a three-pin Consumer Electronic Control (CEC) jumper header, a single HDMI 2.0 output, an eight-pin audio header, and an on-board infrared sensor.

These are all connected to the same Amlogic S905X system-on-chip (SoC) with the same four Arm Cortex-A53 cores running at up to 1.5GHz and an Arm Mali-450 GPU, though with a move from DDR3 to DDR4 RAM — with only a 2GB model available at retail, with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) able to order a 1GB model if required as well as swapping the USB Type-C connector for micro-USB.

The Sweet Potato is now available to order on the LoveRPI website for $30, a launch discount over the standard $35 retail price; the PoE board is a separate purchase, priced at $20.