Mekotronics R58 is a cost-optimized Rockchip RK3588 SBC going for $169 and up

Mekotronics R58 is a single board computer based on Rockchip RK3588 processor that will also be sold as a mini PC with an enclosure, and offers a cheaper alternative to the company’s R58X embedded mini PC with up to 16GB RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet, dual SATA, etc…

The R58 comes with fewer ports notably only one Gigabit Ethernet port, one SATA interface, and the RS485/RS232 terminal block and M.2 socket are gone, but it does add an extra HDMI output port, meaning it could support up to four independent displays. It still features up to 16GB RAM and 64GB eMMC flash.

Mekotronics R58 SBCMekotronics R58 specifications:

  • SoC – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with four Cortex-A76 cores @ 2.4 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz, an Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU, a 6TOPS NPU, 8K 10-bit decoder, 8K encoder
  • Memory & eMMC flash configurations
    • 4GB LPDDR4x + 32GB eMMC flash
    • 8GB LPDDR4x + 64GB eMMC flash
    • 16GB LPDDR4x + 64GB eMMC flash
  • Storage expansion – 1x SATA (unpopulated in photo above, but it should be added in the final product)
  • Video Output
    • 2x HDMI 2.1 ports up to 8Kp60
    • 1x DisplayPort up to 8Kp60
    • DisplayPort via USB-C port
    • Up to four independent display
  • Video Input – 1x HDMI 2.0 port
  • VPU (in SoC)
    • Video Decoder
      • 8Kp60 H.265 VP9, AVS2
      • 8Kp30 H.264 AVC/MVC
      • 4Kp60 AVI
      • 1080p60 MPEG-2, MPEG-1, VC-1, VP8
    • Video Encoder – Real-time H.265/H.264 video encoding up to 8Kp30, also usable as a multi-channel encoder in parallel (at lower resolution)
  • Networking
    • 1x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
    • Dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (2T2R) and Bluetooth 5.0 via Ampak AP6275P module plus 2x antenna connectors
  • USB – 1x USB 3.0 Type-A port, 2x USB 2.0 Type-A ports, 1x USB Type-C port with DisplayPort Alt. mode support
  • Expansion – 2x 5-pin GPIO headers, 2x serial port headers
  • Misc – Power switch, recovery button, reset button, RTC + CR2032 battery, IR receiver
  • Power Supply – 12V DC via power barrel jack
  • Dimensions – TBD

Mekotronics R58 PCBA bottom

Rockchip RK3588 MINI-PC-SBC

The company will provide Android 12, Debian 11, and Ubuntu 20.04 OS images for the board, as well as support for Buildroot. I was told that the download page would be ready soon. The new full aluminum enclosure will be ready some times next week.

Mekotronics offers three variants of the board:

  • 4GB LPDDR4X + 32GB eMMC – Pre-order price: $169 US; regular price: $189
  • 8GB LPDDR4X + 64GB eMMC – Pre-order price: $203US; regular price: $223
  • 16GB LPDDR4X + 64GB eMMC  Pre-order price: $233 US; regular price: $253

The pre-order price will be valid until May 30 since shipping is expected to start at that time. They don’t have an online store at this time, so you’d need to contact them and express your interest via the product page/website. If you prefer purchasing from Aliexpress, they are waiting for approval from Alibaba to open the store. I’ll add the link once it is online.

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23 Comments
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gion
gion
1 year ago

169$ cost optimized :)?

David Willmore
David Willmore
1 year ago

Listed for. Curious if it *sold* for that.

Salvador Liébana
Salvador Liébana
1 year ago

Taking in count the vim4 price, this is really cheap.

Jeroen
1 year ago

they optimezed the cost so they would make a lot of money i think :p

Salvador Liébana
Salvador Liébana
1 year ago

Rk3588 is very expensive. I don’t think they are making that much money if any.

Salvador Liébana
Salvador Liébana
1 year ago

The soc is probably about 50 bucks, the ram isnt cheap at all.. then the components, also expensive stuff.. you can do your math.. they are earning a few bucks.

nobitakun
nobitakun
1 year ago

Not agree. They can release a SBC with RK3588 for US$99 with 4GB of RAM without issues. But what companies are doing and will do for some months more is to increase their prices in order to recover the money lost from the pandemic. You can see it everywhere.

I’m not planning to buy any electronic stuff until 2023 minimum, screw them.

MoneyMike
MoneyMike
1 year ago

In the past ten years the moneyprinters have more than doubled the amount of dollars (M2) floating around (219%). In the past three years alone it’s 143%. So the $169 is $118 in 2018 dollars, or $77 in 2012 dollars.

Theguyuk
Theguyuk
1 year ago

Anyone any idea how much the Boardcon Idea3588 costs?

FreekieDeCakie
FreekieDeCakie
1 year ago

RK3588 is a very promising chipset, such as ArmPC, 8K UHD, or 6 TOPS NPU, or VR virtual reality, machine learning, cloud server, and hopefully together we can make a great use of this chipset and build a affordable devices all of us. “

FreekieDeCakie
FreekieDeCakie
1 year ago

Software developers tremble in fear faced with ARM “S”BC drivers:

https://youtu.be/XrEmmXMXzXU?t=241

Salvador Liébana
Salvador Liébana
1 year ago

This comment make no sense. Can you develop your amazing sense of humor.

Rpx
Rpx
1 year ago

I like they can deliver while other companies do not…

PhilS
PhilS
1 year ago

The Rock 5B still looks a far better prospect right now and this having the M.2 option removed may well hurt it’s sales.

Having an enclosure as a default is nice though.

Roberto
1 year ago

Specs are what originally got me onboard with rockchip, but number of downloadable distros that work on them made me jump ship

Make sure the software you want to run is out there first, might have to setup a build environment if not

Salvador Liébana
Salvador Liébana
1 year ago

About software: there will be two big worlds around RK3588/RK3588s as it was with RK3399. 5.10Kernel with mali and vpu blobs, and then mainline. Panfrost on mainline will take some time, not much as on RK3399 of course, but it will take some months to land. And for the vpu on mainline, forget about it. I don’t think we will have vpu on mainline until 2025. But for vpu on linux that 5.10K will be the way to vpu decoding on linux for most parts…. If some doesn’t care about vpu, this soc will be a champ on armbian/manjaro on… Read more »

Pete
Pete
1 year ago

Android on this? Unless Google have improved multi-monitor support in Android recently, 4 display outputs is way overkill.

(Yes, I am aware Rockchip releases a BSP package with an Android port for their SoCs but this is supposed to be desktop class rather than a tv box.)

nobitakun
nobitakun
1 year ago

I don’t think anybody would spend US$203 for a desktop class Android. Let alone when Jasper Lake is already out and you can get much more from those being x86.

These kind of boards are killing ARM market, there is no future with such prices.

Theguyuk
Theguyuk
1 year ago

Do those Intel boards have gpio, camera and LCD display connections or the size of a credit card ?

geoffrey
geoffrey
1 year ago

It’s larger than a credit card, but the LattePanda Delta 432 and Hackboard 2 are x86 SBCs in a similar price range.

Theguyuk
Theguyuk
1 year ago

TSMC fab are putting prices up by single digets, some say ” 5 – 8% “. That and other rises coming. I see prices going upward on parts.

Theguyuk
Theguyuk
1 year ago

Samsung raising foundry prices Samsung is reported to be talking to foundry customers about a rise in prices of between 15% and 20% to take effect in H2. “

bye bye cheap hardware

Khadas VIM4 SBC