Radxa Orion O6N – A smaller, cheaper 12-core Armv9 Nano-ITX SBC based on CIX P1 (CD8160) SoC

Radxa Orion O6N is a Nano-ITX SBC powered by CIX P1 (CD8160 variant) 12-core Cortex-A720/A50 processor with a 30/45 TOPS AI accelerator, up to 64GB LPDDR5, support for UFS and M.2 NVMe storage, and plenty of interfaces.

It’s a smaller and cheaper version of the Orion O6 mini-ITX motherboard introduced at the end of last year. It offers most of the same features, but is equipped with a CD8160 SoC instead of a CD8180 with a slightly lower CPU frequency for the Cortex-A720 big cores (2.6 vs 2.8 GHz), more storage options, fewer display interfaces, no dedicated audio port, 2.5GbE networking instead of 5GbE, and a few other differences you can see in the specifications below.

Orion O6N Nano-ITX SBC

Radxa Orion O6N specifications (highlights in bold and strikethrough show differences against Orion O6):

  • SoC – Cix P1 (Codename: CD8160)
    • 12-core DynamIQ processor
      • 4x Cortex‑A720 big cores @ up to 2.6 GHz
      • 4x Cortex‑A720 medium cores @ up to 2.4 GHz
      • 4x Cortex‑A520 LITTLE cores @ up to  1.8 GHz
    • Cache – 12MB shared L3 cache
    • GPU – Arm Immortalis G720 MC10 with hardware ray-tracing support, graphics APIs: Vulkan 1.3, OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 3.0
    • VPU
      • Video Decoder – Up to 8Kp60 AV1, H.265, H.264, VP9, VP8, H.263, MPEG‑4, MPEG‑2
      • Video Encoder – Up to 8Kp30 H.265, H.264, VP9, VP8
    • AI accelerator – Up to 30 TOPS Neural Processing Unit (NPU) with support for INT4/INT8/INT16, FP16/BF16, and TF32
    • Manufacturing Process – TSMC 6nm
  • System Memory – 8GB, 16GB, 24GB, 32GB, 48GB, or 64GB 128-bit LPDDR5 @ 5500 MT/s
  • Storage
    • 2x M.2 M‑Key (PCIe Gen4 x4) sockets for NVMe SSD
    • UFS connector for Radxa module
  • Display Outputs
    • HDMI 2.0 port up to 4Kp60 with HDMI CEC support
    • DisplayPort 1.4 up to 4Kp120; MST (Multi‑Stream Transport) support; dual‑stream capability
    • USB‑C port with DisplayPort Alt Mode up to 4Kp60
    • eDP connector with built-in touchscreen support up to 4Kp60
    • Support for up to 3x displays
  • Audio
    • 3.5mm combo audio jack with 32Ω headphone drive capability, integrated microphone input
    • Audio Header for HD Audio front panel connector; standard PC case audio support
  • Camera I/F – 2x MIPI CSI connectors configurable as 4‑lane or 2‑lane MIPI CSI each
  • Networking
    • 2x 5Gbps 2.5Gbps Ethernet RJ45 ports supporting 10/100/1000/2500 Mbps speeds
    • Optional WiFi 7/6E + Bluetooth module via M.2 E‑Key socket (PCIe Gen4 x2 + USB)
    • Optional 4G LTE/5G cellular via M.2 B-Key socket
  • USB
    • USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-C port with Power Delivery
    • USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-C port with DP Alt Mode (4Kp60)
    • 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-A ports
    • 3x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
    • USB header with 2x USB 2.0 interfaces
  • Expansion
    • 2x M.2 Key-M (PCIe Gen4 x4) socket for NVMe SSD
    • M.2 Key-E (PCIe Gen4 x2+ USB) socket for wireless module
    • M.2 Key-B key socket
    • PCIe x16 slot carrying PCIe Gen4 x8 signals for graphics cards and other PCIe devices
    • 6x UART via headers
    • 40-pin color-coded GPIO header with 3x UART, 2x I2C, 2x I2S, 2x PWM, 1x SPI, 10x GPIO
  • Debugging – Serial console header; system monitoring sensors
  • Misc
    • 4‑pin CPU fan header with smart PWM control
    • Fan speed monitoring via TACH
    • 75x75mm heatsink mounting holes
    • Power button, status LED indicators
    • System control for Power and Reset buttons, status LED indicators
    • Real‑Time Clock with backup battery header (instead of CR1220 holder)
  • Power Supply
    • 12V DC up to 5A via 5.5/2.5mm power barrel jack or 4-pin connector
    • 24‑pin ATX power connector
    • 20V via USB-C port (65W at least)
  • Dimensions – 120 x 120mm (Nano-ITX form factor)

Radxa Orion O6N specifications

Radxa lists support for Debian/Ubuntu Linux distributions, full UEFI support via EDKII, and BSP and SDK available. When I first reviewed the Orion O6 with a custom Debian 12 image in March 2025, there was still a lot of work to do on the software side. Since then, progress has been made, notably with Arm SystemReady SR v2.5 certification, and some recent discussions on GitHub mention good performance of the GPU and mainlining in progress. The documentation for the Orion O6N is not quite ready, but you can check out the docs for the earlier O6 to get an idea. Software support is probably not perfect yet, and some people have noticed that CIX has yet to release a technical reference manual (TRM) for the P1 processor.

We haven’t seen Radxa competitors launch another CIX P1 board just yet, but one is coming soon with the Orange Pi 6 Plus in an even smaller, but non-standard, form factor (115 x 100mm). It’s just not available for sale just yet.

Orion O6 vs Orion O6N

The Orion O6N Nano-ITX SBC is available now for $199 in 32GB RAM configuration, and even less when using the coupon “ARACE-O6N” for a $12 discount. Before the coupon is taken into account, that’s the same price as the Orion O6 in 8GB configuration, or $100 cheaper than the 32GB version of the mini-ITX model. It also ships with a free active cooler and a free 60W PSU during the pre-order period.

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