Sakura Pi RK3308B is a small SBC powered by the Rockchip RK3308B quad-core Cortex-A35 SoC that I saw when I covered the Linux 6.17 release at the end of last month.
The board comes with 512 MB of DDR3 memory, a microSD card slot, an optional 4 GB or 8 GB eMMC flash, an RGB LCD interface to connect an LCD, two USB-C ports (one host, one OTG), a WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2 module, and the usual 40-pin GPIO header.
Sakura Pi RK3318B specifications:
- SoC – Rockchip RK3308B quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 processor @ up to 1.3 GHz with built-in VAD (Voice Activity Detector); No GPU
- System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 SDRAM
- Storage
- MicroSD card slot
- Optional 4 GB or 8 GB eMMC flash
- Display I/F – 18-bit RGB666 LCD interface
- Connectivity – Dual-band WiFi 5 & Bluetooth 4.2 via Ampak AP6255 module and ceramic antenna or external antenna via IPEX connector
- USB – 1x USB 2.0 OTG Type-C port, 1x USB Type-C host port
- Expansion – 40-pin color-coded GPIO header with 3x UART, 3x SPI, 4x I2C, I2S, 6x PWM, 5V, 3.3V, and GND
- Misc
- MaskROM button
- 4x WS2812 LEDs
- Power Supply- 5V/2A via USB Type-C port
- Dimensions – About 65 x 30 mm (Raspberry Pi Zero form factor)
You’ll find a GitHub account with a few repositories (OpenWrt, buildroot, Armbian build script) for the board, and a documentation website partially translated into English, where they provide a Debian 12 Bookworm image built with Armbian. The developers list a few use cases, such as retro gaming using Nintendo Joy-Con wireless controllers, smart displays, and Klipper controllers for 3D printers.
The board appears to have been released in China sometime last year. But what brought it to my attention was that it was added to Linux 6.17. New boards added to mainline Linux often only boot to the serial console. But the Sakura Pi RK3308B appears to have decent support, as per the commit message from the Linux 6.17 changelog:
The device contains the following hardware that is tested/working:
– 4 or 8GB eMMC
– SDMMC card slot
– Realtek SDIO WiFi 5/BT
– 256 or 512MB of RAM
– USB 2.0 port
– OTG port
The main downside is that it’s not available for sale on Amazon or AliExpress, and Grok says you’d find it on JD or Taobao in China for 99 RMB to 109 RMB. I’m unable to verify this since both websites require logging in to check anything, so I haven’t included the links provided by the LLM (yes, I have trust issues).
The Sakura Pi RK3308B is somewhat similar to the ROCK Pi S0, but the latter sadly lacks an RGB LCD interface, so some applications suitable for the Sakura Pi board won’t work with the Radxa board. For reference, the ROCK Pi S0 sells on AliExpress for about $11 to $15, depending on the options. Other Rockchip RK3308B-based alternatives include the ArmSOM P2-Pro and LuckFox Nova Audio, but again, none of those directly make use of the parallel RGB interface from the SoC.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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