The Luckfox Aura is a compact, high-performance Linux SBC built around Rockchip’s RV1126B quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with a 3 TOPS NPU and designed for AI vision, multimedia processing, and edge computing Applications.
Aura board supports up to 4 GB LPDDR4X memory and up to 64 GB of optional eMMC storage. Camera and display options include two 4-lane MIPI CSI camera inputs, a 4-lane MIPI DSI display interface up to 1080p60, and an AI-enhanced ISP with HDR, noise reduction, dehazing, and image correction features. The board also features Gigabit Ethernet with PoE support, onboard dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4/BLE, USB 3.0 OTG, four USB 2.0 host ports, a 40-pin GPIO header compatible with some Raspberry Pi HATs, audio I/O, an RTC, and a microSD card slot.
Luckfox Aura specifications:
- SoC – Rockchip RV1126B quad-core Cortex-A53 SoC
- CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 up to 1.6 GHz with 32KB L1 I-Cache and 32KB L1 D-Cache, unified 512KB L2 Cache for Cortex-A53
- GPU – 2D Graphics Engine
- VPU
- Video Decoder – H.265/H.264 up to 3840×2160 @ 30fps
- Video Encoder – H.265, H.264, JPEG up to 12Mbps @ 30fps
- JPEG Decoder
- AI accelerator – Rockchip NPU engine up to 3 TOPS (INT8); supports TensorFlow, Caffe, Tflite, Pytorch, Onnx NN, Android NN, etc.
- ISP – 12Mbps @ 30 FPS; AI-ISP: 8 Mbps @ 30 FPS
- Memory – 2 GB or 4 GB LPDDR4X
- Storage
- Optional 64 GB eMMC
- MicroSD card slot
- Display – 4-lane MIPI DSI, up to 1920 × 1080 @ 60 Hz
- Camera – 2x 4-lane MIPI CSI camera interfaces
- Audio
- 3.5 mm headphone/microphone jack
- Onboard surface-mount patch microphone
- Networking
- Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000 Mbps) with optional PoE support via onboard PoE header
- Wireless
- Dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (2.4 GHz / 5 GHz)
- Bluetooth 5.4 with BLE
- Onboard antenna interface for Wi-Fi and BT (speculated U.FL connector)
- USB
- USB Type-C port for power only
- USB 3.0 OTG (Type-C) port
- 4x USB 2.0 Host Type-A ports via USB hub chip
- Expansion – 40-pin GPIO header (partially compatible with Raspberry Pi HATs)
- Debug – 3-pin serial debug connector
- Misc
- Reset button, boot button
- Power LED, user LED
- RTC with backup battery holder
- Power
- 5V DC input from USB Type-C port
- PoE power input supported
- Dimensions – 85 x 56mm
At the time of writing, I couldn’t find any official software support from the company. What I found was a wiki link that returns 404, but that could be updated in the future. However, since the SBC is built around the RV1126B SoC, it should work with the Rockchip Linux SDK offering Buildroot Ubuntu/Debian for a full desktop environment and easier package management. For AI development, it utilizes the RKNN-Toolkit (Rockchip Neural Network), which provides a comprehensive toolchain for converting and quantizing models from frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, Caffe, ONNX, and TFLite to run on the 3 TOPS NPU.
Previously, we have written about Luckfox’s low-power AI camera boards like the Luckfox Pico Ultra and Pico Pro/MAX, which utilize the lower-power Rockchip RV1106 SoC. We have also seen the RV1126B used in other products like the Boardcon MINI1126B-P SoM.
The Rockchip RV1126B-powered Luckfox Aura SBC is available on AliExpress for $63.99and up, depending on the RAM/eMMC configuration, and on Waveshare for $52for the 2GB RAM, no eMMC flash version only. But to my surprise, it was not listed on the Luckfox store.
Debashis Das is a technical content writer and embedded engineer with over five years of experience in the industry. With expertise in Embedded C, PCB Design, and SEO optimization, he effectively blends difficult technical topics with clear communication
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I wish Apple had a SBC but with Linux support.
It will probably be better than all of the SBCs.
More power efficient and more compute power.
That would be great. It would cost $999 for the intro model and $1999 for the delux version. It would come with a custom OS and the only way to develop apps for it would be by registering with Apple for a $100/year fee. It would only have two ports–both USB-C. Storage would be an on board non-upgradable propriatary NVME SSD.
Its use would be mandated by certain educational institutions because they would be signed up to resell them at a 10% cut which would come in the form of a ‘donation’ so that it could be used as a ‘slush fund’ by the administration who could use it as they choose instead of being required to spend it on a specific project or class of students.
Hmm, this is starting to sound familiar….
Actually, I don’t think Apple would even try, it doesn’t fit their echo system.
But a man can dream.
The market would likely be too small for them. Also, sometimes companies get an SBC to evaluate the processor before rolling up their own hardware, and it’s not going to happen with Apple.
Mac Mini is already what you want, at fairly reasonable sale pricing for a powerful and efficient mini PC. (Asahi) Linux is the problem.
Baloney that (Asahi) Linux is the problem. It is Apple obfuscating their hardware on purpose that is the REAL problem. Everyone knows so don’t try to be false.