As I checked out Linux 6.3 changelog earlier this morning, I noticed the EmbedFire LubanCat 2 SBC in the Rockchip section, and having never heard of the EmbedFire company or LubanCat single board computers, I decided to have a closer look. EmbedFire is a company based in China, more exactly in DongGuan, that makes a range of LubanCat single board computers based on Rockchip RK3566 or RK3568 processors, some of which partially follow Raspberry Pi Zero or Raspberry Pi 3/4 Model B form factors, while others come with custom designs. LubanCat 2 SBC specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 @ up to 2.0 GHz with ARM Mali-G52 2EE GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2. OpenCL 2.0. Vulkan 1.1, 0.8 TOPS NPU System Memory – 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4/LPDDR4X @ 1560 MHz Storage 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB or 128GB eMMC flash M.2 M-key socket (PCIe 3.0 […]
Linux 6.3 release – Notable changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures
Linux Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.3 on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML): It’s been a calm release this time around, and the last week was really no different. So here we are, right on schedule, with the 6.3 release out and ready for your enjoyment. That doesn’t mean that something nasty couldn’t have been lurking all these weeks, of course, but let’s just take things at face value and hope it all means that everything is fine, and it really was a nice controlled release cycle. It happens. This also obviously means the merge window for 6.4 will open tomorrow. I already have two dozen pull requests waiting for me to start doing my pulls, and I appreciate it. I expect I’ll have even more when I wake up tomorrow. But in the meantime, let’s enjoy (and test) the 6.3 release. As always, the shortlog […]
Indiedroid Nova is a Rockchip RK3588S SBC with full-body heatsink, fan, and a swappable eMMC flash
Indiedroid Nova is another Rockchip RK3588S SBC with Raspberry Pi 4 form factor, up to 16GB RAM, with a heatsink that serves as a protective cover, fitted with a fan (if needed), and an optional swappable flash module up to 64GB capacity. The Nova board has basically the same port layout as the Raspberry Pi 4, except for one of the micro HDMI ports being replaced by a USB Type-C port with support for DisplayPort, so you’ll still get a Gigabit Ethernet port, WiFi 5 & Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, MIPI CSI and DSI connectors, etc… Indiedroid Nova specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588S CPU – Octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.2-2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G610 GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.2, and Vulkan 1.2 support VPU – 8Kp60 video […]
Cool Pi CM5 evaluation board features Rockchip RK3588/RK3588J system-on-module
Cool Pi CM5 is a system-on-module based on Rockchip RK3588 or RK3588J (industrial temperature range) octa-core Arm Cortex-A76/A55 processor with up to 32GB RAM, 256GB eMMC flash, offered with a development board with dual GbE, two 8K HDMI 2.1 ports, a PCIe 3.0 x2 slot, M.2 NVMe and SATA storage, and more… At the end of last year, we wrote about the Cool Pi 4 as a much faster alternative to Raspberry Pi 4 SBC, and the company has now launched a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 and Radxa CM5 alternative with the Cool Pi CM5 MXM 3.0 system-on-module that they offer along with a feature-rich evaluation board (EVB). Cool Pi CM5 EVB specifications: System-on-Module SoC – Rockchip RK3588(J) octa-core processor with 4x Cortex‑A76 cores @ up to 2.4GHz, 4x Cortex‑A55 core @ 1.8GHz Arm Mali-G610 MP4 “Odin” GPU Video decoder – 8Kp60 H.265, VP9, AVS2, 8Kp30 H.264 AVC/MVC, 4Kp60 […]
Firefly Station P3D is a modular Rockchip RK3588 mini PC with swappable cards
Powered by the Rockchip RK3588 processor, Firefly Station P3D modular AI mini PC comes with two swappable layers, namely the top one with the main board and default ports such as two HDMI output ports, one HDMI input, Gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.1 ports, etc…, and the bottom layer that can be configured with various ports depending on your specific application. The top layer is basically the new Station P3 mini PC with RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor, up to 32B RAM, 256GB eMMC flash, an M.2 2280 NVMe SSD socket, and dual-band WiFi 6 & Bluetooth 5.0 plus all the ports mentioned above. Fire Station P3D specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with CPU – 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MP4 quad-core GPU with OpenGL ES3.2 / OpenCL 2.2 / Vulkan1.1 support AI accelerator […]
NanoPi R6C review – Ubuntu 22.04, NVMe SSD, USB debug
FriendlyElec has recently announced the NanoPi R6C mini PC that a variant of the Rockchip RK3588S powered NanoPi R6S mini PC and 2.5GbE router that we reviewed with FriendlyWrt/OpenWrt and Ubuntu 22.04 earlier this year, but with just one 2.5GbE and one GbE interface, a built-in M.2 NVMe SSD socket and USB-C Debug UART port for easy external access to the serial console. The company sent me a NanoPi R6C sample for review, but since we’ve already tested the similar NanoPi R6S extensively, I’ll write a single-post mini review this time around, checking out the hardware, and focusing on testing the new features such as the NVMe SSD and the USB debug port when running Ubuntu 22.04. NanoPi R6C unboxing As usual, the device came in a non-descript cardboard package with a few 3M rubber pads. The most obvious change compared to the NanoPi R6S is that all main ports […]
X88Pro 13 8K TV box runs Android 13 on Rockchip RK3528 SoC
Rockchip demonstrated the Rockchip RK3528 TV box SoC at Mobile World Congress 2023, and the first Android 13 TV boxes based on the processor are now showing up for sale starting with the LEMFO X88Pro 13 TV box. The device comes with up to 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, supports up to 8Kp25 video decoding, features Fast Ethernet and WiFi 6 networking, as well as a few USB ports, and possibly optical S/PDIF audio output. LEMFO X88Pro 13 (preliminary) specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3528 CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor GPU – Arm Mali-450 GPU VPU H.265/HEVC up to 8Kp25 H.264/AVC, VP9 up to 4Kp60 VP8, MPEG-1 MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC1 up to 1080p60 System Memory / Storage configurations: 2 GB RAM and 16 GB flash 4 GB RAM and 32 GB flash 4 GB RAM and 64 GB flash A microSD card is most likely present too Video Output – […]
Rockchip RK3588 embedded PCs support PoE, 4G LTE, 10GbE, 2.5-inch SATA HDD, and more
Mekotronics R58X-Pro and R58X-HDD Rockchip RK3588 embedded PCs are updates to the company’s earlier R58X and R58X-4G mini PCs with features such as built-in PoE module, 4G LTE module, optional 10GbE M.2 PCIe 3.0 module, and a microSD card slot. The R58X-HDD also adds a 2.5-inch SATA bay for HDD or SSD, and the R58X-Pro implements a volume knob and a front panel display. Both R58X-Pro and R58X-HDD embedded PCs still come with up to 16GB RAM, 128GB eMMC flash, support dual 8K video output through HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, feature one HDMI 2.0 video input, two GbE ports, RS485 and RS232 interfaces, a few USB ports and more. Mekotronics R58X-Pro/R58X-HDD 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 System Memory – 4GB, 8GB, or […]