Tuesday, November 28th 2023
Radxa Releases Affordable ROCK 3B "PI-CO ITX" SBC Starting at $45
Radxa first teased their ROCK 3B back in 2021 when the smaller and lower power ROCK 3A launched, and has just now finalized the design and specs with what they call the "PI-CO ITX" form factor; a tad over Pico-ITX size but with a standard Raspberry Pi 40-pin GPIO and rear-facing I/O. The board measures 100 x 75 mm which means it definitely won't be fitting into any housings made for the Raspberry Pi, but with the I/O aligned to one side there's a chance some Pico-ITX cases could still fit. This closely mirrors the already released ROCK 5B, but where that SBC is targeting a much higher performance and price point (with the cheapest 4 GB model MSRP set at $130 USD), the ROCK 3B starts at only $45 USD for the 2 GB, and even the 8 GB variant is only $75 USD.
Don't be fooled into thinking the lower price means Radxa didn't pack all that available board space with features. The ROCK 3B is bristling with expansion to justify its larger size.
Source:
CNX Software
- Rockchip RK3568 2.0 GHz quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A55
- Mali G52 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1
- VPU supporting 4K60 H.264/H.265/VP9 decoding and 1080p60 H.264/H.265 encoding
- AI NPU with support for TensorFlow, TF-Lite, Pytorch, Caffe, ONNX, MXNet, Keras, and Darknet
- LPDDR4 - 2 GB, 4 GB, or 8 GB
- M.2 E-Key PCI-E 2.0 for optional WiFi 6 module
- M.2 B-Key for 4G LTE/5G cellular, SATA, USB
- M.2 M-Key PCI-E 3.0 slot for NVMe SSDs
- Rear-side pluggable eMMC module
- MicroSD card slot
- HDMI 2.0 supporting 4K60
- 2x USB 3.0 (1x OTG, 1x Host), 2x USB 2.0 ports
- Dual Gigabit Ethernet ports w/ PoE via optional PoE HAT (one port)
- 40-pin GPIO R Pi 3 compatible header w/ SPI, I2C, PCM/I2S, CAN, PWM, ADC, USB 2.0 and 5 V/3.3 V, GND power pins
- 2x MIPI DSI ports - one 4-lane and one 2-lane
- MIPI CSI camera connector
- 3.5 mm audio jack
- eDP connector
- Touch Panel connector
- RTC with header for battery
- IR receiver
- Power and recovery buttons
- USB Type C port for 6-20 V power, USB PD 2.0 or fixed voltage
9 Comments on Radxa Releases Affordable ROCK 3B "PI-CO ITX" SBC Starting at $45
The fully-exposed PCI-E 3.0 is a big selling point over RPi.
I kinda want one, and I'm not even sure I could find a deployable use...
So instead of lets say 4 power bricks (for 4 devices) that wont even fit into extension sockets, you can have one PD brick with 4 USBC outputs.
RPi should learn from this manufacturer instead of making their specialized power brick that is too damn huge. It covers 3 SOCKETS FFS.
I have plenty of Gan chargers yet i can't use them, because RPi were too lazy to put a PD chip on the board.
- All connectors to one side. Finally an SBC that can be put in a box or even in-wall and not a box that has wires coming in from all sides. I always hated that on the Pis!
- PCIe, M.2
- Even more M.2
- Dual Gigabit
- PoE
- RTC
- SIM
- MMC
- normal sized HDMI
So many interfaces and all on one side of the pcb! Take this Raspi-Foundation, it can be done! Why dont you do it?
Wow, original Pis seem really low end by comparison. Homefully the software is ok too. Raspberry Pis became more and more powerful and even more expansive over the generations. But never made good on the above mentiond shortcomings.
If I had use for an SBC, I would buy this!
(1st 'config/use' that comes to mind)
www.cnx-software.com/2023/05/02/amd-radeon-pcie-graphics-card-tested-with-a-rockchip-rk3588-sbc-radxa-rock-5b/
Performance analysis of the RISC SoC used:
www.forlinx.net/industrial-news/performance-analysis-of-rockchip-rk3568-396.html
Realtek NICs are very 'bleh' to 'meh'.