briefly: Radxa has launched a brand new single-board pc which may be a viable different for these battling the Raspberry Pi. The credit score card-sized Rock 5A is predicated on the Rockchip RK3588S, an octa-core SoC consisting of 4 Cortex-A76 cores clocked between 2.2GHz and a pair of.4GHz and 4 Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.8GHz.
You additionally get a Mali G610MC4 GPU with assist for as much as 16GB of RAM.
Other notable {hardware} options embrace a microSD card slot, two micro HDMI ports (one supporting as much as 8Kp60 and one supporting as much as 4Kp60), a Gigabit Ethernet port, an M.2 PCIe 2.1 (single-lane) SATA connector , a digital camera port, a DisplayPort, a USB Type-C port for energy, and a 40-pin header that helps quite a lot of interface choices. Full {hardware} specs may be discovered on the Radxa discussion board.
Raspberry Pi boss Ebon Upton warned in December that customers should not count on the corporate to launch a next-generation motherboard in 2023. Instead, the Raspberry Pi will recuperate this yr from a world chip scarcity that has rocked provide chains in the course of the pandemic.
Attempting to launch the Pi 5 this yr can be a mistake if manufacturing cannot scale correctly to satisfy demand, Upton mentioned. What’s extra, launching a brand new model too quickly may have an effect on gross sales of current fashions which might be nonetheless in excessive demand.
CNX Software examined the Rock 5B (primarily based on the same RK3588) final yr and located it to have the ability to bypass the Raspberry Pi 4 and different SBCs, particularly on the subject of reminiscence bandwidth. If you want an SBC with some punch, this might very properly be it.
Radxa’s Rock 5A is predicted to ship early within the second quarter of this yr. Interested events will pay a $5 deposit for the 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB mannequin, which after early chicken reductions will deliver the ultimate worth to $69, $89, or $129, respectively.
