Radxa Rock 2 Square Beta is Now Available for $99 (In Limited Quantities)

Radxa Rock 2 Square is the low cost version of Radxa Rock 2 Full development board. Both board are based on Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 processor, but the former has not quite as many features as the full version. The good news is that about 90 samples of Rock2 Square Beta can now be purchased for $129, with the price dropping to $99 with ROCK2^2BETA coupon (to be used after login to Paypal).

The price include a Radxa RK3288 system-on-module with 2GB RAM and 16 GB eMMC, but a 4GB/32GB version is also planned for later.

Rock2 Square board specifications:

• Processor/Memory/Storage –  Via Rock2 SoM including Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 processor, 2 to 4 GB RAM, and 16 to 32 GB eMMC.
• External Storage – SATA and micro SD slot
• Video Output – HDMI 2.0, LVDS connector
• Audio I/O – HDMI, headphone jack, built-in microphone, and optical S/PDIF
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45),  Dual band Wifi 802.11 ac/b/g/n + Bluetooth 4.0 (AP6335 module)
• USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports + 1x micro USB OTG port
• Debugging – 4-pin UART for debug console
• Expansion Headers – 50 pin 2mm LVDS with touch signal header, 40-pin GPIO/UART/SPI header (2.54mm pitch)
• SoM Connector – 314-pin MXM edge connector
• Misc – Power and reset buttons, status LEDs, IR receiver, RTC + battery slot
• Power Supply – 5V/3A
• Dimensions – N/A

The SATA port supports both 2.5″ and 3.5″ hard drives, but the latter requires external power. Beside the baseboard and SoM, the kit includes four M2.5 screws, a Wi-Fi antenna, a DC to USB cable, a simple acrylic case, and a SATA cable.

The boards are shipped with Android 4.4, and good progress has been made on Android 5.0 but more work is need for proper audio/video support. A Linux distribution based on Debian 8 (Jessie) will be release, and the company calls it Rabian with the aim of making updates easier for users. Normally you won’t need to flash a new image for each release, but instead you’ll be able to update from an online package repository. Rabian distribution is said to have most packages working, including Wifi/Bluetooth,  but hardware video decoding, and 3D acceleration are not implemented yet. If you have an older Radxa Rock port, you’ll be pleased to learn that Rabian will also be ported to Rockchip RK3188 boards.

You may find a few more details on Radxa blog.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

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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