Radxa has launched several Rockchip boards from the higher-end Rock Pi N10 (RK3399Pro) and Rock Pi 4 (RK3399) SBC’s, to the low-end and tiny Rock Pi S powered by an RK3308 Cortex-A35 processor.
The company has now launched Rock Pi E single board computer equipped with the popular Rockchip RK3328 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor and designed for router & gateway application with two Ethernet ports, WiFi, and Bluetooth. Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) also comes as an option.
Rock Pi E specifications:
- SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.3 GHz
- System Memory – 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, or 2GB DDR3
- Storage – MicroSD card slot up to 128GB, eMMC module support ( 16GB / 32GB / 64GB / 128GB)
- Video & Audio – 3.5mm AV output jack (Not 100% sure whether composite video is supported)
- Connectivity
- 1x Gigabit Ethernet port with PoE support via an additional HAT
- 10/100M Ethernet
- Wireless
- 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wifi 4 and Bluetooth 4.2 via RTL8723DU OR
- Dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2 via RTL8821CU
- USB – 1x USB 3.0 Type-A host port
- Expansion – 40-pin expansion header with 1x USB 2.0, 1x I2C, 1x SPI, 2x
UART, 1x I2S, 5V, 3.3V and GND signals - Misc – Reset key, Maskrom key, LEDs
- Power Supply – 5V via USB-C port
- Dimensions – 56 x 65mm
The company provides Debian 10 Buster and Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic for the board, but there’s also an OpenWrt community image. More details can be found in the Wiki.
It reminds me a bit of NanoPi R2S dual Gigabit Ethernet SBC powered by Rockchip RK3328 SBC, with some of the most obvious differences being that Rock Pi E comes with one Gigabit Ethernet port, and one slower Fast Ethernet port because the board also offers a USB 3.0 port, as well as built-in WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity that’s missing on NanoPi R2S.
Not all options are available right now, and only three variants of Rock Pi E are sold on Seeed Studio:
- Rock Pi E D4W1P with 512MB DDR3, RTL8723DU (Wi-Fi 4 + Bluetooth 4.2), PoE support for $24
- Rock Pi E D8W2 with 1GB DDR3, RTL8821CU (Wi-Fi 5 + Bluetooth 4.2), no PoE support for $26
- Rock Pi E D8W2P with 1GB DDR3, RTL8821CU (Wi-Fi 5 + Bluetooth 4.2), PoE support for $28
Several variants of the board are also available on AllNetChina with a variant starting at $19 with 512MB RAM and no wireless module. There aren’t many details about accessories like the PoE hat and the eMMC modules, but I would assume those are the same as the ones used for Rock Pi 4.
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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