Rock Pi 4C SBC with 4GB RAM, HDMI and DisplayPort Launched for $59 and up

Last October, Radxa unveiled Rock Pi 4C SBC as an update to the company’s Rock Pi 4 SBC, with the same Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor, 4GB RAM, but instead of providing one HDMI output only, Rock Pi 4C board offers two video output just like Raspberry Pi 4 board, but with a twist, since it combines a micro HDMI port with a Mini DisplayPort connector.

It’s all good except for one small detail. So far, it was not possible to purchase the board. The good news is that Radxa has now announced the availability of the board for just $59 on AllNetChina. You can also buy Rock Pi 4C on other platforms, but the price is much higher at $109.99 on Amazon, and $99.99 on Aliexpress.

Rock Pi 4C specifications:

SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core processor with
- 2x Arm Cortex-A72 @ up to 1.8 GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.4 GHz
- Mali-T864 GPU with support OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1/3.2, Vulkan 1.0, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL 1.1/1.2, DX11, and AFBC
- VPU with 4K VP9 and 4K 10-bit H265/H264 decoding
System Memory – 64-bit 4GB LPDDR4 @ 3200 Mbps (single chip)
Storage
- eMMC module socket up to 128GB
- Micro SD card slot up to 2TB
- 4-lane M.2 NVMe SSD socket (expansion board required)
- 4MB SPI flash with support for NVMe booting
Video Output / Display Interface
- Micro HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz
- Mini DP 1.2 up to 2560 x 1440 @ 60 Hz
- 2-lane MIPI DSI via FPC connector
- Dual independent display support
Audio – Via HDMI and 3.5mm audio jack; HD codec supporting up to 24-bit/96Khz audio
Camera – MIPI-CSI2 connector for camera up to 8MP
Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet with PoE support (additional HAT required), dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0 with on-board antenna
USB – 1x USB 3.0 host port, 1x USB 3.0 OTG port, 2x USB 2.0 host ports
Expansion – 40-pin I/O header with 1x UART, 2x SPI bus, 2x I2C bus, 1x PCM/I2S, 1x SPDIF, 1x PWM, 1x ADC, 6x GPIO, and power signals (5V, 3.3V, and GND)
Misc – RTC with connector for backup battery
Power Supply – Via USB-C port supporting USB PD 2.0 (9V/2A, 12V/2A, 15V/2A, or 20V/2A) and Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0/.0 (9V/2A, 12V/1.5A).
Dimensions – 85 x 54 mm

Sadly, the board does not offer dual 4K video output, as some of the signals from the Rockchip RK3399 processor were used for other purposes and the miniDP port can only output up to 2560 x 1440 @ 60 Hz.

Eventually, I’d expect Rock Pi 4C board to support the same operating systems as the earlier Rock Pi 4A/4B single board computers since the hardware is so similar. That includes Android TV 7/9.0 (unofficial), Android 7/9, Ubuntu, Armbian image, and more, but right now, the company only provides an image for Debian 9 desktop. I suspect firmware images for Rock Pi 4A/B can run on the new board, but without support for mini DP output.

Radxa mentions most accessories for Rock Pi 4 will also work on Rock Pi 4C including the big heatsink, the 23W PoE HAT, and the Penta SATA HAT with an enclosure.

Rock Pi 4 Big Heatsink — “Big Heatsink” for Rock Pi 4A/B/C

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.