Rockchip RK3588 datasheet available, SBC's coming soon

We had most Rockchip RK3588 specifications so far for the long-awaited Cortex-A76/Cortex-A55 processor, but at today’s Rockchip Developer Conference 2021, more information surfaces with impressive CPU and GPU benchmarks, and the Rockchip RK3588 datasheet has just dropped from the sky directly into my laptop, as such document usually does. At least two single board computers are expected to soon follow from Radxa and Pine64.

Rockchip RK3588 datasheet

Since we have the datasheet, we can confirm some of the specifications of RK3588, and get additional details:

CPU – 4x Cortex-A76 @ up to 2.4/2.6 GHz and 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz in dynamIQ configuration
GPU
- Arm Mali-G610 MP4 “Odin” GPU with support for OpenGLES 1.1, 2.0, and 3.2, OpenCL up to 2.2 and Vulkan1.2
- 2D graphics engine up to 8192×8192 source, 4096×4096 destination
AI Accelerator – 6 TOPS NPU 3.0 (Neural Processing Unit)
VPU
- Video decoding
  - 8Kp60 H.265, VP9, AVS2, 8Kp30 H.264 AVC/MVC
  - 4Kp60 AV1
  - 1080p60 MPEG-2/-1, VC-1, VP8
- Real-time 8Kp30 encoding with H.265/H.264; multi-channel encoding supported at lower resolutions
Memory I/F – LPDDR4/LPDDR4x/LPDDR5 up to 32GB
Storage – eMMC 5.1, SD/MMC, SATA 3.0 (multiplexed with PCIe 2.0), FSPI (Flexible SPI)
Video Output
- Dual HDMI 2.1 / eDP 1.3 up to 8Kp60
- Dual DisplayPort 1.4a up to 8Kp30 (multiplexed with USB 3.0)
- Dual MIPI DSI output up to 4Kp60
- Bt.1120 video output up to 1080p60
- Optional dual LVDS up to 1080p60 via RK628 chip.
- Up to four independent displays (up to 1x 8Kp60, 2x 4Kp60, 1x 1080p60)
Video Input/Camera
- 48MP (2x 24MP) ISP with HDR and 3D NR support; multi-camera input
- 2x MIPI DC (4-lane DPHY v2.0 or 3-lane CPHY V1.1)
- 4x 2-lane MIPI CSI
- DVP camera interface
- HDMI Rx 2.0 interface up to 4Kp60 with HDCP 2.3 support
Audio
- 2x 8-channel I2S, 2x 2-channel I2S
- 2x SPDIF
- 2x 8-channel PDM (for mic arrays)
- 2-channel digital audio codec (16-bit DAC)
- VAD engine
Networking – Dual Gigabit Ethernet
USB – 2x USB 3.1 Gen 1 up to 5 Gbps (multiplexed with DisplayPort), 1x USB 3.1 Gen 1 (multiplexed with Combo “PIPE PHY2”), 2x USB 2.0 OTG
PCIe – PCIe 3.0 up to 8 Gbps (1x 4-lane, or 2x 2-lane, or 4x 1-lane, or 1x 2-lane + 2x 1-lane
3x Combo PIPE PHY interfaces
- Combo PIPE PHY0/1 – SATA III or PCIe2.1 up to 5 Gbps
- Combo PIPE PHY2 – SATA III, PCIe 2.1, or USB 3.0
Low-speed I/O – 5x SPI, 9x I2C, 10x UART, GPIOs, 12-bit ADC (SARADC)
Package – FCBGA1088L; 21.45 x 21.45mm
Manufacturing process – 8nm LP

There are additional details in the datasheet, including three Cortex-M0 MCUs for the PMU, NPU, and “PD_CENTER” with the latter related to the DDR memory controller. Rockchip RK3588 has several multiplex interfaces for SATA, PCIe 2.1, USB 3.0 in a way that looks similar to Rockchip RK3568.

I’m quite surprised they could use a Mali-G610 “sub-premium premium” GPU as it was announced together with Cortex-A510, Cortex-A710, Cortex-X2 Armv9 cores, but it also works in SoCs with older Armv8 cores so that’s good, and that’s why GPU performance is truly a big step, up to over 10 times faster, compared to Rockchip RK3399.

Pine64, Radxa Rockchip RK3588 SBC’s coming soon

The other good news is that Pine64 is working on an RK3588 SBC and Radxa ROCK5 is also under development, and there should be an announcement before the end of the year. It won’t mean the boards are ready to ship, but rather pre-orders for at least one of the boards will be opened, and early backers should be happy for the prices that are going to be offered. I’ve heard both boards may be showcased at RDC 2021 tomorrow, but this remains to be confirmed. I’ve also been told Rockchip RK3588 chip is really complex, and software support will take time.

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.