$249 Rockchip RK3588 8K mini PC comes with up to 16GB RAM

Mekotronics R58X is an embedded mini PC powered by Rockchip RK3588 Cortex-A76/A55 processor with 16GB RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet, 8K capable HDMI and DisplayPort video output ports, HDMI input, M.2 NVMe storage, and more.

This is yet another announcement of Rockchip RK3588 hardware following ROCK5 Pico-ITX SBC, Firefly ITX-3588J mini-ITX motherboard,  and Mixtile Blade 3 server board among others. Melotronix R58X may have different use cases, as it is suitable as an IoT gateway, an industrial PC, an edge computing platform, a video analytics server, digital signage, a vehicle control unit, and other embedded applications.

Mekotronics R58X mini PC/SBC specifications:

• SoC – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with four Cortex-A76 cores @ 2.4 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz, an Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU, a 6TOPS NPU, 8K 10-bit decoder, 8K encoder
• System Memory – Up to 16GB LPDDR4x
• Storage
  • eMMC 5.1 flash
  • 2x SATA 3.0 connectors + SATA power connector
  • Support for M.2 NVMe SSD
• Video Output
  • 1x HDMI 2.1 port up to 8Kp60
  • 1x DisplayPort up to 8Kp60
• Video Input – 1x HDMI 2.0, internal 2-lane MIPI CSI connector
• VPU (in SoC)
  • Video Decoder
    • 8Kp60 H.265 VP9, AVS2
    • 8Kp30 H.264 AVC/MVC
    • 4Kp60 AV1
    • 1080p60 MPEG-2, MPEG-1, VC-1, VP8
  • Video Encoder – Real-time H.265/H.264 video encoding up to 8Kp30, also usable as a multi-channel encoder in parallel (at lower resolution)
• Audio – Internal 4-pin audio header for microphone and speaker
• Networking
  • 2x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
  • Dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (2T2R)
• USB – 1x USB 3.0 Type-A port, 2x USB 2.0 Type-A ports, 1x USB Type-C port
• Expansion
  • M.2 M-Key PCIe socket
  • 8-pin terminal block with RS232, RS485, 12V power output
  • Internal headers with 6x GPIO, I2C
• Debugging – 1x USB Type-C port for serial console access
• Misc – Power button, RTC + CR2032 battery
• Power Supply – 12V/3A via DC jack or header
• Dimensions – TBD (metal case with opening for wall mounting)
• Temperature Range – – 40°C to 80°C

The company will allegedly provide Android 12, Linux Ubuntu 18.04, and Debian 11 for the mini PC. Based on our recent article about the Mixtile board, I’d suspect only Android 12 will be available initially, and providing an Ubuntu 18.04 image in 2022 instead of Ubuntu 20.04, or Ubuntu 22.04 whose release is planned for next month, looks strange to me.

It should also be possible to purchase the DEV-RK3588-4D32 board only, especially since some interfaces like MIPI CSI and SATA are not accessible from the mini PC. That board may have been unveiled last December during the official RK3588 announcement at RKDC 2021 according to a post on CSDN in Chinese.

Mekotronics told CNX Software the sample cost is $249 with a shipping lead time of just 7 days. I was unable to get the details about memory and storage capacity for the sample in time for this article, but I’d suspect at this price it should be 4GB RAM with 32GB eMMC flash. Again based on what I have read over the last few months, I doubt software, even Android, is ready for prime time. More details may be found on the product page, and we were told the download link to the first firmware image would be available on March 15. They also have a YouTube account with some demos. R58K can’t be purchased online right now, so you’d have to email them or call them to get more information and/or arrange a sample.

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