We recently noted Firefly had started selling their Rockchip RK3588(S) boards with 32GB RAM, but pricing starts at $469, so lower cost options may be worth a look at, and Liontron sells a Rockchip RK3588 motherboard with 32GB RAM for $352 including shipping (note: it’s a brand new shop started in June 2023).
The single board computer also comes with up to 128GB eMMC flash, SATA storage support, HDMI 2.1 video output, three LCD interfaces, dual Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, and more. All that is offered in a low-profile motherboard that’s only marginally thicker (14mm vs 11mm) than the RWA027-RK3588 SBC we covered earlier this week.
Liontron RK3588 motherboard specifications:
- SoC – Rockchip RK3588
- CPU -Octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz
- GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MP4 quad-core GPU with OpenGL ES3.2 / OpenCL 2.2 / Vulkan 1.1 support
- VPU – 8Kp60 H.265/VP9/AVS2 video decoder, 4Kp60 decoder, 8Kp30 H.265/H.264 video encoder
- AI accelerator – 6 TOPS NPU
- System Memory – 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB LPDDR4
- Storage
- 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB flash
- MicroSD card slot
- 1x SATA III connector
- Display I/F
- HDMI 2.1 up to 8Kp60
- eDP up to 4Kp60
- 30-pin dual-channel LVDS interfaces up to 1080p60
- 31-pin FPC MIPI-DSI up to 1080p60
- 2x backlight connectors with switch and brightness adjustment
- Touch panel function
- Video Input
- HDMI 2.0 input interface up to 2160p6 or 1080p120
- 4-lane MIPI CSI camera connector for up to 16MP camera sensors
- Audio
- 3.5mm headphone/mic jack
- Audio (microphone) input headers
- 8 Ohm 6W dual audio amplifier output for speaker
- Digital audio output via HDMI
- Networking
- 2x low-profile Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports
- Dual-band WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0
- Optional 4G/3G cellular connectivity via mini PCIe module and micro-SIM holder
- USB
- 2x USB 3.0 Type-A ports including one OTG
- 8x USB 2.0 host interface via headers
- 1x USB 2.0 OTG interface via 4-pin header
- Serial
- 1x RS485 (TTL) serial connector
- 4x RS232 (TTL) serial connectors
- 2x CAN Bus connectors
- Expansion
- 2x I2C connectors
- 8x GPIOs via header somewhere…
- IR receiver pins
- Misc
- Power and “Burn” buttons
- Green LED (Power ON), Red LED (standby)
- RTC with CR1220 coin cell battery
- Power Supply
- 9 – 15V DC via power barrel jack (12V recommended) or 6-pin connector
- PoE header
- Dimensions – 135 x 95 x 14 mm
- Temperature Range – 0°C – 70°C
- Humidity – 0% to 95% (no condensation)
- Certifications – FCC, CE, ROHS
Liotron lists Android 12, Debian 11, and Ubuntu 20.04 operating systems for the board, and also mentions support for Buildroot build system to make your own custom Linux images. The company does not seem to have its own website, so customers would have to ask for those before or after ordering… The RK3588 motherboard can be used as an Arm PC, a NAS, an Edge AI computer with the 6 TOPS NPU, a Cloud Server, a Smart NVR, a digital signage board, etc…
When the Liotron board was first brought to my attention, I was told it was sold for $199 on Alibaba since the product title reads in part “Rockchip RK3588 development Liontron board 6T NPU Octa core 8K video output mainboard 32G RAM…”, and that it looked too good to be true. That’s because it is. Product titles on Alibaba are used for keyword stuffing and companies will often repeat the listing of the same product several times since I was told “it’s the only way to get Alibaba to work” a few years ago.
I’m mentioning this to warn people not to believe the title descriptions on Alibaba, as sellers will create many for the same product in order to be found by prospecting customers, and the accuracy of the information in the title is not guaranteed. Once I look at the description of the board, I can see that page shows 4GB to 32GB RAM options, so I’d assume the $199 price tag is for the 4GB model.
While $353 is quite cheaper than the $469 and up price tag asked for Firefly hardware, it’s the first time I’ve heard about Liontron, and the board may be competing in terms of performance and price with some x86 platforms, albeit not in this ultra-thin form factor. If you like the interfaces provided by the board, but don’t need that much RAM, the Liontron RK3588 motherboard starts at $211.30 shipped with 4GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash, and there are other options with 8GB and 16GB RAM.
Thanks to Calvin for the tip.
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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