Introduce ROCK 5 Model B - ARM Desktop level SBC

Pine64 16GB Foresee module is confirmed to work. And I doubt Pine64 changed pinout with the better / higher capacity modules.

it is even the same pcb. i think the emmc protocoll is just sdio also a standart and it never hurts to ask before destroying something. :smile: and its cool to see that the opensource world is from all sides compatible

eMMC has different procotol revisions and SDIO can use different bus widths as such even ODROID eMMC modules (Hardkernel invented this pseudo standard) are not compatible between all boards: https://wiki.odroid.com/accessory/emmc/reference_chart

But with a Pine64 64GB module there should be no issues.

thats verry cool, and for anyone interrested the 64GB pine64 emmc:

, and when will shipping start i preorderd it at june 1st

You prob need a very specific application to need eMMC on the rock5b as with such a great m.2 connector that can fit standard m.2 nvme onboard without the Rock4 extender, that is much faster and cheaper than eMMC.
Which also brings up another gripe and guess its just economies of sale but why is eMMC often more than double the price of similar size NVME?
I guess the double connector with one being electrically a dummy adds cost and board space, its the cost for capacity that always raises an eyebrow of ā€˜is it worth it?ā€™ for me, but guess if you have the application its a cost you will meet.
Home-assistant or OpenHab (I have forgot which and the exact module name) do a zram/overlayfs module that loads the whole OS ephemeral that writes once on shutdown to keep persistence and can keep a budget micro sd running a long long time.
Then there are things like the RasPiKey https://thepihut.com/products/raspikey-plug-and-play-emmc-module-for-raspberry-pi and again not ā€˜cheapā€™, but I guess just functions as SD for all.

Maybe the specific ā€˜applicationā€™ could be ā€˜3W lower idle consumptionā€™? Asides that he already owns the eMMC moduleā€¦

Its a hard push as with current UK electricity prices it would take approx 3 years 24/7 to break even on the price increase.

i have the emmc module thats why i want to use it alongside the m.2 because i want it as second drive maybe for anothe linux distro or just to store some files

Yeah its just my pet gripe that they donā€™t offer a awful lot of value and apart from onboard donā€™t use, but have purchased a few in the past.
I am interested what Radxa may do with a possible Rock5A cut down RK3588S and even if eMMC should be a thing.
I think I am prob stereotypical in use as if its onboard already then use, but tend to not do with a variety of other storage of micro sd, nvme, sata and usbā€¦

I mean, if you are using it as an actual embedded board for industrialish reasons, rather than using it as a desktop computer, the m.2 often gets used to replace whatever youā€™d do with mpci (which is a mess and only really used for wifi cards as a result).

For example, i use m.2 based pcie relay cards, like from ACCES I/O.
I could get boards and drive them over i2c/spi for sure, but m.2 is actually more consistently implemented from board to board and platform to platform (IE i donā€™t have to hook a logic analyzer up and figure out what is going wrong with SPI/I2C in this vendorā€™s drivers, or which 73 pins they are shared with but arenā€™t listed properly.). Whether itā€™s ā€œwe put 1mhz in a device tree/ACPI entry instead of 10mhz or whateverā€, m.2 tends to be more consistent.

I agree in the ā€œdesktopishā€ setting, 99% of users seem like they would use it for storage cards.

The RK3588/RK3588S block layout bears this out - the you canā€™t use sata at the same time as m.2ā€™s pcie IIRC (or at least, on the available 3588S boards you canā€™t)

Not true at all for RK3588 and are you really sure about RK3588s? RK356x/RK3588(s) all feature the same NaNeng Combo PIPE PHYs multiplexing this and that and with RK3568 itā€™s already known to work to use SATA via the USB-A ports without an USB-to-SATA bridge but just a simple breakout cable (violating USB specs ofc) and a device-tree overlay.

For otherā€™s reference: I just got the email today, placed my order (coupon date was Jan 10th) and my SBC (16GB) is on its way already. Discount is applied during checkout.

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Coupon bought 10 Jan on 16GB version, today i got an Email. I Already paid (Ā±160$ with delivery). 3 weeks estimated delivery.

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i preorderd it on june 1st and sadly no email but i preorderd it also later so i think i get the email at the end of october

ā€˜Industrialā€™ is always a fraught path to discuss as often there are 2 very different approaches 1stly tank like hardening vs pit stop quick change.
Its been over 20 years but before I got ill I was starting to do quite a bit of commissioning on the data side of plc systems.

The Acces i/o modules sort of remind me of some of the pci/pcie cards of that time that where great but prob not what I would leave to maintenance electricians where brick type plcs where wiring loom has a quick release and so does the module.
When I was around SD Cards where still to make an appearance as they seem only used for loading purpose whilst runtime is on a industrial rated processor / ecc memory usually battery backed unit.

Being old and out of the loop I wouldnā€™t call acces i/o ā€˜industrialā€™ as I was a fan of low cost quick fit maintenance stock but would prob be a bit concerned about the electricians who may be doing the replacing.
I am pretty sure the automotive/industrial rated chips of the Rk3588 with specific designs would make great industrial product as would many from the RK range but they do need specific consideration to be made truly ā€˜industrialā€™, but that is personal opinion and not worth argument.

Which is all cool as the B type boards & CM tend to be general purpose that at a pinch could be used for all, but tend to be very feature rich and so increasing cost.

I have a few ā€˜is it worth itā€™ ponderings and eMMC is often one, just for me in use often I donā€™t use or would.
GPIO40 is another as often it isnā€™t 100% Pi format and the low density often means revisions play pin mux musical chairs as a community argues about missing i/o.
Why not higher density connectors that could be FPC ribbon, eMMC snap ons or just more dense 1.27mm headers that any could have more pins and feed a 2.5mm gpio40 daughter board.
My 3rd common comment is a vert, off i/o plane power connector that connects to the same buck as PD but allows 12v like a mobo for internal psuā€™s which is likely an addition to the B type boards.

So eMMC B type boards maybe likely, A type boards maybe not.
GPIO40 on all I tend to think is past its sell by date.
I really like the singular I/O plane of the ā€˜pico itxā€™ format as really it means we donā€™t need enclosures just an i/o panel, but would like a non i/o prob non pd power connector for internal psuā€™s at least on B boards.

Only personal musings, but raspberry seemed to be able to shave off much cost by dropping connectors for simplicity and occasionally I am thinking what is the 20% of connectors that could suit 80% of the community that may be applicable to lower cost A-type boards.
The Rock5b is pretty much set in stone so been wondering what you can shave off for a cut price Rock5a as have my fingers crossed :slight_smile:

Iā€™m one day after you (11.01) so maybe tomorrow I will get possibility to make an order.

Allnet sent my email yesterday as well for my January 10th order. I have a second order that was placed on January 13th. Lets see how long it takes for them to get through 3 days worth of orders.
I am excited for my board to finally be shipped.

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I have two rk3588s boards (firefly and some other rando manufacturer). Both are like this. I had looked at the early leaked tech docs and it seemed to imply this was the only mux choice you could make.

I admit to not trying to hunt down the (presumably) now final docs to see if this is still true.

If itā€™s not thatā€™s great!

I would believe the recipe for Rock 5A being cheaper than 5B isnā€™t something shaved off but a tiny addition in form of the letter s.

Speaking about RK3588s I still donā€™t get whether this is really an own SoC or just ā€˜garbageā€™ from the same wafers RK3588 are coming from? At least all those collected sbc-bench results where PVTM goes horribly wrong (SoCs being limited to below 400 MHz while on the highest cpufreq OPP and as such performing really crappy) are all RK3588s. See here (Rock 5A), there, there, there and thereā€¦

I actually think you are very right about gpio40. I would rather have obvious and clear access through fpc that I can route elsewhere than play mux roulette.
Even with the relatively standard things like spi/i2c

Every 40 pin board using SPI randomly chooses chip select from 0/1 with often no way to change. I actually have stupid chip select changer PCBs I had made up to never deal with this again.

i2c these days you can get relatively standard 4 pin quick connect between boards.

I donā€™t want a big 40 pin connector just for these things, and it often forces dumb enclosure design or silly cable usage.