Introduce ROCK 5A - Gift for the year of rabbit

#1

Dear Community

Today is the traditional Chinese New Year, and the Radxa team all went back to their hometowns individually to celebrate the holiday with their families and friends. On behalf of the Radxa team, I’d like to pay my respects to all the Radxa users(拜年啦). I wish you all good health and all the best in 2023, the year of rabbit.

I am happy to present ROCK 5A, the credit card size 8K Single Board Computer, a gift for the year of rabbit.

rock5a-top
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rock5a-bottom
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ROCK 5A is based on the RK3588S, the same Rockchip family as the ROCK 5B in a compatible form factor.

Hardware

  • Rockchip RK3588S SoC
  • Quad Cortex®-A76 @ 2.2~2.4GHz and a quad Cortex®-A55 @ 1.8GHz based on Arm® DynamIQ™ configuration
  • Arm Mali™ G610MC4 GPU supporting:
    • OpenGL® ES1.1, ES2.0, and ES3.2
    • OpenCL® 1.1, 1.2 and 2.2
    • Vulkan® 1.1 and 1.2
    • Embedded high performance 2D image acceleration module
  • NPU supporting INT4/INT8/INT16/FP16/BF16 and TF32 acceleration and computing power is up to 6TOPs
  • 64bits LPDDR4x RAM options:
    • 4GB
    • 8GB
    • 16GB
  • Able to provide 3 display outputs via two HDMI, and one MIPI DSI
  • H.265/H.264/AV1/AVS2 multivideo decoder up to 8K@60fps
  • H.264/H.265 multivideo decoder up to 8K@30fps

Interfaces

  • 1x USB Type-C™ port for power supporting USB PD 2.0 and QC 2.0

  • 1x Micro SD Card

  • 2x micro HDMI output ports, one supporting displays up to 8Kp60 resolution, one supporting up to 4Kp60

  • 2x USB2 Type A HOST ports

  • 1x USB3 Type A HOST port, 1x USB3 Type A OTG/HOST port

  • 1x Gigabit Ethernet port (supports PoE with add-on PoE HAT)

  • 1x M.2 E Key with PCIe 2.1 one-lane, SATA, USB 2.0 support

  • 1x eMMC module connector for eMMC 5.1 support

  • 1x Camera port (1x four-lane MIPI CSI or 2x two-lane MIPI CSI)

  • 1x LCD Display port (four-lane MIPI DSI)

  • Miscellaneous

    • 1x RTC battery connector
    • 1x PWM fan connector
    • 1x Power button
    • 1x Recovery pin, 1x Maskrom pin
    • 1x Power LED, 1x User LED

  • 40 pin 0.1" (2.54mm) header supporting a wide range of interface options:

    • Up to 5 x UART(2x with flow control)
    • Up to 3 x SPI bus
    • Up to 6 x I2C bus
    • Up to 1 x PCM/I2S
    • Up to 2 x SPDIF
    • Up to 7 x PWM
    • Up to 1 x CAN
    • Up to 1 x ADC
    • Up to 27 x GPIO
    • 2 x 5V DC power in/out
    • 2 x 3.3V power out

Spring Festival Promotion

Limited R3 code(Radxa ROCK5 Redeem Code) for 5A is available now.

R3 code is a small deposit for future delivery with discount.

  • Distributor sells a redeem code at 5$ during the promotion period
  • When ROCK 5A is shipping(expected early Q2, 2023), the users can use the redeem code for 30$ discount
  • R3 code can be canceled and refunded at any time before shipping
  • One order can buy only one redeem code
  • Redeem code is used for ROCK 5A product only
  • One redeem code is for one ROCK 5A only

Get the R3 Code

15 Likes
#2

New year wishes to all families and friends celebrating!

#3

Is that near as damn it Pi4 format as prob a good idea, still not sure about having a power switch that makes it so much harder than a simpler jumper for cases though and only thing as if Pi4 it would of been easy to fit a wired switch to many of the Pi cases.
Had to think of something and thats it looks good and ordered a R3 code.

1 Like
#4

Cool :slight_smile:
I was wondering, does the USB-C port have any functionality other than power? Perhaps DP alt mode or USB (OTG)?

#5

Radxa arent you guys including soldered wifi and leave room for an nvme storage option? It literally would be a fancy top notch Rock 5A !

#6

m2_M_key%20to%20A_E_Key m_2_key%20to%20A_E_key

Instead of relaying on m.2 M Key to m.2 A+E Key 3rd party adapters as shown on pic, for those who need to use m.2 NVMe 2230, 2242 or 2280 Storage, would be nice if Radxa would offer an official hat like “ROCK 4x - M.2 Extension board v1.6” for Rock5A with similar functionality as 3rd party adapter.

#7

damn, too bad. i dont want to join the raspberry pi adapter/dongle hell. should’ve done a single full sized hdmi with display through usb c as well instead. or 2 full sized hdmis. None of the rpi cases fit these boards anyways because there’s always something on the bottom of the board that prevents it, so I do not see the reason for 100% sticking to rpi 4 port selection.
What would’ve been even better is to have is that size but all ports on one side of the board, kind of like how the khadas boards do it.
and im pretty sure even though it’s the rk3588s it could’ve had 4 usb 3 ports, not just 2. A usb 2.0 header on the board would be awesome instead.
and I know 2.5gbe wouldve been possible, the nano pi r6s did it with this chip.
idk all the cpu capabilities or mixtures but this is pretty bad. Only positive is the emmc and wifi socket.
too many cut corners to consider purchasing, rock 5b isn’t much bigger but has much better value.
r5a

ideal
1 x 2.5gbe
1 x full size hdmi
1 x usb c pd/qc w/display and maskrom
4 x usb a 3
1 x m.2 2230 pcie/usb
1 x m.2 2242 pcie (sata support a major plus)
1 x emmc 5.2 socket
1 x aux audio
1 x usb 2.0 header

4 Likes
#8

Only with an USB3 hub needing additional PCB space. Also you should better make yourself familiar with reality before posting such weird stuff.

RK3588S is a castrated mess compared to RK3588 or even RK3568 if it’s about I/O. And 2.5GbE NICs are PCIe attached while almost everything is pinmuxed on RK3588S:

RK3588S
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There’s only two Combo PIPE PHYs available sharing PCIe Gen2, USB3 and SATA.

1 Like
#9

The Rock 5A should just about squeeze into a pi-top CEED.
The Rock 3A would just squeeze into the pi-top [3] if it weren’t for a slight difference in position or size of the full size HDMI connector compared to the RPi3B+.
So if the Rock 5C follows the RPi3B+ layout and uses the same HDMI alignment/connector part as on the Waveshare CM4 to RPi3B+ adapter/carrier board then the Rock 5C would indeed just squeeze into the pi-top [3].

#10

I’m not a motherboard or cpu engineer. I’m just sharing what I would like to see in a new SBC, not a faster raspberry pi clone. Raspberry Pi has great software support, horrible port selection/position. Instead of copying the good things about raspberry pi, this board just copies the bad things, IMO.

3 Likes
#11

The rk3588s is supposed to be a cut down cheaper version of the rk3588 with the exact same cpu/gpu/npu.
Its not a new SBC as the core is exactly the same and prob maybe should of been even more minimal as the choice of cost effective A76/A55/MaliG610 and the full blown rk3588 could of had more cost difference.
Rock5a is a $30 cheaper cutdown version of a Rock5b.
Its like Raspberry in a ModelA and ModelB where the ModelA is a cutdown cheaper version of the ModelB approximately.

The bottom components are very low profile and prob would fit in most cases but its still a look alike as the gpio pin mux is likely not the same and they even put on a hardware switch than say just a jumper so a case can be easily modified with a wired switch somewhere, so yeah in reality a look-a-like Pi4 is really pointless apart from the concept that Pi fans expect it that way.

1 Like
#12

Now this is the SBC i have been waiting for. The specs are very attractive. Used radxa SBC-s before and i was very satisfied with them. I ordered one 5A cuz i want to use one :yum:
The second thought is that which Linux OS will be usable first.
Third thought: Really wonder how the hardware will perform.
I am very excited and can hardly wait to het my hands on ot :yum::wink:

#13

This thing is obviously designed as RPi 4B drop-in replacement hardware-wise, isn’t it? Judging by the pictures there’s only two problems:

  • SoC position differs. But not that much so with some copper shims or a thermal pad it should be possible to even make use of those metal RPi 4 enclosures that passively dissipate the heat out of the enclosure via a huge Aluminium block reaching down to the SoC. TBC
  • the position of the SD card slot on the bottom looks off by a little, not perfectly centered

rock5a-vs-rpi4b%20klein
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So if that was the design idea how should Radxa not copy the position of each and every connector as closely as possible?

As for ‘the good things’ or ‘great software support’ as you call it… what should Radxa do here? Today and within the next years there’s just a smelly Rockchip BSP kernel forward ported since ages containing lots of unresolved bugs and vulnerabilities making use of all the hardware features.

And then there’s the ongoing effort by volunteers and Collabora (a software contractor in the embedded world) to support as much of the hardware as possible with ‘latest and greatest’ Linux mainline kernel. Let’s see in half a decade what has happened…

The distribution (Arch, Debian, Manjaro, Ubuntu, whatever) doesn’t matter since the only part that matters is the kernel and the accompanying libs (for e.g. graphics/video acceleration). And this is the same on every OS image that will fly around for Rock 5A (or to be more precise: for any RK3588/RK3588S device since they’re all the same software-wise) today and within the next months/years.

2 Likes
#14

The Rockchip BSP is basically the Android kernel which has has most focus from Rockchip.
The RK3588/s likely due to the size of the herd and number of vendors currently offering boards it seems from previous boards it has picked up more momentum, as yeah mainlining can be a painfully slow process.

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git/log/?h=next-20230120&qt=grep&q=rk35*

A whole rake of new submissions just went in for Linux Next and prob the only thing is Mesa haven’t really seemed to pick up on this and could be a bottleneck (MaliG610) due to some politics and rumours of a rift due to ‘gaslamping’ … dunno the full story.
Things seem to be moving faster than other previous SoCs.

#15

Point taken :slight_smile:

#16

I bought rock 3c to try my luck on Pi-Top[3].

1 Like
#17

I’m looking forward to seeing the schematic. Particularly interested to see all of the I2S1 8 channel lines broken out !

#18

Interesting board as direct rpi replacement, but 5B is just way better and not much more expensive, of course physically bigger, this was first thought.
On the other hand this board can replace rpi in my quad sata hat and probably then I can sell that rpi for about same price as they are rather high now. The only question is stability, when it will be good time to make such switch. It would be interesting upgrade, but of course same thing build on Rock5B would be far much better (and bigger).
Is m.2 slot can be used with radxa sata e card? This would add one another sata port to quad sata kit. Or maybe there is something to connect small nvme? just more storage options when wifi is not needed :slight_smile:

Rpi 4B 8GB was originally priced as $75, Rock5A 8GB is $119 (and now for $89+$5)
Direct competitor - Cool Pi 4B 4GB is about $142 (with shipping), built in wifi6 instead of m.2. Some unknown manufacturer. For now CoolPi is rather just bad choice (and more expensive).

2 Likes
#19

Same M.2 Key E slot on the board as 5B, same Naneng Combo PIPE PHY in RK3588S as in RK3588 -> should work with similar DT overlay as on 5B to switch between PCIe Gen2 and SATA (device address might need to be adjusted between RK3588S and RK3588).

#20

Thanks for this information,
That adds one additional SATA port or two multiplexed, making my quad sata nas even more flexible.