Orion O6N Shipping Delay Notice & Community Q&A

Orion Series O6N
1

Dear Radxa Community:

The Orion O6N was originally scheduled to be released and shipped on November 25. Due to unforeseen and uncontrollable circumstances, we must postpone the shipment date. Orders will now begin shipping starting from November 30 in batches. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may cause, and we truly appreciate your continued patience, understanding, and support.

Mass production has already begun, and pre-orders for the Orion O6N are now temporarily closed. Once all pre-order units have been shipped, we plan to begin direct in-stock sales in early December. We will announce the exact schedule via Radxa’s official channels.

— Radxa Orion Development Team

As the Orion O6N approaches shipment, we’ve received many discussions and questions from the community. To respond to everyone’s trust and interest, we’ve organized the most representative questions into the following Q&A to provide an honest and consolidated update, and to help you better understand the O6N.

1. What are the differences between CD8160, CP8180, and CD8180? Are there any performance differences?

Official response from CiXin (CIX):

“CD8160 was the silkscreen used in early mass production. As PC/server models entered production, all silkscreen numbers were standardized to C*8180. CD8160 is no longer supplied.”

The first batch of Orion O6N will include chips with CD8160 / CP8180 / CD8180 markings, shipped randomly. We have repeatedly confirmed with the CiX team that all three markings are identical in performance and functionality. CiX will gradually phase out the older naming conventions and unify the lineup under the P1 series branding.

2. How does the P1 perform?

Based on current testing and evaluations:

  • Overall performance is roughly equivalent to an Intel 12th-gen mobile i5

  • On Arm, it is about 80% of an Apple M1

  • Approximately 2× faster than RK3588

  • Geekbench 6 reference score: Single-core ~1200, Multi-core ~6800

For an open-source motherboard designed for makers and developers, this level of performance strikes a balanced trade-off between power consumption and cost.

3. Why is the O6N priced so low?

Many people assume that “good performance + domestic CPU + open-source motherboard” must mean high cost. In reality, cost is largely designed—not purchased.

From the beginning, the Orion O6N was positioned as a high-value product, achieved through several strategies:

Purposeful hardware design

Some manufacturers lack in-house hardware design capabilities and simply replicate reference designs. Radxa instead evaluates use cases and target users, trimming unnecessary features and optimizing during the design phase to control cost without compromising quality.

Deep understanding of the P1 platform

As the first customer to mass-produce P1 products, we have extensive experience with the Orion O6 series. This allows us to confidently select appropriate domestic components and eliminate redundant circuitry while maintaining stability and reliability.

Refined supply chain management

Although Radxa is a small company, we invest heavily in supply chain optimization—from component selection and alternatives evaluation to production testing and quality control—ensuring a stable cost structure and high yield.

Reasonable profit expectations

Radxa earns modest margins from board sales. We don’t rely on slogans or sentiment; instead, we aim to provide makers and developers with a practical, stable, high-value motherboard so you can focus on your creativity and projects.

4. What is the background of CiXin (CIX Tech)?

CiX Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. is a high-end intelligent computing chip company focused on designing general-purpose CPUs compatible with the Arm instruction set. Founded in October 2021, CiX aims to deliver high-performance, low-power CPU cores and chip solutions for global markets and diverse application scenarios.

More information:

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5. Will the code be open-source? Will datasheets and TRM be provided?

The Orion O6N software stack will continue using and sharing the existing Radxa Orion O6 repositories, including:

  • UEFI firmware
  • Linux kernel support
  • Debian system build scripts

All of the above will be open-source, allowing users to study and extend the platform.

Regarding P1 documentation, CiXin is planning to release the datasheet and TRM, which are expected to be made public in the near future.

6. Will there be an enclosure?

Yes. A compatible enclosure for the Orion O6N is already available on the pre-order link.

The Orion O6N uses the Nano-ITX (STX) form factor. We will also publish the mechanical specifications, enabling users to design and build custom cases or modify existing ones for unique DIY projects.

7. The O6N has no EC chip. Which functions are affected?

Compared with designs that include an EC (Embedded Controller), certain EC-managed functions on the O6N are now handled directly by the SoC:

Fan Control

  • PWM fan connected to the SoC PM module
  • Automatically adjusts based on predefined temperature curves
  • Linux utilities available for manual control

LED & Power Button

  • GPIO signals wired directly to the SoC
  • Platform devices defined via ACPI and controlled by the OS

Memory Configuration Detection

  • Memory configuration circuitry connects directly to the SoC
  • No EC involvement

Power-on Behavior

  • Without an EC, the O6N no longer supports configurable “auto power-on after AC restore”
  • Current hardware behavior: automatically boots when power is connected

Overall, the absence of an EC does not affect daily use or core functionality—only certain configurable power behaviors differ from the O6.

8. The O6N doesn’t have a 3.5 mm audio jack—does this mean no audio output?

Not at all. Due to space constraints on the Nano-ITX (STX) form factor, the O6N does not include a 3.5 mm jack or onboard DAC. However, it still provides full digital audio output:

  • Audio via HDMI / DisplayPort, compatible with monitors, TVs, and AV systems
  • USB DAC or USB sound cards for high-quality analog 3.5 mm output—ideal for headphones and desktop speakers

9. What is the standby / idle power consumption compared to the O6?

Below are current-stage test results under typical configurations (values may vary with environment; we will continue optimizing and update detailed comparisons later):

Test Environment Includes:

  • Display: DP + HDMI
  • Cooling: PWM fan
  • Networking: dual Ethernet
  • USB: 3 × USB 3.2 + 3 × USB 2.0 with drives, Type-C with USB drive
  • Storage: 2 × M.2 PCIe SSD
  • Wireless: Wi-Fi module

Under load:

  • Peak during boot: ≈ 35 W
  • System idle: ≈ 19.5 W
  • CPU + GPU stress test: ≈ 32 W
  • Sleep / Suspend: ≈ 2.3 W
  • Shutdown: ≈ 1.5 W

Minimal configuration (all peripherals removed except essentials):

  • Peak during boot: ≈ 23 W
  • Idle: ≈ 11 W
  • Sleep / Suspend: ≈ 0.5 W
  • Shutdown: ≈ 0.4 W

We will continue refining power performance and publish updated results on the website and documentation.

These are the current common questions and responses we have compiled from community feedback.

If you have more questions about the Orion O6N, feel free to leave a comment or message us through the official account. We will continue collecting your feedback and respond in future updates.

Thank you to every friend who has followed, pre-ordered, and patiently waited for the O6N. Your support is what brings this open-source motherboard based on the domestic P1 platform to the community and into the hands of real users.

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Thank you for the recent update and for all the work you’ve put into the Orion series.
I pre-ordered the O6N mainly for its design choices (Nano-ITX, thermal layout, barrel input), which fit perfectly with what I want to build at home.
I’m genuinely looking forward to exploring the board once it arrives, there’s something exciting about working with a platform that stands a bit apart from the usual ARM ecosystem.

To prepare for some low-level experiments I’d like to try, I have a few technical questions.
They’re simply meant to better understand how the board is structured and what it allows.

  1. Debug access
    Is there any practical way (even very small test pads) to reach the P1’s ARMv9 debug interface (ADIv6 / CoreSight)?
    If so, do you know which protocol is actually routed (JTAG, SWD, SWJ-DP), and whether core features like halt/run or external memory access are enabled?
    And if these signals are only present as factory pads, a hint about their location would already help a lot.

  2. PCIe and interconnect topology
    Regarding the two M.2 M-key slots, do they rely on dedicated PCIe root ports from the P1,
    or are some lanes or controllers shared internally?
    Even a brief overview of how the PCIe lanes and the main interconnects are arranged between the P1 and the board would be very useful, especially for planning storage or expansion setups.

  3. Power, reset and boot behavior
    If possible, could you share a general idea of how the main power and reset domains are organized on the O6N,
    and which boot modes are available (SPI, eMMC, USB downloader, UART/ROM fallback)?
    And if the board exposes any strap pins or recovery points, knowing about them would help when preparing development workflows.

  4. Firmware and ACPI
    Since the O6N is based on UEFI and ACPI, I’m also curious about the structure of the ACPI tables:
    which ones are included (DSDT/SSDT, MADT, GTDT, IORT, MCFG, DBG2, SPCR, PPTT),
    and how PCIe root ports, IOMMU routing, and common controllers (GPIO, I²C, SPI, UART, thermal) are represented.
    It would also be helpful to know whether the ACPI namespace is expected to stay relatively stable during the next firmware revisions.

  5. Board-level overview
    Finally, if possible, a simple functional block diagram showing how the main SoC interfaces are routed on the board (PCIe, USB, SerDes, exposed buses) would make it much easier to understand the O6N’s overall structure.

Thank you again for the work that has gone into the O6 and O6N.
I’m looking forward to clearer and more technical communication in the next updates.

3

Hi,

First, thank you for these information.

You indicate that shipping start from November 30, therefore I understand it should now have begun. Since you will ship in batches, do you have any idea of how long will it take to ship all previously ordered batches ? Is it like, a question of days, or a question of weeks … ? Could you please give an estimation ?

Thank you.

4

Hi, i want to ask about RAM specification change. When i ordered my o6n documentation said it will be 5500mt/s, but now it is changed to “Optional 5000MT/s or 6000MT/s transfer speed” - Does it mean that ram would be at some unmentioned frequency by default but can be configured to run at 5000 or 6000MT in bios or something else? And what would be final rated speed of used memory ICs?

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Hi, @kynn

We have shipped all of the 32GB O6N already. For the other RAM models, it takes time to tune the RAM chips, I think we can ship them in two weeks.

1 Like
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Thanks for bringing this up. This is actually the main reason for the shipping delay.

Initially, we chose a RAM chip that is rated at 5500 MT/s on the datasheet and prepared different capacity options based on that. However, after a lot of tuning work with the Cix engineers, we found that this chip can only run stably at 5000 MT/s on the P1. Because of this limitation, we decided to drop that part and switch to another RAM chip from Hynix, which is rated at 6400 MT/s and can reach 6000 MT/s on the P1 in our tests.

As you know, RAM prices have recently increased sharply, so with the new chip we can’t maintain the original low price. When regular shipping starts, we plan to offer two RAM speed options, and users can choose which speed (and price) they prefer. For all pre-order customers, we guarantee that the RAM on every unit will run at 5500 MT/s or higher.

Thanks all for your support.

6 Likes
7

Thanks for all useful information,

Arace orders are already shipped, I expect to get mine in few days, UFS is already waiting for those.

I noticed that there are already few docs pages about new o6n, but still no image for that one, should o6 version work? Is there any trixie/cli build available for now?

8

I received my board yesterday. So far I was able to install radxa debian 12 on a SSD and it works great.
I had several issues:

  • Black screen 2560x1440@120 but 2560x1440@60 is fine.
  • My gnome session freeze after activing dash to dock
  • Installing KDE with sddm → black screen
  • Installing KDE and keeping gdm → KDE did not start correctly, a corrupted screen with only the a mouse trail

Otherwise, the board is fast, video runs fast, webgl demo works great.

9

Hi,

First, thank you for your answer :slight_smile: .
I did receive my board yesterday (yeah!).

I note that the product page O6N still doesn’t display any os image in the support/download tab, which seems like it will be the go-to page for a lot of backers in the next days. Is it normal ?

What is the guideline in-between : use Orion 6 images ? I see that there is a debian 12 and wonder if you plan on delivering a debian 13 image.

Thank you in advance for your next reply :slight_smile: .

10

Hi,

You can find the os images with this link:

But I am also waiting for a debian 13 images :grinning_face:

11

Debian 13 preview image will be released in a few days.

3 Likes
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Jack, I am impressed, as always, about the precise information from Radxa. Will that be in 2026 or 2027 ?

13

Remember about CLI version! :slight_smile:

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Subject: Inquiry regarding the next batch availability

Hi @hipboi @jack,

I see that some users have already received their boards. I am very interested in the Orion O6N but missed the initial window.

Could you please share an estimated timeline for when the next batch will be available for general purchase? Will it be restocked on Arace or other distributors soon?

Thanks!