martin-kokos/sbc-overview
Overview of current interesting consumber SBCs
Curated overview of consumer SBC (single board computers) that are interesting
This is not a comprehensive list, mainly ARM based SBCs. Hopefully at some point, they will be added to this (a bit outdated) list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:OliverGalvin/Comparison_of_single-board_computers
For many comprehensive reviews and benchmark see review by Jeff Geerling: https://sbc-reviews.jeffgeerling.com/
SBCs
| Make | Model | Soc | RAM size | Storage | Notes | Review | Price (per RAM version) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi | Zero 2 W | BCM2710A1 | 512 MB | microSD | by Jeff Geerling | 24 EUR | |
| Luckfox | Lyra Zero W | RK3506B | 512 MB | 256 MB flash/microSD | 25 EUR | ||
| Orange Pi | Zero 2W | H618 | 1/2/4 GB | microSD | by Jeff Geerling | 32/45/. Eur | |
| Orange Pi | 3 LTS | H6 | 2 GB | eMMC 8GB/microSD | 61 EUR | ||
| Orange Pi | 3b | RK3566 | 2/4/8 GB | eMMC socket/microSD | 51// GB | ||
| Orange Pi | 4b | RK3399 | 2/8/16 GB | eMMC/microSD | |||
| Banana Pi | M5 | S905X3 | 4GB | 16GB eMMC/microSD | Not available | ||
| Radxa | ROCK 5C | RK3588S2 | 2/8/16 GB | SDcard/eMMC socket | NPU | by Jeff Geerling | 89/102/136 EUR |
| Radxa | ROCK 5C Lite | RK3582 | 2/8/16 GB | SDcard/eMMC socket | 85// EUR | ||
| Raspbery Pi | 5 | BCM2712 | 4/8 GB | microSD | by Jeff Geerling | ___/80 EUR | |
| Radxa X4 | X4 | N100 | 4/8/12/16 GB | m.2(42mm) | by Jeff Geerling | 70/93/114/130 EUR |
Processors
| Name | Cores | RAM type | Freq | GPU | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rockchip RK3588 (S, S2)1 | 4x A76, 4x A55 | Mali-G610 MC4 | 3x core NPU2 3 | ||
| Rockchip RK3399 | 2 x A72, 4x A53 | DDR3/4 LPDDR3/4 | Mali-T864 | ||
| Rockchip RK3582 | 2x A76, 4x A55 | LPDDR4/LPDDR4x/LPDDR5 | Mali-G610 MC4 (no 3D) | ||
| Rockchip RK3506B | 3x A7, 1x M0 | DDR3 | 1.2 GHz | Mali G52 | |
| Broadcom BCM2710A1 | 4x A53 | LPDDR2 | VideoCore IV | ||
| Broadcom BCM2712 | 4x A76 | LPDDR4X | VideoCore V3D VII | ||
| Allwinner H618 | 4x A53 | DDR3/4 LPDDR3/4 | Mali-G31 MP2 | ||
| Allwinner H6 | 4x A53 | DDR2/3 LPDDR3/4 | Mali-T720 MP2 | ||
| Allwinner A64 | 4x A53 | DDR2/3 LPDDR2/3 | Mali-400 MP2 | Outdated | |
| Intel N100 | 4x Alder Lake-N | LPDDR4/5 | 3.4 GHz | x86-64bit | |
| NXP i.MX 8M | 4x A53, 1x M4F | DDR3/4 LPDDR4 | Vivante GC7000-Lite | ||
| Amlogic S905X3 | 4x A55 | DDR3/4 LPDDR3/4 | Mali G31 MP2 |
Cores
| Name | ISA |
|---|---|
| Cortext M | Armv6-M |
| Cortex A7 | Armv7 |
| Cortex A53 | Armv8-A |
| Cortex A55 | Armv8-A |
| Cortex A72 | Armv8-A |
| Cortex A76 | Armv8-A |
| Alder Lake-N | x86-64bit |
Storage
microSD = has a slot for microSD card, needs to be bought extra
eMMC = has on-board soldered eMMC (optionally)
eMMC socket = has a socket for external eMMC board, needs to be bought extra
Some boards have eMMC storage directly on-board. These boards look more expensive but you don't need to buy the microSD card.
Socketted eMMC is about 64GB for 20 EUR and 256 for 45 EUR
microSD Samsung EVO A2 256 is 20 EUR
m.2 (42mm) 256GB is 40 EUR
More power
For more powerful computer systems look at the Intel N100, N150, N200 line
Nvidia boards
At this moment, I do not recommend these boards for commercial use, due to their poor bringup software (Installation wizard), poor documentation, poor support on forums and poor supplly chain security.
A good overview is on Wikipedia
Generations:
TK1, TX1, Nano = long obsolete Maxwell (2014, 2015)
TX2 = obsolete Pascal (2016)
Xavier = Volta microachitecture (2017)
Orin = Ampere microachitecture (2020)
Thor = Blackwell microachitecture (2024)
Form factors:
Nano, NX = SoDIMM modules4 usable with the Dev-Kit board
AGX = SoM with 699-pin Moles connector5
Nano
The starter board everyone usually knows is the Jetson Nano (now obsolete), and its newer variants Orin Nano and Orin Nano Super. ~15W TDP
The compute module (Tegra SoC and friends) is in a form of a DIMM module that's usually on a motherboard ("devkit") with all the peripherals broken out.
Orin Nano and Orin NX and Xavier NX are mostly compatible.6
The versions with less memory may also have less CUDA and tensor cores and slower memory.7
Other funny stuff may include things such ass; the Orin Nano USB3 ports are internally connected to a USB2 hub. USB3 could theoretically be brought out via m.2 PCIe.
Orin Nano has no HW video encoder except JPEG.
GPIO pin mapping is complicated and may need a reconfiguration via device-tree overlay generated by a official Office Spreadsheet file (which hangs LibreOffice).
The USBC port acts as a Ethernet-over-USB port and works on 192.168.55.0/24 address space. Peer IPs are 1 and 100
Xavier
Xavier NX (20W TDP) and higher spec Xavier AGX (30W TDP).8
AGX
Higher power boards such as Jetson AGX Xavier have a different form factor from the Nanos.
To compare modules, view this overview or this disgusting modal.
Thor
Upcoming (2025) series. Marketing says 2000 TFLOPS * 4bit ** sparse, so divide it by a factor of two and then another factor of two, 75-130W TDP.9
Hire me
For consultations, schedule a call via Calendly link in my profile.
References:
Footnotes
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S and S2 variants are just binned to a lower spec: https://www.rockchips.net/rk3588-vs-rk3588s-in-depth-technical-comparison/ ↩
-
https://clehaxze.tw/gemlog/2024/02-14-benchmarking-rk3588-npu-matrix-multiplcation-performance-ep2.gmi ↩
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https://clehaxze.tw/gemlog/2023/07-13-rockchip-npus-and-deploying-scikit-learn-models-on-them.gmi ↩
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https://developer.download.nvidia.com/assets/embedded/secure/jetson/docs/Ruggedized_Systems_with_Jetson_SoDIMM_Modules_TB-10728-001-v1.1.pdf ↩
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https://www.molex.com/en-us/products/part-detail/2034560003 ↩
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https://developer.download.nvidia.com/assets/embedded/secure/jetson/orin_nano/docs/Jetson_OrinNano_OrinNX_XavierNX_Interface_Comparison_Migration_DA-11081-001_v1.1.pdf ↩
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https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/nvidia-jetson-comparison-nano-tx2-nx-xavier-nx-agx-orin/ ↩
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https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/autonomous-machines/embedded-systems/jetson-xavier-series/ ↩
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https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/autonomous-machines/embedded-systems/jetson-thor/ ↩