Asus Tinker Board 3N: A powerful SBC for industrial and commercial use

Based on a Rockchip RK3568 SOC, The Tinker Board 3N is a versatile SBC with dual LAN, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Designed for IoT applications, this board can be used for IoT gateways, digital signage, digital kiosks, and other commercial applications.

The Tinker Board lineup was launched by Asus back in 2017, with all models featuring a form factor similar to the Raspberry Pi. But the latest Tinker Board 3N series sports a larger 100 x 100mm (4 x 4in) footprint described by Asus as NUC-sized.

Like the previous models, this board is also based on a 64-bit Rockchip RK3568 SOC, which features a quad-core Cortex-A55 CPU cluster plus a Mali-G52 GPU. Regarding memory, this SBC comes with 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of LPDDR4 or LPDDR4X memory. It has support for 32 or 64 GB storage.

The Tinker Board features a Raspberry PI like pin header that supports the CAN Bus, COM port, and RTC and there is also a Fan header and a DC power input jack in the board.

According to Asus, the board will come in three different variants, Tinker Board 3N, 3N Lite, and 3N Plus, but Asus hasn’t given us the precise specs or pricing for each model yet.

The board will be shipped with a Wireless card that supports Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5 Technology. But many people want the newer Wi-Fi 6, so if the board ships with a Wi-Fi 6 card, that would have been a great addition.

Asus has indicated that the Tinker Board 3N is compatible with Android 12 and Debian 11. However, the board may also support other GNU/Linux distributions.

Asus Tinker Board 3N Features:

• Memory/Storage: Up to 8GB Dual-CH LPDDR4/LPDDR4X, Up to 64GB eMMC, 1x MicroSD card slot, SPI Flash 16MB.
• Connectivity: 2x RJ45 ports, 1x SIM Slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• Display: 1x HDMI w/ CEC hardware ready, 1x LVDS (Dual-link), 1x eDP.
• Audio: 1x 3.5 Phone Jack (w/ Mic), 1x Speaker Stereo Pin Header (4Ω/3W each), 1x HDMI audio.
• M.2 2230 E-Key: 1 x for WiFi 5 or 6 + Bluetooth (PCIe 2.0 x1, USB 2.0)
• M.2 3042/3052 B-Key: 1 x for 4G, 5G, or SSD (PCIe 3.0 x1, USB 3.0, USB 2.0, SIM)
• USB: 1x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C OTG port, 2x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports, 2x USB 2.0 Pin header.
• I/O Peripherals: CAN Bus 2.0B FD (via 1-pin header), COM 232 w/ flow control (via 2-pin header), COM 232/422/485 (via 1-pin header), 12-pin GPIO expansion header.
• Other Features: 1x IR Receiver header, 1x 2-pin Recovery header, 1x 4-pin Power-on & Reset header, 1x 3-pin Debug UART header, 1x 4-pin DC Fan header, 1x 2-pin RTC Battery header.
• Power: 1x DC Barrel power input jack, 1x 4-Pin Power in header (for PoE module).
• Operating Temperature: -40℃ to 85℃.
• Mechanical: 100 x 100mm

At the time of writing this news post, the price of the Tinker Board 3N was not disclosed. We looked around a few Asus Resellers to find some information on the topic, but we have not seen any. But looking at the specs and previous price history, the board’s price may well be within $200.

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