Orange Pi 3B – RK3566 SBC offers exceptional value for its features

Shenzen Xunlong Software has unveiled its latest SBC, The Orange Pi 3B. Housing a Rockchip RK3566 SoC, this device hosts many unique features you don’t often find in a credit card-sized form factor—notably, a full-sized HDMI port and an M.2 key socket for storage. Priced at $35, the Orange Pi 3B offers exceptional value for its features.

Designed with a 22nm process, the Rockchip RK3566 is a Quad-core 64-bit CPU, ARM Mali G52 2EE GPU, and a 0.8 TOPS INT8 NPU. The GPU supports OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1, and 2D hardware acceleration. with these features, it can easily render 4K@60fps videos in H.265, H.264, and VP9 formats.

Looking at the memory and storage options, the possibilities are diverse. This SBC comes with three different RAM variants: 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4/4x. The board also supports EMMC storage ranging from 16GB to 128 GB. On top of that, it features 16MB or 32MB of SPI flash and an M.2 slot that supports SATA3 SSD. Lastly, the board also features a MicroSD card slot on the rear side of the SBC.

The SBC also features a 40-pin GPIO header that supports UART, I2C, SPI, and PWM, a Fan header, and an option to connect a battery for RTC.

In terms of wireless capabilities, this board features a CDTech 20U5622 wireless module with support for WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0.

Features and Specification of the Orange Pi 3B

• Processor: Rockchip RK3566 quad-core 64-bit (22nm, up to 1.8GHz)
• Graphics: ARM Mali G52 2EE (OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1)
• AI Processor: Embedded NPU (0.8Tops computing power)
• Video: VPU supports 4K@60fps decoding (H.265/H.264/VP9) & 1080P@100fps encoding (H.265), 8M ISP & HDR
• Memory: Options of 2GB/4GB/8GB (LPDDR4/4X) & eMMC (up to 256GB)
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi5, BT5.0 with BLE, Gigabit LAN, HDMI, M.2 M-KEY, Micro SD, USB2.0 & 3.0, 3.5mm jack, MIPI DSI & CSI, eDP, 40-pin expansion
• Applications: Suitable for TV boxes, tablets, edge computing, face recognition, smart security, smart home, and more, enabling AI & IoT applications.
• OS Support: Android 11, Ubuntu (20.04, 22.04), Debian (11, 12), OpenHarmony 4.0 Beta1, Orange Pi OS variants, and more.
• Display/Audio: HDMI 2.0 (4Kp60), MIPI DSI/LVDS (1080p60), 3.5mm audio jack
• Camera: 2x MIPI CSI (24-pin FPC)
• USB: 1x OTG 2.0, 3x Host 2.0, 1x 3.0
• I/O: 1x Serial (debug), 2x UART, UART, I2C, SPI, and PWM
• Other Features: Recover Key, Power switch, RTC + battery connector
• Power: 12V/3A DC
• Dimension: 110 x 140mm

The list of supported operating systems is comprehensive; it includes Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Android 11, OpenHarmony, and the company’s own Orange Pi OS builds (including one based on Arch Linux and another on OpenHarmony, which is an open-source version of Huawei’s HarmonyOS). Additional technical details regarding the Orange Pi 3B will be available on the wiki page. Images for the product can be downloaded once the page is updated. Currently, the Orange Pi 3B is not listed.

The base variant of Orange Pi 3B with 2 GB of RAM starts at US$30 on AliExpress. Alternatively, there are different SKUs with 4 GB or 8 GB of RAM and various eMMC flash storage configurations. For example, the SBC with 2GB (no eMMC) starts at $34.99 with a $5 discount, while the most expensive variant includes 8GB RAM + 256GB eMMC priced at $67.99.

Please follow and like us: