Originally announced in October 2019, Rock Pi 4 Model C from Radxa has been unavailable for purchase until now. CNX Software have keenly spotted that the Rock Pi 4 Model C is now available from $59. Rock Pi 4 Model C is a design hybrid, measuring 3.3 x 2.1 inch (85 x 54 mm) this board shares layout cues from the Raspberry Pi 3 and 4 but it has a little more to it than a Raspberry Pi.
Rock Pi 4C Specifications
There are dual display outputs, micro HDMI and mini DisplayPort providing 4K @ 60Hz and 2560 x 1440 @ 60Hz respectively. Connectivity comes in the form of four USB ports, two USB 3.0, two USB2.0 and Gigabit Ethernet, so Raspberry Pi 4 connections, in a Raspberry Pi 3 layout. Wireless connectivity is 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 via an on-board antenna, but there is an external antenna connection. A 40 pin GPIO is present, providing access to UART, SPI, I2C, PCM /I2S, SPDIF, PWM and an Analog to Digital Converter, something not found on the Raspberry Pi GPIO.
What is different about the Rock Pi 4 Model C is storage. Sure we have the usual microSD card slot, but we also have an eMMC socket which can be used with up to 128GB modules, purchased separately. There is also a four lane M.2 NVMe socket that is used with an expansion board to bring NVMe storage. Much faster and more reliable than microSD cards.
We can't wait to get one of these on our bench for testing.
Rock Pi 4C Specifications
- SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core processor with
- CPU: 2x Arm Cortex-A72 @ up to 1.8 GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.4 GHz
- GPU: Mali-T864 with support OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1/3.2, Vulkan 1.0, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL 1.1/1.2, DX11, and AFBC
- VPU with 4K VP9 and 4K 10-bit H265/H264 decoding
- 64-bit 4GB LPDDR4 @ 3200 Mbps (single chip)
- eMMC module socket up to 128GB
- Micro SD card slot up to 2TB
- 4-lane M.2 NVMe SSD socket (expansion board required)
- Micro HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz
- Mini DP 1.2 up to 2560 x 1440 @ 60 Hz
- Audio – Via HDMI and 3.5mm audio jack
- Camera – MIPI-CSI2 connector for camera up to 8MP
- Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet with PoE support (add on required), dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0 with on-board antenna
- USB – 1x USB 3.0 host port, 1x USB 3.0 OTG port, 2x USB 2.0 host ports
- Expansion – 40-pin I/O header with 1x UART, 2x SPI bus, 2x I2C bus, 1x PCM/I2S, 1x SPDIF, 1x PWM, 1x ADC, 6x GPIO, and power signals (5V, 3.3V, and GND)
- Misc – RTC with connector for backup battery
- Power Supply – Via USB-C port supporting USB PD 2.0 (9V/2A, 12V/2A, 15V/2A, or 20V/2A) and Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0/.0 (9V/2A, 12V/1.5A)
There are dual display outputs, micro HDMI and mini DisplayPort providing 4K @ 60Hz and 2560 x 1440 @ 60Hz respectively. Connectivity comes in the form of four USB ports, two USB 3.0, two USB2.0 and Gigabit Ethernet, so Raspberry Pi 4 connections, in a Raspberry Pi 3 layout. Wireless connectivity is 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 via an on-board antenna, but there is an external antenna connection. A 40 pin GPIO is present, providing access to UART, SPI, I2C, PCM /I2S, SPDIF, PWM and an Analog to Digital Converter, something not found on the Raspberry Pi GPIO.
What is different about the Rock Pi 4 Model C is storage. Sure we have the usual microSD card slot, but we also have an eMMC socket which can be used with up to 128GB modules, purchased separately. There is also a four lane M.2 NVMe socket that is used with an expansion board to bring NVMe storage. Much faster and more reliable than microSD cards.
We can't wait to get one of these on our bench for testing.
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