Tinker Edge R: Asus presents a new and powerful Raspberry Pi alternative with AI support

Asus has announced the Tinker Edge R, its latest single-board computer (SBC). First shown at Computex 2019, Asus has equipped the SBC with a Rockchip RK3399Pro, a chipset that includes six ARM cores among other components. Specifically, the SoC features two ARM Cortex-A72 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz and 1.4 GHz respectively. There is also a Mali-T860 MP4 GPU onboard that can operate at 800 MHz and a dedicated Rockchip NPU onboard.

The SBC also includes 4 GB of RAM dual-channel LPDDR4 RAM and 2 GB of dedicated LPDDR3 RAM for the NPU. Additionally, Asus has included 16 GB of eMMC flash storage, but there is a microSD card reader should for added flexibility. Moreover, the Tinker Edge R has three image outputs including DisplayPort over USB Type C. The same port operates at USB 3.2 Gen 1 and support OTG, which Asus has complemented with three USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports.

Unsurprisingly, the Tinker Edge R has a Gigabit Ethernet connection too, along with an M.2 modem that supports 802.11 ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0. There is even a mini PCIe expansion slot for adding an LTE modem should you need a mobile internet connection.

The 100 x 72 mm board also has a 40-pin header that supports up to 28 GPIO pins plus SPI, I2C, UART, PWM, PCM/12S and S/PDIF TX. Asus states that the Tinker Edge R will run Debian 9 and Android 8.1 Oreo, although the latter will be ready sometime this quarter. The company offers an API and SDK for AI projects, too. However, Asus remains tight-lipped on availability and pricing.