Boardcon Compact3566: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B clone launches with a Rockchip RK3566 chipset and PCIe SSD support

There are plenty of Raspberry Pi clones around, which Boardcon has added to with the Compact3566. As its name suggests, the Compact3566 utilises the Rockchip RK3566, a popular SoC among single-board computer (SBC) manufacturers. For context, the Rockchip RK3566 relies on four ARM Cortex-A55 CPU cores clocked at 1.8 GHz, a Mali-G52 2EE GPU and an NPU that offers up to 0.8 TOPS of performance.

Additionally, Boardcon has included a 40-pin GPIO header that should be partially compatible with the equivalent on a Raspberry Pi. As CNX Software notes, Boardcon has not provided a pinout diagram yet. Elsewhere, Boardcon has equipped the Compact3566 with two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, a USB OTG port and a single USB 3.0 Type-A connection. Moreover, the Compact3566 features Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2 support, plus a micro USB port that it also uses for power at 5V/2A.

According to Boardcon, the Compact3566 measures 85 x 56 mm and weighs 50 g. The company adds that the SBC is available with 2 GB, 4 GB or 8 GB of LPDDR4/LPDDR4X RAM, along with 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB of eMMC flash storage. However, Boardcon has equipped the Compact3566 with a microSD card reader and an M.2 2242 slot for SATA or PCIe 2.0 drives. As it stands, the Compact3566 is only available if you contact Boardcon for a price. The company states that the SBC should run Android 11 and Debian 10, which would make it suitable for a variety of applications.

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