Forlinx S12 Mini SBC with Raspberry Pi-compatible GPIO sports a healthy set of features

Forlinx has introduced a brand-new SBC (Single-Board Computer) with a pretty attractive set of features, including a 40-pin GPIO header that is compatible with Raspberry Pi. The product is already available for purchase, either straight from Forlinx, or through their official Alibaba store.

At its heart, the Forlinx OK3506-S12 Mini SBC is powered by the ARM-based 22 nm Rockchip RK3506B SoC with triple Cortex-A7 cores clocked at up to 1.5 GHz and a single low-power Cortex-M0 core clocked at 200 MHz. The SoC also packs up to 512 MB of DDR3 memory, and the board sports up to 512 MB of on-board flash. Compared to the OK3506J-S SBC launched previously, the S12 Mini is a more compact and affordable variant, as noted by Forlinx.

Of course, certain corners have been cut in order to achieve a smaller footprint. For instance, the S12 Mini features a single Ethernet, whereas the OK3506-S variant sports two. Other differences include fewer USB, lack of eMMC storage, wireless networking, and more. A few more notable features of the OK3506-S12 Mini SBC are as follows:

• Single USB 2.0 Host
• Single 100M Ethernet
• 40-pin GPIO Header (Raspberry Pi compatible)
• Stereo audio output
• TF card support

The SoM features support for the DSMC parallel bus for FPGA and ARM communication. Moreover, the FlexBUS interface also enables connection to DACs, DVP cams, LCDs, and more. Supported display interfaces include 2-lane MIPI DSI. That said, folks who require more compute power will likely be better served by something like the Forlinx FET3562-J SoM (currently $99.27 on Amazon).