New Raspberry Pi 5 alternative: This SBC can withstand freezing temperatures and extreme heat

We have reported several times about the manufacturer Geniatech. With the DB3506, the company is now offering a new single-board computer or development board, which is powered by the Rockchip RK3506. This chipset has four cores, specifically three Cortex-A7 cores and one Cortex-M0 core. The Cortex-M0 core is not really designed to improve performance, but instead handles communication with external devices, especially sensors and actuators.

The board also includes RS-232/RS-485, UART, CAN and should be well suited for industrial use. It is intended for industrial environments at temperatures from -40° to 185°F, including extremely cold outdoors or pretty hot equipment. The SBC measures 5.75 x 4.02 inches and is equipped with 512MB LPDDR3 memory. Optionally, the system is also available with 256MB and 1GB RAM. Depending on the configuration, the NAND flash has a capacity of 256 or 512MB.

Network connections are established via dual Ethernet or dual-band Wi-Fi, and an optional 4G modem can be added via the board’s mini PCIe slot. HDMI is included as well, as are connectors for a touchscreen. Such a setup could allow various metrics to be displayed directly at the machine rather than just in the control room. There are two USB Type-A ports, but they only support USB 2.0. GPIO pins are available as well. Geniatech has not publicly shared any pricing or availability details, which is typical for B2B products.

For regular consumers and tinkerers, the Raspberry Pi 5 (from $116 on Amazon) might be a better choice.