Back to Gap Map Infrastructure / Edge AI hardware

Radxa ROCK 5B

open toolchain / Overall score: 4.5(leading)

Single-board computer built on the Rockchip RK3588, pairing a quad-core Cortex-A76 at up to 2.4 GHz with a quad-core Cortex-A55 and a built-in 6 TOPS NPU, in a 100 by 75 millimetre form factor. It is offered with 4GB to 16GB of LPDDR4X, and up to 32GB of LPDDR5 on the Plus variant.

Openness

4 high confidence

4.0

schematics: published (PDF + SMD maps + DXF + 3D STP + CE/FCC public)
toolchain: open (open BSP/kernel/U-Boot)
blobs: required (Rockchip rkbin/DDR/TF-A required)
retail: open_market (global)
form_factor: board (SBC sold ready to run)

Schematics and mechanical files are publicly downloadable and the BSP is open, but the RK3588 needs proprietary Rockchip blobs and editable PCB source is not released.

https://ameridroid.com/products/rock5-model-b recorded 2026-08-13
ROCK 5 Model B listed for sale at an authorized US distributor at $289.95 across three RAM variants
https://docs.radxa.com/en/rock5/rock5b/download recorded 2026-08-13
Hardware Design section listing "v1.3 Schematic pdf", "v1.42 Schematic pdf", "v1.3 SMD pdf", "v1.3 2D Top&Bottom dxf", "v1.42 3D Figure stp" and a Quality certification section with CE EMC test reports; no editable PCB source offered
https://github.com/radxa-repo/bsp recorded 2026-08-13
"bsp - Radxa BSP Build Tool" under a GPL-3.0 license, 1,163 commits
https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkbin recorded 2026-08-13
Rockchip's own "Firmware and Tool Binarys" repository - prebuilt SPL/DDR/UsbPlug/BL31/BL32/OPTEE boot binaries distributed as binaries rather than source

Adoption

5 high confidence

5.0

The board is sold globally through authorized distributors, including AmeriDroid at $289.95, and carries 15 or more third-party OS ports such as Armbian, Arch Linux, DietPi and Batocera. A single distributor's stock running low does not by itself indicate a discontinuation.

https://ameridroid.com/products/rock5-model-b recorded 2026-10-08
ROCK 5 Model B listing live at an authorized US distributor, $289.95, with "Sold out" against the RAM variants
https://docs.radxa.com/en/rock5/rock5b/download recorded 2026-10-08
third-party OS images listed for ROCK 5B including Armbian, Arch Linux, DietPi, RebornOS, openFyde and Batocera

Capability

4 high confidence

4.0

The RK3588's 6 TOPS NPU, paired with up to 32GB of LPDDR5 on the Plus variant, runs quantized small and mid-size LLMs and real-time vision through RKNN. That extra memory puts it a step above the other 6 TOPS RK3588 boards, such as Orange Pi 5 and Khadas Edge2, though still below the Jetson Orin NX.

https://docs.radxa.com/en/rock5/rock5b/getting-started/introduction recorded 2026-09-29
Spec page states "NPU supports INT4/INT8/INT16/FP16/BF16 and TF32 acceleration with up to 6TOPs of computation power", lists "Quad-core Cortex-A76 up to 2.4GHz", "4/8/16 64 bit LPDDR4X" and "4/8/16/32 64 bit LPDDR5", and "100 x 75 mm".

Verified 2026-09-29, except some scores, still awaiting re-confirmation