All Comparison AI KiwiPi Series Others Benchmark Test 10 Best Raspberry Pi Alternatives in 2026: SBCs for AI, NAS, and Desktop Use Raspberry Pi 5 is still the easiest single-board computer to recommend. It has a mature operating system, an enormous accessory market, strong documentation, and a community large enough to solve most problems before you encounter them. That does not make it the best board for every job. The moment a project needs more CPU cores, built-in eMMC, dual 2.5GbE, a dedicated AI accelerator, multiple camera inputs, or native x86 software, the Raspberry Pi’s advantages become less decisive. Several Raspberry Pi alternatives now offer much stronger hardware, although they usually ask you to accept a smaller software ecosystem in return. This top 10 is therefore not a synthetic benchmark ranking. Each board is selected for a workload it handles particularly well. Two entries, KiwiPi 5 and KiwiPi 5 Pro, are our own devices; they are identified clearly and judged by the same practical criteria and limitations as the other boards. Specifications were checked against manufacturer documentation available on July 13, 2026. Memory, storage, board revisions, and supported operating-system images can vary by configuration. What Makes a Good Raspberry Pi Alternative? Hardware is only half of the decision A faster processor looks convincing in a comparison table, but an SBC is useful July 14, 2026 Benchmark Test Rockchip RK3566: Specs & Comparison Not every processor needs to be a flagship, while hardware announcements often focus on higher benchmark scores, faster CPU cores, and increasingly powerful AI accelerators, many successful embedded processors are built around a simpler idea: deliver enough performance at the right price and power level. The Rockchip RK3566 is a good example; since its introduction, it has appeared in single-board computers, retro gaming handhelds, e-readers, industrial controllers, smart displays, and many other embedded Linux devices. It rarely attracts the same attention as Rockchip’s higher-end chips, but it has become one of the company’s most widely used platforms. Its specifications are modest by current standards. The chip uses four Cortex-A55 CPU cores, Mali-G52 graphics, and an integrated 1 TOPS NPU. It cannot compete with the Rockchip RK3576 or Rockchip RK3588 in demanding AI, desktop, or multimedia workloads, but that was never really the point. RK3566 became popular because it offers a practical balance of cost and power efficiency. For many embedded products, that matters more than peak performance. A processor does not need to be exciting if it is affordable, stable, and capable of doing the job reliably. The chip also represents an important stage in Rockchip’s development. The company moved July 13, 2026 Comparison Rockchip RK3576: Specs & Performance There was a time when Rockchip’s product lineup was relatively easy to understand. If you needed an entry-level processor, there was the Rockchip RK3566. For more demanding industrial systems and higher-end single-board computers, the RK3568 became the obvious choice. And if performance mattered above everything else, the RK3588 quickly established itself as the flagship. RK3576 changes that picture a bit. At first glance, it doesn’t look like a replacement for any existing Rockchip processor. It isn’t faster than the RK3588, and it isn’t intended to be. Instead, it fills a gap that has become increasingly important as edge AI applications move from the cloud to local devices. Many embedded systems don’t need the sheer computing power of an RK3588, but they still require modern multimedia capabilities, an integrated neural processor, and enough CPU performance to run multiple workloads simultaneously. That’s exactly where RK3576 fits. It combines four Cortex-A72 performance cores with four Cortex-A53 efficiency cores, integrates a 6 TOPS NPU for AI inference, supports modern Linux distributions, and includes hardware capable of decoding 8K video. More importantly, it does all of this while maintaining a considerably lower power envelope than many flagship processors aimed at desktop-class workloads. ODM/OEM Rockchip-Based ODM/OEM July 8, 2026 Comparison, Others Rockchip: From MP3 Players to Modern SBCs Back in 2007, when Apple had just released the first iPhone, a Chinese startup with the unremarkable name Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics was busy making chips for MP4 players. Nobody back then could’ve predicted that 15 years later, their processors would be sitting inside every other single-board computer, with their flagship SoC becoming the main competitor to the Raspberry Pi in the SBC market. But let’s start from the beginning. Rockchip is a Chinese company founded in 2001 in the city of Fuzhou. Yeah, they’re pretty old-timers in the semiconductor world. The company started out making simple chips for multimedia devices-MP3 players, digital photo frames, cheap tablets. No grand ambitions for world domination. In the early 2000s, it was just one of many Chinese factories trying to grab a piece of the growing consumer electronics market. Funny thing-the company’s journey pretty much mirrors China’s own development path. From making fairly cheap goods to globally recognized technology. It’s amazing how far China has come in just 20 short years. By the way, Rockchip isn’t just about processors for powerful single-board computers-they’ve got a whole history with budget chips too. Like that chip in your first media player? That’s the legendary RK2706B, which July 7, 2026 Others Linux PS1 Emulator on KiwiPi How to Install RetroArch on RK3588S SBC RetroArch is one of the most convenient ways to turn a Linux single-board computer into a retro gaming system. On KiwiPi (based on RK3588S) running Ubuntu ARM64, it can be used as a lightweight and flexible frontend for classic console emulation, including the original PlayStation. In this guide, we will install RetroArch on KiwiPi 5, manually add a PlayStation emulator core, and launch a PS1 game. The process is based on a real KiwiPi Ubuntu test setup and avoids unnecessary steps that are not required for a successful launch. The main goal is simple: get a working Linux PS1 emulator on KiwiPi using RetroArch and the PCSX ReARMed core. KiwiPi 5 Hardware Specifications The test system used in this guide is KiwiPi 5, based on the Rockchip RK3588S platform. Component Specification SoC Rockchip RK3588S, 8 nm CPU 4× Cortex-A76 @ 2.2 GHz + 4× Cortex-A55 @ 1.8 GHz GPU ARM Mali-G610 MC4 Graphics API OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.2 NPU 6 TOPS RAM 8 GB LPDDR4X Storage 64 GB eMMC Video Output HDMI 2.1 up to 8K@60fps Wireless Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4 Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet OS Tested Ubuntu ARM64 This hardware July 2, 2026 KiwiPi Series, Benchmark Test RK3588 vs RK3588S: The $20 Question I’ve been testing RK3588 boards for a while. Every time I write about them, someone asks: “Should I get the regular RK3588 or save a few bucks with the RK3588S?” Fair question. Same 8-core CPU. Same GPU. Same 6 TOPS NPU. On paper, almost identical. In practice? There are differences. Some matter. Some don’t. Let me break down what I’ve found. What’s Actually Different Rockchip stripped some things out to make the S version cheaper. PCIe lanes: RK3588 has more. You get full NVMe speed, AI accelerators, maybe even an external GPU if you’re crazy. RK3588S has fewer. NVMe works but it’s bottlenecked. Most users won’t care. Power users will. Memory: RK3588 handles up to 32GB LPDDR5. RK3588S tops out at 16GB LPDDR4X. If you’re running VMs or large AI models, that limit stings. For most SBCs shipping with 8GB? You won’t notice. Display outputs: RK3588 drives four displays. RK3588S does two. Digital signage or multi-monitor setup? Full version. Tablet or single-screen device? You won’t care. Real-World Impact The Kiwi Box 5 uses the full RK3588. Dual 2.5GbE, NVMe at full speed, multiple displays. It handles everything. RK3588S boards I’ve tested feel just as fast day-to-day. UI is snappy. Video June 24, 2026 Benchmark Test Introducing Kiwi Box 5: The RK3588 Edge AI Box When we started designing Kiwi Box 5, we had a simple list of demands. Build a computer around the Rockchip RK3588. Add everything that Edge AI Box users are always missing, and don’t turn it into an overheating toy. We looked at the market for industrial and hobbyist single-board computers and compact mini PCs. We saw users dealing with USB hubs, living with a single Ethernet port, and praying their power connector wouldn’t fall out at the worst possible moment. So we built Kiwi Box 5. This is not just another RK3588 box; this is a finished device for real tasks. Kiwi Box 5: Our new Edge AI Box At the heart of Kiwi Box 5 lies the Rockchip RK3588. If you want a deep dive into what this chip can do, we have prepared a complete RK3588 specs and performance guide. Quick facts: 8 cores: 4x Cortex-A76 at 2.2GHz plus 4x Cortex-A55 at 1.8GHz, 8nm process Mali-G610 MC4 graphics with Vulkan 1.2 and OpenCL 2.0 support Triple-core NPU delivering 6 TOPS for on-device AI, no cloud needed We did not cut corners on memory. The standard config is 8GB LPDDR4X (options for 4, 16, or 32GB) and 128GB eMMC June 18, 2026 KiwiPi Series, AI DeepX DX-M1/M1M AI Modules Explained Last week, Radxa and DEEPX dropped AICore DX-M1M a tiny M.2 module that promises 25 TOPS of AI acceleration while sipping just 3 watts. Remember the AI accelerators that turned out to be glorified USB sticks with half-baked drivers? Yeah. But this thing? It fits in your M.2 slot, like an NVMe drive. And it claims to run YOLO, ResNet, pose estimation – the whole nine yards, without melting your motherboard. Wait, What Actually Is This Thing? DeepX is a South Korean AI chip startup, Radxa – the folks behind the ROCK series SBCs – is partnering with them to put this NPU into an M.2 package. The original AICore DX-M1 AI Module launched in late 2025. That was a bigger M.2 2280 card with PCIe Gen3 ×4, 4GB of LPDDR5, and a 3-5W power envelope. Respectable, but bulky. The new DX-M1M AI Module is different: smaller, leaner. Meaner in some ways, weaker in others. Feature DeepX DX-M1 (original) DeepX DX-M1M (new) AI Performance Up to 25 TOPS Up to 25 TOPS Form Factor M.2 2280 M.2 2242 (M + B Key) Interface PCIe Gen3 ×4 PCIe Gen3 ×2 Memory 4GB LPDDR5 1GB LPDDR4X (4266 MT/s) Storage ? 1Gbit QSPI June 12, 2026 AI, Others Hardware Video Encoding: 100 Hours Later In the last article, I talked about RK3588 hardware video encoding. This time, I wanted to go deeper after spending more than 100 hours testing different pipelines on the KiwiPi 5B SBC.Now let me tell you about the parts they don’t put in the shiny marketing slides. Because yeah, hardware encoding works. When it works. But getting there? Buckle up. The First Crash (And The Second, And The Third) I’ll be honest – my first mpph264enc pipeline crashed within 30 seconds. Not even kidding. The error? Something like mpp_enc: failed to allocate buffer. No explanation. No helpful hint. Just… death. After hours of forum crawling and staring at kernel logs like a confused raccoon, I found the culprit: memory pressure. See, the VPU needs contiguous DMA buffers. If your system has been running for a while and RAM is fragmented, the allocation just fails. No graceful fallback. Just a crash. The fix? Reboot. Or pre-allocate buffers like a paranoid sysadmin. I chose the reboot method because I’m lazy and this was a test bench, not a production jet engine. But this taught me something important: hardware encoding is powerful, but fragile. You can’t just hammer it like a software encoder May 22, 2026 KiwiPi Series, Benchmark Test Automotive AI BOX: A New Platform from Rockchip At the 2026 Beijing Auto Show, Rockchip introduced its new Automotive AI BOX platform together with ModelBest. The goal is simple – to bring large AI models into the car without depending too much on the network. This is not just another automotive demo; it also shows how embedded AI hardware is changing across many industries. The same ideas behind smart cockpit AI can also be used in robotics, kiosks, AI terminals, edge video systems, and embedded Linux devices. Why Automotive AI BOX Is Moving to the Edge Rockchip’s new Automotive AI BOX tries to solve this problem with a dedicated AI compute system inside the vehicle. According to the company, the platform is designed for multimodal AI workloads and local large model inference. That matters because modern in-car AI is no longer only voice commands. New systems process video, audio, driver behavior, navigation data, and even cabin monitoring at the same time. This trend is very similar to what we already see in edge AI hardware based on Rockchip RK3588 platforms. Devices powered by RK3588 are already handling local video processing, AI acceleration, and multimedia workloads without relying heavily on remote servers. Custom ODM/OEM Solutions If you’re developing an May 20, 2026 AI, Others Suica Readers: The Hidden Hardware During my trip to Japan, I was wondering about the Suica IC card (FeliCa NFC). It is a very convenient payment option at any place (shops, transportation, etc.), but I wanted to check which chips work on devices that accept this kind of IC payment. And honestly, if you’ve ever seen Tokyo stations during rush hour, you know these systems can’t afford to be slow even for a second. Thousands of people are constantly moving through the gates. If every person had to wait even half a second longer, the whole station would become a traffic jam immediately. It’s Not Just NFC Sony’s FeliCa technology (FeliCa NFC) Most people think Suica is basically the same thing as regular contactless payment. But Japan’s system is a bit different. Suica uses Sony’s FeliCa technology (FeliCa NFC), and the whole thing was built around one idea: people should not stop walking while paying. That was the goal from the beginning. Suica Transaction history in Apple Pay And when you think about it, that’s actually pretty crazy. The gate has to communicate with the card or phone, verify everything, calculate the fare, update the balance, open the gate, show confirmation May 14, 2026 Others Hardware Video Encoding on RK3588 After testing HDMI-IN on RK3588 with Kiwipi 5B, I ran into a very simple problem. Recording video work, but CPU usage goes up fast. At first, I was using software for hardware video encoding. It works, but not for long runs or real-time pipelines, so I switched to hardware video encoding. And that’s where the board started to behave completely differently. What Hardware Video Encoding Actually Means Here On RK3588, video encoding is not done by the CPU; there is a dedicated hardware block (VPU). It handles H.264 and H.265 encoding directly. And this is not a small feature. The chip supports real-time encoding up to 8K resolution, which means the encoding is designed to run continuously without loading the CPU. So instead of: CPU doing everything frames getting delayed You get: dedicated pipeline stable throughput much lower CPU usage Switching From Software to Hardware Video Encoding At first, I used something like this: x264enc It works, but CPU usage can easily go above 100%. Then I switched to Rockchip hardware encoding. On RK3588, this usually goes through: MPP (Media Process Platform) or hardware-enabled ffmpeg / gstreamer plugins For example, using GStreamer: gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src device=/dev/video0 ! videoconvert ! mpph264enc ! April 27, 2026 KiwiPi Series, Benchmark Test No posts found 1 2
