The Mekotronics R58X is an embedded micro PC with 16GB RAM, twin Gigabit Ethernet, 8K capable HDMI and DisplayPort video output ports, HDMI input, M.2 NVMe storage, and more. It is driven by a Rockchip RK3588 Cortex-A76/A55 CPU.
This is the latest piece of Rockchip RK3588 hardware to be announced, after the ROCK5 Pico-ITX SBC, Firefly ITX-3588J mini-ITX motherboard, and Mixtile Blade 3 server board. Melotronix R58X may be used as an IoT gateway, an industrial PC, an edge computing platform, a video analytics server, digital signage, a vehicle control unit, and other embedded applications, among other things.
According to reports, the business will provide Android 12, Linux Ubuntu 18.04, and Debian 11 for the small PC. Based on our previous post on the Mixtile board, I believe only Android 12 will be accessible at first, and offering an Ubuntu 18.04 image in 2022 rather than Ubuntu 20.04 or Ubuntu 22.04, which is set to be released next month, strikes me as odd.
The DEV-RK3588-4D32 board should also be available separately, particularly because several interfaces, such as MIPI CSI and SATA, are not accessible from the small PC. According to a post on CSDN in Chinese, the board may have been introduced last December with the formal RK3588 announcement at RKDC 2021.
Mekotronics informed CNX Software that the sample costs $249 and takes just 7 days to arrive. I was unable to get information regarding the sample’s memory and storage capacity in time for this piece, but at this pricing, I’d expect 4GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash. I doubt software, including Android, is ready for prime time, based on everything I’ve read over the previous several months.
More information is available on the product website, and we were informed that the initial firmware image will be ready for download on March 15. They also have a YouTube channel where you can see various demonstrations. R58K is now unavailable for purchase online, so you’ll have to contact them through email or phone for additional information and/or to get a sample.
