ROCK64
Pine64 single-board computer with the Rockchip RK3328 SoC. Not to be confused with Radxa's ROCK series.
hardware
also known as Pine64 ROCK64, Rock64
Knowledge about ROCK64
- A Raspberry Pi-style GPIO header does not make Pi HATs and GPIO libraries workwarning · unverified · Alternative boards may copy the 40-pin layout, use a different header (Orange Pi 5 has 26 pins) or map pins differently. Pi-specific libraries, HAT drivers and camera/display connectors generally don't carry over; use the vendor's library (e.g. wiringOP) or the generic Linux GPIO interfaces.
- Choosing an OS for Raspberry Pi alternatives: vendor images, Armbian support levels, mainlineguide · unverified · OS support decides how usable an alternative board is. Compare vendor images, Armbian (with Standard, Community maintained and Staging support levels) and mainline distributions, and check the kernel's age before deploying long-lived IoT devices.
- IoT projects: when a Raspberry Pi alternative makes sense and when to stay with the Pirecommendation · unverified · Choose an alternative for a concrete hardware need the Pi lacks (onboard eMMC, fast NVMe, 2.5G/dual Ethernet, NPU, lots of RAM, x86). Stay with Raspberry Pi when you depend on HATs, Pi-specific libraries, tutorials or long-term OS support.
- ROCK64 (Pine64) vs Radxa ROCK 5B: two different 'ROCK' boardsguide · unverified · ROCK64 is Pine64's RK3328 board (Cortex-A53, up to 4 GB, USB 3.0, gigabit Ethernet). Radxa's ROCK 5B is an RK3588 board with a 6 TOPS NPU, PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe and 2.5G Ethernet with PoE support. Don't mix up their docs and images.
- Raspberry Pi alternatives compared: Banana Pi, Orange Pi, ROCK64 / Radxa ROCK, ODROIDcomparison · unverified · What actually differs between Raspberry Pi and its alternatives: SoC vendor, OS and kernel support, GPIO/software compatibility, storage and networking. No universal winner: pick by the software you need first, hardware second.
Related
- alternative to: Raspberry Pi – Older RK3328 board with USB 3.0 and gigabit Ethernet.