ASUS Tinker Board is a line of single board computers (SBC) from a Taiwanese manufacturer. One of the best alternatives to Raspberry Pi, which is now expanded with two more versions.

It’s about the models “3N Plus” and “3N Lite”, which come with the same size and hardware base as the original 3N, but offer different connectivity options and I/O components for greater flexibility and use cases. You already know that this type of SBC boards can be used for software development, industrial sector or simply hobbyists to complete many projects.

ASUS Tinker Board expands the possibilities

The new models come in a 3.9-inch (100 x 100 mm) square design. Its main engine is a Rockchip RK3568, a well known and supported processor as it is used by a large number of SBC boards. It is equipped with four ARM Cortex-A55 processor cores with a speed of up to 2 GHz, integrated Mali-G52 graphics and a neural processing unit with up to 1 TOP AI performance.

The manufacturer sells it in different configurations depending on the version, p 2, 4 or 8 GB of memory Dual-channel LPDDR4/LPDDR4X and eMMC storage with 32 or 64 GB capacity.

The differences from the original model come from the part connectivity. The ‘Plus’ version is the most complete, while the ‘Lite’ removes one of Gigabyte’s LAN ports, additional COM headers and an additional M.2 3042/3052 module to equip the support board for LTE or 5G. broadband network, or decide to increase the capacity of the internal storage with SSD disks.

All ASUS Tinker Board 3N have microSD card support and 16MB SPI flash, as well as dual LAN ports (with PoE support via expansion module) and a large number of ports, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C OTG, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A and 2 x USB 2.0. The audio part is covered by a 3.5 mm jack and a pin for stereo speakers.

The boards can output content to screens with three outputs, HDMI, LVDS and eDP, and come with various headers for COM and CAN buses, GPIO, for fan, RTC battery and other hardware, plus a power connector.

Very complete SBC boards for which ASUS has created an operating system TinkerOS based on Debian and offers compatibility with other GNU/Linux distributions as well as the Android mobile system. Prices start at $170 for the cheapest version, the 3N Lite. If you want to start in this sector, ASUS sells other simpler and cheaper boards, such as the Tinker Board S available for 89 euros. They are available at major retailers.