Introducing the Compact and Affordable ODROID-M1S: A Powerful Rockchip RK3566 SBC

Hardkernel has released the ODROID-M1S, a smaller and more cost-effective single-board computer (SBC) compared to the previously launched ODROID-M1. Designed to commemorate Hardkernel’s 15th anniversary, the ODROID-M1S is priced at $49 and up and features the Rockchip RK3566 system-on-a-chip (SoC).

The ODROID-M1S SBC comes with the Rockchip RK3566 SoC, which is similar to the RK3568 but with fewer peripheral interfaces. The board offers 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4 memory, a 64GB eMMC flash soldered onto the board, HDMI 2.0 and MIPI DSI video interfaces, gigabit Ethernet, a few USB ports, and two GPIO headers. However, compared to the ODROID-M1, the ODROID-M1S does have some feature losses, such as a lower-speed memory, PCIe 2.1 support, the removal of the SPI flash and SATA port, and the MIPI CSI camera connector. The power supply has also been changed from a 12V DC jack to a 5V USB-C port.

Here are the specifications of the ODROID-M1S with the differences from the ODROID-M1 highlighted:

• SoC – Rockchip RK3566 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 1.8 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 MP2 GPU @ 800 MHz and 0.8 TOPS AI accelerator
• System Memory – 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4 RAM at 2112 MT/s or up to 1,055 MHz
• Storage
  • 64GB eMMC flash (soldered on PCB) benchmarked at up to 180MB/s with fio
  • MicroSD card slot (UHS-I SDR104, boot priority higher than eMMC flash)
  • M.2 NVMe M-Key 2280 socket (2-lane PCIe 2.1) benchmarked at up to 400MB/s with fio
• Video Output
  • 1x HDMI 2.0 port up to 4Kp60 with HDR and EDID
  • 4-lane MIPI DSI connector (30-pin, while ODROID M1 has a 31-pin connector)
• Audio – 3.5mm headphone jack, mono speaker output (1.3W at 8Ω load)
• Networking – Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port via Realtek RTL8211F Ethernet transceiver
• USB
  • 1x USB 3.0 port
  • 1x USB 2.0 port
  • 1x Micro USB 2.0 OTG port
• Expansion – 40-pin GPIO header + 14-pin GPIO header (both headers optional)

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.