Rockchip has published the full datasheet for the RK3539, a quad-core Cortex-A55 SoC that adds 4K video output, hardware AV1 decoding up to 3840 x 2160 at 60 FPS, and a Gigabit Ethernet MAC to the company's media-focused lineup. The chip pairs four Cortex-A55 cores running at 1920 MHz with a Mali-G310 GPU that supports OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 3.0, and Vulkan 1.2, plus a RISC-V MCU in the power-management domain. Its video decoder handles H.265, H.264, and VP9 at up to 4096 x 2160 at 60 FPS, with HDMI 2.1 output capped at 4Kp60 10-bit and HDR10+ along with HDCP 2.3.

The RK3539 is closely related to the RK3538 covered earlier this year, sharing the same 434-ball FBGA package and footprint. The meaningful upgrades are 4K decode and output (the RK3538 topped out lower), a gigabit Ethernet MAC alongside the 10/100 controller, and support for up to 4GB of RAM across DDR3, DDR4, and LPDDR4(4X) rather than 2GB. Storage options span eMMC 5.1, SD 3.0, and a serial flash interface. Full register-level details are in the datasheet hosted on Rockchip.fr.

For anyone tracking these chips beyond Android TV boxes, the more interesting story is upstream. Collabora's year in review on mainline Linux for Rockchip documents steady progress across the RK35xx family, and support for the VDPU381 and VDPU383 video decoders used in the RK3588 and RK3576 has landed in the upstream kernel. Newer parts like the RK3528 and RK3576 have seen clock, pinctrl, and decoder bring-up merged piece by piece, so a quad-A55 part like the RK3539 is a plausible candidate for community SBC builds and mainline work once boards beyond TV sticks appear.

The first device to ship it is the HS89 T15, a 4K Android TV stick running Android 14 with Google Play support. It uses a male HDMI 2.1 connector, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4, a single USB Type-A host port, a 3.5mm jack for an IR extender, and a USB-C port for power only. It measures 100 x 33 x 13 mm (3.9 x 1.3 x 0.5 inches) and bundles a Bluetooth voice remote, though there is no mention of Widevine L1 certification, which matters for full-resolution streaming from major services.

The HS89 T15 starts at about $34 (€31) for the 2GB/16GB configuration and $45 (€41) for the 4GB/32GB model. It does not include a 5V/2A power adapter, so a separate supply may be needed if the TV's USB port cannot deliver enough current, and the IR extender is not in the box.