Rockchip has announced two new mid-range processors targeting distinct market segments. The RK3538 is a quad-core Cortex-A55 chip designed for TV boxes, while the RK3572 slots into the company's HMI (Human Machine Interface) roadmap between the RK3568 and RK3576.
The RK3538 packs a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 CPU with an Arm Mali-G310 GPU and supports up to 2GB of DDR3, DDR4, or LPDDR4 memory. Video decoding handles H.265, H.264, and AV1 at dual 1080p60 streams, with HDMI 2.1 output limited to 1080p60 10-bit with HDR10+ support. The chip includes 10/100 Mbps Ethernet, USB 2.0 ports, and comprehensive security features including AES, RSA, and secure boot. Storage options span eMMC 5.1, SD 3.0, and NAND flash interfaces. The datasheet reveals a compact FBGA434L package measuring 13.3mm x 13.5mm (0.5 inches x 0.5 inches) with junction temperatures reaching 125°C (257°F).
The RK3572 targets industrial HMI applications with a hexa-core configuration pairing two Cortex-A73 cores at 2.3 GHz with four Cortex-A53 cores at 2.0 GHz. It shares the Mali-G310 GPU with the RK3538 but adds a 3 TOPS NPU for AI workloads. Video capabilities step up to 4K at 120 FPS decoding and 4K at 30 FPS encoding, with support for HDMI, DSI, and eDP outputs at 4Kp60. The chip supports faster LPDDR4, LPDDR5, and UFS 2.1 storage, plus dual Gigabit Ethernet and two USB 3.0 OTG ports. An official EVB demonstrated at Embedded World 2026 runs Debian 13 Trixie with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage, achieving Geekbench 6 scores between the RK3568 and RK3576. The board showed no heatsink, suggesting thermal requirements remain modest like other Cortex-A73 designs.
No pricing or availability has been announced for either processor. The RK3538 appears ready for production with a complete datasheet available, while the RK3572 remains in evaluation stages with GitHub commits suggesting shared IP blocks between both chips.
