ASUS releases Tinker V single-board computer, featuring RISC-V chip for the first time

The Tinker Board series of single-board computers under ASUS has always been popular among IoT developers, and currently available models are all equipped with ARM processors. However, this situation will change in the future. According to Liliputing‘s report, ASUS recently released a new Tinker V single-board computer, which is ASUS’s first model to be equipped with a 64-bit RISC-V processor.

The processor it uses is the RZ/Five from Renesas Electronics, which has an AX45MP core and a clock speed of up to 1GHz. Renesas Electronics is a Japanese semiconductor company formed by the integration of NEC Electronics and Renesas Technology. NEC Electronics is a semiconductor business separated from NEC, the “national machine” of Japan, and the famous PC98 series came from their hands. Renesas Technology is the semiconductor division of Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric.

This single-board computer also has 1GB of DDR4 memory and a microSD card slot for storage space. Of course, users can also choose 16GB eMMC or SPI flash as their storage space. In terms of I/O, the Tinker V provides a 20-pin GPIO interface, as well as a JTAG interface for debugging. It also includes two gigabit Ethernet ports, two micro USB ports, two CAN bus interfaces and two RS-232 interfaces.

In terms of operating system support, ASUS stated that Tinker V supports the Debian and Yocto Linux operating systems.

ASUS has not yet revealed the specific price of this computer, but it will be exhibited at the International Embedded Exhibition in Germany. It can be said that RISC-V chips are becoming a force to be reckoned with in the single-board computer field. Like the SHiFive Pro P550 and the Lichee Pi 4A from Sipeed Technology that we previously reported on, they both use RISC-V chips from different manufacturers.