Asus is continuing to expand its line of single-board computers aimed at makers and developers. The original Asus Tinker Board launched in 2017 as a Raspberry Pi-like mini PC powered by a Rockchip RK3288 processor. The next year the company unveiled the Tinker Board S with 16GB of eMMC flash storage built in.
Now Asus is adding three new models to the lineup: the Asus Tinker Edge R and Tinker Edge TÂ and the CR1S-CM-A.
It’s interesting to note that Asus is sticking with the Tinker name for some models, but also adding “Edge” to suggest that the company sees its new boards as solutions for “edge computing,” which basically means that, as opposed to cloud computing, data and applications are stored and run closer to where they’re needed.
The Tinker Edge T and CR1S-CM-A both feature an NXP I.MX8M quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor and Google’s Coral Edge TPU system-on-module for artificial intelligence/machine learning.
Both feature 1GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 8GB of eMMC flash memory, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, a USB-C port, two USB 3.0 ports, and a 40-pin Raspberry Pi-compatible header.
But the CR1S-CM-A also supports Power over Ethernet, an M.2 expansion slot, a SATA interface, and a few other features that CNX Software notes could make it a better fit for industrial applications.
The computers measure about 3.4″ x 2.2″.
The Asus Tinker Edge R, meanwhile, features a Rockchip RK3399Pro hexa-core processor with two Arm Cortex-A72 CPU cores and four Cortex-A53 cores as well as a dedicated neural processing unit for AI tasks.
With 4GB of LPDDR4 system memory and 2GB of LPDDr3 memory for the NPU and 16GB of eMMC flash storage plus a microSD card reader, this model packs a lot of power into a small space.
It also features HDMI and 3.5mm audio jacks, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, and USB 3.1 Type-c and Type-A ports plus a 40-pin header that’s compatible with the original tinker Board.
Measuring 100mm x 72mm (3.9″ x 2.8″), the Tinker Board R is a little larger than the other models (or a Raspberry Pi), but it’s still pretty tiny for a PC.
Does it support charging over the usb-c?