The Banana Pi BPI-R2 Pro is a single-board computer with a Rockchip RK3568 processor, 2GB of LPDDR4 memory, 16GB of eMMC storage.

But what sets this little computer apart from most single-board PCs is that it’s designed for use as a router. It has five Gigabit Ethernet ports and connectors that you can use to add an optional wireless card.

First announced last August, the Banana Pi BPI-R2 Pro is now available for purchase from AliExpress for $95.

At the heart of the new board is a 2 GHz ARM Cortex-A55 quad-core processor with Mali-G52 graphics and a dedicated neural processing unit. And in addition to the Ethernet ports, there are M.2 and mini PCIe card slots that can be used to add a WiFi & Bluetooth module and/or a 4G or 5G modem.

Other features include an HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports, a micro USB 2.0 port, a 3.5mm audio jack, a microSD card reader, and a SATA connector. There are also two MIPI-DSI display interface, a MIPI-CSI interface for a camera, and a 40 pin header.

The board measures 148 x 101mm 5.8″ x 4″ and weighs 100 grams (3.5 ounces).

The makers of the BPI-R2 Pro offer several operating systems that can be installed on the board, including builds of Ubuntu 21.04 or Debian 10 GNU/Linux distributions or OpenWRT-21.02, an operating system designed to function as open source firmware for routers.

The new board looks is physically quite similar identical to the original BPI-R2 which launched five years ago, but the manufacturer has upgraded the processor from a 1.3 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor to a the much faster Rockchip RK3568 processor.

While the old model also had built-in support for WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 4.1, the new version does not, but instead has plenty of options for adding your own wireless module.

via CNX Software

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6 replies on “Banana Pi BPI-R2 Pro board lets you build an open source router with an RK3568 processor”

    1. Looks like it’s out of stock at the official Banani Pi store, but other AliExpress sellers seem to have it for around $100.

  2. Need to get pictures straight. Different pictures show different places for the 2032 battery socket.

  3. Hmm… In theory I could add a WiFi card and a mini PCI 4G card from an old Thinkpad and set up a script to change between the wired and 4G connections when my ISP cuts out. Interesting.

    1. You forget antenna. Your Thinkpad has internal antennas for wifi and 4G, and they could be located under display.

  4. very nice, very
    in next revision please add tiny screen 😉 and meybe ups 18650 not only clock battery
    but very nice board

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