Mixtile Blade 3
Mixtile Blade 3 is a single-board computer based on the Rockchip RK3588, in the 100 x 72 mm Pico-ITX form factor. It combines an eight-core CPU, a 6 TOPS NPU, dual 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet and 8K display output with a U.2 edge connector that carries PCIe Gen3 x4 and SATA, so a single board can run AI and video workloads at the edge, and several boards can be stacked into a cluster.
Typical uses include:
- Edge AI inference on images and video
- Compute clusters built from several Blade 3 boards
- Video capture, transcoding and multi-display output
- Network appliances and servers that need two fast Ethernet ports
Key Features
RK3588 with a 6 TOPS NPU
The RK3588 has four Cortex-A76 and four Cortex-A55 cores, a Mali GPU and an NPU with up to 6 TOPS. The NPU runs neural-network inference on the board itself, so object detection and small language models can run without a separate accelerator.
Clustering and fast storage over U.2
The U.2 edge connector carries four lanes of PCIe Gen3, a SATA 3.0 channel and a 12 V power input. With the adapter included in the Blade 3 Case, it takes an M.2 NVMe SSD. With the Blade 3 Breakout Board and SFF-8643 cables, several boards are linked into a cluster over PCIe and powered from 12 V.
Dual 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet
Two 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, each with its own controller, let the board connect to two networks at once, for example as a router, firewall or gateway.
Display and video
- HDMI 2.1 output up to 8K at 60 fps
- Two DisplayPort 1.4 outputs over the USB-C ports, up to 8K at 30 fps
- HDMI 2.0 input for capturing a 4K at 60 fps source
- Hardware H.265 and VP9 decoding up to 8K at 60 fps, and H.264 and H.265 encoding up to 8K at 30 fps
- A four-lane MIPI-CSI camera connector
Up to three monitors can be driven at once, through HDMI and the two USB-C ports, each at up to 4K.
Expansion
- A Mini PCIe socket, with PCIe 2.0 and USB 2.0, for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular modems and similar cards
- A 30-pin header with GPIO, I²C, I²S, SPI, CAN, ADC, PWM and USB 2.0
- A four-pin connector for a 5 V cooling fan
Compact Pico-ITX board
At 100 x 72 mm, Blade 3 follows the 2.5-inch Pico-ITX form factor. It ships with a heatsink installed, and the Blade 3 Case adds an aluminium enclosure with a fan.
Operating systems
Blade 3 runs Mixtile OS, Mixtile's official operating system for the board:
| Distribution | Editions |
|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | Server, Desktop (GNOME) |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | Server, Desktop (GNOME) |
| Debian 13 | Server, Desktop (GNOME) |
| Debian 12 | Server, Desktop (GNOME) |
Hardware video decoding and encoding and the NPU work out of the box, and the desktop edition uses the GPU for 3D graphics.
Other systems are also available for Blade 3:
| System | Suited to | Maintained by |
|---|---|---|
| OpenWrt | Routers, firewalls and network appliances, using the two 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports | Mixtile |
| Yocto | BSP work, hardware bring-up and system customization, with the mainline kernel | Mixtile |
| Talos Linux | Kubernetes clusters, as an experimental port based on Talos v1.7.4 | Mixtile |
| Armbian | Debian and Ubuntu from the Armbian project, with desktop and minimal editions | Armbian community |
For the status of each system, see Other Operating Systems.
Board Preview
Figure 1. Mixtile Blade 3
Figure 2. Connector layout
Along one edge are the two Ethernet ports, HDMI OUT above HDMI IN, and the two USB-C ports: USB0 for data, display and flashing, and USB1 for power. The U.2 edge connector runs along the opposite side. The microSD slot, the Mini PCIe socket, the 30-pin header, the debug UART and the boot switch are on the top face of the board.
Key Parameters
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| SoC | Rockchip RK3588 |
| CPU | Octa-core: 4 x Cortex-A76 and 4 x Cortex-A55 |
| GPU | Arm Mali-G610 MP4, with OpenGL and Vulkan |
| NPU | Up to 6 TOPS |
| Memory | 32 GB LPDDR4 |
| Storage | 256 GB eMMC, microSD slot (SD 3.0) |
| Display output | 1 x HDMI 2.1, up to 8K at 60 fps or 4K at 120 fps; 2 x DisplayPort 1.4 over USB-C, up to 8K at 30 fps |
| Display input | 1 x HDMI 2.0, up to 4K at 60 fps |
| Video decoding | H.265 and VP9, up to 8K at 60 fps |
| Video encoding | H.264 and H.265, up to 8K at 30 fps |
| Camera | 1 x MIPI-CSI, four lanes |
| Ethernet | 2 x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet |
| USB | 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C: USB0 with OTG, USB1 with power input |
| Expansion | U.2 edge connector with PCIe Gen3 x4, SATA 3.0 and 12 V input; Mini PCIe socket with PCIe 2.0 and USB 2.0; 30-pin header |
| Power input | USB PD 2.0 or 3.0 on USB1, up to 20 V at 3 A; or 12 V at 3 A through the U.2 connector |
| Operating temperature | 0 to 80 °C |
| Dimensions | 100 x 72 mm, Pico-ITX |
Documentation
Getting Started
4 items
System Usage
What Mixtile OS is, which edition to choose, and how to log in once it is installed.
Hardware Usage
6 items
Application Development
1 item
Low-Level Development
1 item
Other Operating Systems
3 items
Downloads
Download Mixtile OS images, Rockchip Flash Tool, other operating systems and hardware documents for Blade 3.
Accessories
The Blade 3 Case and the Blade 3 Breakout Board.