ClockworkPi A-06 core (RK3399)
ClockworkPi's own RK3399 module — two Cortex-A72 plus four A53, Mali-T864, 4 GB — needs no adapter; $129, with a smaller but real software base.
What it takes
- Purchase required
- Disassembly
Difficulty 2 of 3 — moderate.
Details
The A-06 is the high-performance option in ClockworkPi's line-up: dual-core Cortex-A72 at 1.8 GHz, quad-core A53 at 1.4 GHz, Mali-T864, 4 GB LPDDR4, 200-pin SODIMM, 67 × 40 mm. Early buyers chose it over the CM4 for the GPU and emulation performance ('half a Raspberry Pi 4 together with a Raspberry Pi 3 and a dedicated GPU'), for big.LITTLE power behaviour, and because it can boot without binary blobs; the trade-offs raised in the same thread were no working sleep and a thinner software base.
OS options per the community directory: ClockworkOS v1.1e (Linux 5.15.119), Armbian 22.02, several Arch builds (css459, yatli, cuu, Autianic), a Manjaro image and a NixOS wiki guide. The core directory notes A-06 kernels may not support some newer panel revisions. crgimenes's log shows the apt upgrade path from v1.1e working, with a keyboard-mapping hiccup.
Links
Open at ClockworkPi — Core A-06Related mods
A CM5 drops into the CM4 adapter for a faster CPU, up to 16 GB of RAM and USB 3.0 — get a Lite with WiFi, update its EEPROM, and mind the heat.
Every CM4 or CM5 sits on an adapter in the CM3 socket: the $19 open-source original, HackerGadgets' $23 board with NVMe and USB 3.0, or lulu's $20 CM5 kit.
trinity's reference table of every compute core that fits the uConsole — ISA, RAM, eMMC, WiFi, OS support, adapter needed or not — plus the adapter boards.
An RK3588S module with up to 32 GB RAM on HackerGadgets' Radxa adapter: display, keyboard, USB and charging work, no onboard WiFi, mainline kernel since 2026.
A single-core 1 GHz RISC-V module with 1 GB and no GPU — a terminal machine with long battery life, now sold out, with a small but determined software scene.
The mainboard's socket is a CM3 socket, so a CM3, CM3+ or CM4S drops straight in; PotatoMania's kernel work made them usable and Rex's images support them.