Dshan Pi (or Dongshan Pi, depending on where you look) have released the DShanPi A1, an RK3576-based board that comes with a feature you don’t see too often on single board computers, an HDMI input port. Paired with dual Gigabit Ethernet, a 6 TOPS NPU, and a 40-pin GPIO header, it’s positioned as an AI and education-focused dev board, though at its price point it’s going to need to justify itself against some stiff competition. I’ve already got the 4GB model benchmarked over on sbc.compare, so let’s take a look at what it’s packing.
Table of Contents
HDMI Input?
Whilst not a completely unique offering, the DShanPi A1 has a Micro HDMI input port (full-size HDMI would be lovelier but I understand why it’s Micro HDMI..) powered by a Rockchip RK628D chip, which means it can function as a video capture device. This is still quite unusual on an SBC at this price point and opens the door for things like KVM-over-IP setups, video streaming appliances, or even using it as a capture card for another machine. Pair that with the dual 4-lane MIPI CSI connectors (supporting up to four cameras) and you’ve got a board that’s geared towards video work in a way most SBCs aren’t. Assuming everything is supported as you want it!
On the output side, you’re getting HDMI 2.1 at up to 4Kp120, a 4-lane MIPI DSI connector, and DisplayPort Alt mode via the USB-C port. That’s a decent spread of display options.
DShanPi A1 Specifications
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| SoC | Rockchip RK3576 |
| CPU | 4x Cortex-A72 @ 2.2GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 @ 2.0GHz |
| GPU | Mali-G52 MC3 (OpenGL ES, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.2) |
| NPU | 6 TOPS (INT8) — supports INT4, INT8, INT16, BF16, TF32 |
| RAM | 2GB / 4GB / 6GB / 8GB LPDDR4 |
| Storage | microSD + optional 32GB or 64GB eMMC |
| Video Out | HDMI 2.1 (4Kp120) + MIPI DSI + USB-C DP Alt |
| Video In | Micro HDMI input (RK628D) + 2x 4-lane MIPI CSI |
| Network | 2x Gigabit Ethernet + optional WiFi/BT via M.2 |
| USB | 2x USB 3.0 Type-A + USB-C OTG |
| GPIO | 40-pin (mostly Raspberry Pi compatible) |
| Audio | 3.5mm audio jack |
| Power | USB PD via USB-C |
| Dimensions | 97 x 77mm |
RK3576 vs RK3588: How Does It Stack Up?
The RK3576 is a step down from the RK3588 that we’ve seen in boards like the Orange Pi 5 Plus and Radxa ROCK 5B, but it’s a different class of chip aimed at a different price bracket. I’ve had the 4GB DShanPi A1 on the bench and you can see the full comparison against the Orange Pi 5 Plus on sbc.compare, but here are the quick highlights:
| Benchmark | Orange Pi 5 Plus (8GB) | DShanPi A1 (4GB) |
|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 (SC / MC) | 863 / 3,117 | 336 / 1,446 |
| 7-Zip (SC / MC) | 3,134 / 16,584 MIPS | 1,813 / 11,926 MIPS |
| Linpack | 46.07 GFLOPS | 21.53 GFLOPS |
| PassMark CPU | 3,211 | 2,224 |
| Idle / Load Power | 2.8W / 7.5W | 1.9W / 5.4W |
| Linpack Per Watt | 2.93 GFLOPS/W | 2.79 GFLOPS/W |
It should be noted that the Orange Pi 5 Plus I tested was the 8GB model and has 2.5GbE networking, so the RAM and network figures aren’t a like-for-like comparison. On the CPU side though, you can see the RK3588‘s A76 cores pulling well ahead in single-core workloads whilst the multi-core gap narrows a bit thanks to the DShan Pi‘s eight cores all contributing. The RK3576 roughly lands at around 45-70% of the RK3588’s performance depending on the test, which given the price difference is about what you’d expect.
Where the DShanPi A1 does well is on power efficiency. Idling at 1.9W and peaking at 7.7W. The per-watt performance is comparable to the Orange Pi 5 Plus despite the raw numbers being lower.
Thoughts
I like the feature set here. The HDMI input alone makes the DShanPi A1 stand out from the growing crowd of Rockchip-based SBCs, and the dual Gigabit Ethernet combined with low power consumption makes it an interesting candidate for network appliance duties.
On the software side, DShan are listing support for Armbian (contributed to and managed themselves!), Buildroot, OpenWrt, ArchLinux, OpenEuler, and Fedora, along with tutorials covering OpenCV, DeepSeek-R1, Qt5, and ROS2. That’s a promising start, though as with most Rockchip-based boards, the long-term kernel and driver support is going to be the deciding factor. If you’ve read any of my previous Rockchip reviews, you’ll know how I feel about the state of vendor kernels and BSPs, and whilst the RK3576 is a newer chip, the same concerns apply until mainline support catches up. That said, Collabora did have good news about the video decoders just a few days ago for these 2 SoCs so maybe things are looking up?
If you’re after a board specifically for video capture, basic AI tinkering, or as a dual-NIC network appliance, it’s worth a look. For general-purpose SBC use, the competition at this price point is fierce. That’s just me though, feel free to let me know what you think!
