NanoPi M5 - image 1
FriendlyElec·sbc

NanoPi M5

Mid-range RK3576 SBC with 4x Cortex-A72 + 4x Cortex-A53 at 2.2GHz, up to 8GB RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet, M.2 NVMe, HDMI 4K, 6 TOPS NPU, MIPI-CSI/DSI, 30-pin GPIO, and USB-C PD in a compact 90×62mm form factor.

Starting from

$65.00

Compatible Firmware

Specifications

Components

Rockchip RK3576 with 4x Cortex-A72 at 2.2GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 at 2.0GHz, Mali-G52 MC3, 6 TOPS NPU, 8K decode.

Bus Interfaces

SPI
notes: 2x SPI via 30-pin GPIO
I2C
notes: 3x I2C via 30-pin GPIO
UART
notes: 4x UART via 30-pin GPIO + debug

GPIO Map

GPIO1
Digital I/O
digital-inputdigital-outputpwm
GPIO2
Digital I/O
digital-inputdigital-outputpwm
GPIO3
SPI/UART
digital-inputdigital-output
SPI
GPIO4
I2C/UART
digital-inputdigital-output
I2C

Overview

The NanoPi M5 is FriendlyElec's mid-range SBC based on the Rockchip RK3576, offering a compelling balance of performance and price. Its eight cores — four Cortex-A72 at 2.2GHz and four Cortex-A53 at 2.0GHz — deliver strong multi-threaded performance, while the 6 TOPS NPU handles AI inference workloads.

Available with 3GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4X/LPDDR5 RAM, the board features dual Gigabit Ethernet, M.2 NVMe via PCIe 2.1, HDMI output up to 4K@60Hz, dual MIPI-CSI camera inputs, MIPI-DSI display output, and a 30-pin GPIO header with SPI, UART, I2C, and PWM. USB-C PD power input supports 6-20V.

Running Ubuntu, Debian, FriendlyWrt, Android 14, OpenMediaVault, or Proxmox VE on a Linux 6.1 LTS kernel, the M5 is well-suited for home servers, media centers, AI edge devices, and network appliances.

Use Cases

3

Resources

Where to Buy

Explore more of the directory — popular use cases, firmware, and specs to browse next.