Allwinner T113 vs RK3566 vs RK3588 Linux Bring-Up Checklist

Pick RK3588 for a 7-inch button panel and you just added $40 BOM + heatsink for nothing. Pick T113 for dual HDMI and you re-spin in month three. We see both mistakes every quarter.

For display and gateway products we pick from three: Allwinner T113-S3 for small HMI, Rockchip RK3566 for single-display panels and gateways, RK3588 for multi-camera and edge AI. RK3566 is quad A55 with Mali-G52. RK3588 is quad A76 plus quad A55 with Mali-G610 and 6 TOPS NPU. Vendor BSPs sit on Linux 5.10 or 6.1. RK3566 also has decent mainline support.

TL;DR: 5-7 inch LVDS/MIPI, no AI -> T113-S3. 10 inch + Ethernet + single display -> RK3566. Dual HDMI / 8K / NPU / cameras -> RK3588. eMMC always, mask-ROM button + UART on every rev.

Spec table: what you actually get

Item	T113-S3	RK3566	RK3588/S
CPU	2x A7 + HiFi4 DSP, SiP 64-128 MB DDR3	4x A55	4x A76 2.4 GHz + 4x A55 1.8 GHz, 8 nm
GPU	No 3D, G2D + DE 1080p60	Mali-G52 2EE, OpenGL/Vulkan	Mali-G610 MP4, Vulkan 1.2 / OpenCL 2.0
NPU	None	1 TOPS	6 TOPS triple-core
Video	H.265/H.264 1080p60, JPEG encode	4Kp60 decode, 1080p60 encode, 8M ISP	8K60 decode (H.265/VP9/AV1), 8K30 encode
Display	RGB/LVDS/MIPI-DSI 1080p, CVBS, dual-display	HDMI 2.0a / eDP / MIPI / LVDS / RGB, single	2x HDMI 2.1/eDP + 2x DP via USB-C + 2x MIPI, 8K
DRAM	SiP DDR3, no layout pain	External LPDDR4/DDR4, needs training	4-ch LPDDR4/X/5 to 32 GB
Storage	SD3.0 / eMMC5.0 / SPI NAND	eMMC / SD / SATA + PCIe2.1 + USB3	eMMC5.1 / NVMe PCIe3 x4 / SATA / USB3.1
Net	1x GbE, 2x USB2, 2x CAN	GigE, USB3, PCIe, SATA	2x GbE, 2x USB3.1 Type-C, PCIe3

Sources: Allwinner T113, RK3566, RK3588.

T113-S3 fits 5 to 7 inch LCD with Linux and fast boot. RK3566 fits 10 inch touch, Ethernet, LVDS or MIPI and Android or Debian. RK3588 fits dual HDMI, 8K decode and NPU work. Do not put RK3588 where T113 is enough. The PMIC and DRAM cost alone kills the budget.

Pick by display and power

T113-S3: 128 MB SiP DDR3 means no DRAM layout, eLQFP128 hand-solderable, Tina Linux 5.4 BSP. Best for cost-sensitive HMI with RGB/LVDS/MIPI to 1080p, CAN + GbE gateway. No 3D — use LVGL/Qt with G2D, not Chromium animations. See linux-sunxi family.
RK3566: Sweet spot for Linux panel + gateway. Mali-G52 runs Debian/Buildroot with GPU accel, 1 TOPS NPU for light vision. Single display only — do not promise dual.
RK3588: When you need cameras (48 MP ISP), 8K, dual display, or 6 TOPS NPU. Needs dual RK806 PMIC, 4-ch LPDDR, heatsink, 6+ layer. If you do not need NPU/cameras, it is just heat and cost vs RK3566.

If you need real-time control next to Linux, split it to MCU like in our RP2350 + CM5 industrial guide — same idea applies to RK + STM32.

Cost math: where T113 still wins in 2026

A 7-inch LVGL HMI on T113-S3 lands around 60-70% of the BOM of the same panel on RK3566, mostly from PCN PMIC + LPDDR4 + 4-layer vs the SiP DRAM + 2-layer-friendly T113 layout. The gap widens at volume because T113 SiP DDR3 needs no DRAM training bits in your test fixture, so factory test time drops too.

Where the math flips:

Browser UI, OTA Debian images, or camera later -> RK3566 minimum.
More than one display or any AI -> RK3588, and price in the heatsink + housing airflow at design, not after.
Battery-powered or sub-5 V products -> neither is great out of the box; budget a dedicated buck for the SoC rail.

For a CAN/Modbus gateway with a small screen, we keep shipping T113-S3 + SiP flash parts alongside our STM8 to STM32C0 migration work — the same legacy-part logic applies to HMI SoCs: pick the part you can still buy in ten years.

BSP vs mainline: kernel expiry matters

T113-S3 BSP: Tina Linux, sun8iw20p1, kernel 5.4, U-Boot 2018. Vendor-supported only. Mainline since ~6.4 + U-Boot 2024.01, but expect display/audio/VPU gaps — verify per-board DTS. Track at mainlining effort.
RK3566/3588 BSP: legacy 5.10 -> current vendor 6.1 (rockchip-linux/kernel develop-6.1, Armbian 6.1-rkr). Armbian deprecated 5.10-legacy for RK3588 in 2024. U-Boot from rockchip-linux/u-boot + rkbin BL31/OP-TEE.
Mainline: improving on 6.6/6.12/7.x with Panfrost/Panthor, but ISP/VENC/NPU stay largely BSP-only. Do not claim parity.

Check kernel.org releases: 5.10 EOL Dec 2026, 6.1 EOL Dec 2027. Shipping new product on 5.10 today means BSP expiry within a year. Prefer 6.1 vendor SDK and budget a rebase path. Armbian context: 26.08 release.

Bring-up order that saves weeks

Power, DRAM, SPL, U-Boot, kernel. Check PMIC rails with a scope before touching software. LPDDR4 training fails first when layout or supply is wrong. eMMC beats SD for field units. Keep a mask-ROM button and a serial header on every rev.

5 V in -> PMIC sequence -> 32 kHz + 24 MHz -> DRAM init
-> SPL loads U-Boot -> eMMC boot -> kernel DT

Per-SoC:

T113-S3: BROM -> FEL (USB) / SD / eMMC / SPI NAND. SiP DDR skips external training — DDR params in SPL. SMHC2 eMMC5.0 for product.
RK3566: MaskROM -> TPL/SPL DDR init -> idbloader -> TF-A BL31 + OP-TEE -> U-Boot -> kernel. Common PMIC RK809/RK817 family on EVBs (board-specific). Recovery via USB OTG MaskROM.
RK3588: MaskROM -> idbloader (TPL+DDR+SPL) -> TF-A/OP-TEE from rkbin -> U-Boot.itb. Official EVB uses dual RK806-2 + LPDDR4X + eMMC. Same MaskROM/upgrade-tool flow.

Device tree owns most bugs. One wrong pinctrl for LCD reset or backlight PWM and the panel stays dark while Linux is fine. Diff working EVB DTS vs yours line by line: pinctrl, regulator-min-uV, backlight, panel-timing, dsi-lanes.

Fast-boot tip for T113 HMI: SPL + U-Boot Falcon mode, quiet kernel, LVGL directly on fbdev — 2-3 s to UI is realistic. Debian + Chromium on RK3588 will never do that; budget 12-20 s.

Hardware checklist

PMIC sequence + 24 MHz + 32 kHz scoped at power-on.
LPDDR4 length/impedance per vendor guide; run DRAM test in SPL before kernel.
eMMC 8-bit + strobe routed, not SD for field.
Mask-ROM button + UART2 + USB OTG accessible without disassembly.
Display: reset, PWM, power-enable delays per panel datasheet — 90% of black-screen bugs.
Thermal: RK3588 heatsink + airflow from day one; T113 can be passive.

FAQ

T113 or RK3566 for 7-inch HMI with Ethernet? T113 if UI is LVGL/Qt static + CAN + low cost. RK3566 if browser, OTA Debian, or future camera.

Can I use mainline for RK3588 NPU? No for product. NPU/ISP/VENC need vendor 6.1 BSP. Mainline for headless gateway only.

SD or eMMC? eMMC for anything that ships. SD for dev only — vibration + power-cut corrupt SD.

Why does DRAM training fail? Supply droop, wrong drive strength, or length mismatch. Scope VDD_LOG + run vendor DRAM tool at 3 corners before touching kernel.

References

Allwinner T113 — https://www.allwinnertech.com/index.php?c=product&a=index&id=106
RK3566 — https://www.rock-chips.com/a/en/products/RK35_Series/2021/0113/1274.html
RK3588 — https://www.rock-chips.com/a/en/products/RK35_Series/2022/0926/1660.html
Kernel releases — https://www.kernel.org/category/releases.html
linux-sunxi family — https://linux-sunxi.org/Allwinner_SoC_Family
Mainlining effort — https://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort
Armbian 26.08 — https://docs.armbian.com/releases/26.8

Send us your display datasheet and interface list. We reply with a SoC pick and a bring-up plan.