The Evolution of SBCs: From Hobby Boards to Edge ComputingOver the past two decades, single-board computers (SBCs) have transformed from experimental maker tools into the backbone of modern embedded and edge systems. What started as a handful of affordable hobby boards has grown into a diverse ecosystem powering automation, AI, and connected infrastructure around the world. From Prototypes to PossibilityEarly SBCs were humble experiments — small circuit boards combining processor, memory, and I/O on one platform. For years they lived quietly inside industrial machines and educational kits. The real turning point came in the early 2010s with boards like the Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, and Cubieboard, which brought Linux to the maker community at a scale and price that anyone could access. These boards opened the floodgates for innovation. Suddenly, home labs, classrooms, and startups could prototype full Linux systems for the cost of a dinner. The appeal wasn’t just price — it was openness, GPIO access, and a thriving community that treated hardware as something to explore, not just consume. The Rise of a Global EcosystemAs demand grew, more vendors entered the field: Orange Pi, FriendlyElec, Radxa, and dozens of others expanded on the idea, each offering faster SoCs, more memory, and better I/O. Modern SBCs can now host NVMe storage, multiple displays, gigabit networking, and dedicated NPUs for AI workloads — features once reserved for full desktops or servers. They power digital signage, smart gateways, home servers, and even small AI clusters. Developers began caring not just about hardware specs, but also kernel stability, upstream drivers, and long-term support — exactly where Armbian excels. What’s NextLooking ahead, the direction is clear: AI acceleration everywhere – NPUs and neural engines are becoming standard on SBCs.Unified software stacks – Containers, orchestration tools, and reproducible builds are reaching the edge.Energy-aware computing – Solar and battery-powered deployments highlight the need for lean, resilient systems.Armbian’s role in this landscape is to provide the stable software foundation that ties it all together — open, optimized, and reliable across dozens of architectures. In SummarySBCs have grown up. They are no longer just learning tools or proof-of-concept boards — they are the quiet engines running modern infrastructure at the edge. Armbian sits at the heart of that transformation, helping these devices boot faster, run cleaner, and stay useful long after their first flash. The evolution of the SBC mirrors the story of open computing itself: innovation born from community effort, refined through shared knowledge, and extended by software that stays light enough to go anywhere. View the full article

@robertoj Hello. I was able to get some DuPont wires and test them directly without soldering. The result was zero. I tried using ChatGPT to get it working.He suggests that my display isn't initializing. In some cases, it's either that the reset isn't working, or that the frequency is too high for a Chinese display. I tried using fbtft, but the result was zero. I followed your configuration and pinout. Are there any steps I might have missed?

@robertoj Could you post a step-by-step guide on setting up the Chinese ili9488 screen on a red board and OrangePi Zero 3? I think this forum will receive many thanks for your work.

Thanks, but I cannot run rk322x-config (or can I without being fully booted?). I suppose I can try in overlays=... line in /boot/armbianEnv.txt, but what should I write here?

hello @digital, in some rare cases there are some minor trickeries to try and improve compatibility with eMMC. If you run rk322x-config, there is a panel dedicated to eMMC which allows you to select some compatiblity options, like emmc-pins and DDR/UHS modes. You may try first enabling emmc-pins and rebooting to see if it gets recognized. Anyway photos of the board and the original stock device tree could be useful to identify the compatibility problem.