Forlinx UP4 Packs Five Different SoCs Into a 40×40 mm Pin-Compatible System-on-Module

A Pin-Compatible SoM Family That Spans Three Silicon Vendors

Forlinx Embedded unveiled the UP4 system-on-module family on April 30, 2026 — a fresh take on the multi-SoC pin-compatible SoM concept that lets a single carrier board accept any of five different processors from NXP, Rockchip, and Allwinner. For embedded engineers, industrial automation designers, edge AI developers, and the broader maker and SBC community evaluating SoM platforms for new builds, this is one of the more interesting hardware launches to land in spring 2026.

Pin-compatible SoM families have been one of the quieter but more important embedded hardware trends of the past several years. The classic pain point in industrial design is that selecting a specific processor early in the project locks the carrier board to that processor's electrical and pinout requirements, and a later switch to a different SoC requires a full board respin. The UP4 family directly addresses that by exposing 487 pins through a hybrid LCC (Leadless Chip Carrier) and LGA (Land Grid Array) connector with 1.0 mm contact pitch and 1.27 mm ball pitch, and committing all five processor variants to that same footprint.

The Five UP4 Variants

The processor lineup is impressively broad for a 40×40 mm SoM family. The FET-MX9352-UP4 carries the NXP i.MX 9352 with two Cortex-A55 cores at up to 1.7 GHz, a Cortex-M33 real-time core at 250 MHz, and a 0.5 TOPS Arm Ethos U65 microNPU — the industrial-process control variant of the family. The FET3568-UP4 features the Rockchip RK3568B2/J with four Cortex-A55 cores up to 2.0/1.8 GHz, an Arm Mali-G52 MP2 GPU, and a 1 TOPS NPU — the high-performance edge AI variant.

The FET3562J-UP4 carries the Rockchip RK3562J with four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.8 GHz, a Mali-G52-2EE GPU, and a 1 TOPS NPU — targeted specifically at industrial AI vision applications. The FET527N-UP4 brings the Allwinner T527N — an eight-core mixed cluster with up to 1.8/1.4 GHz operating frequencies — alongside a Mali G57 MC1 GPU and a 2 TOPS NPU. And the FET536-UP4 carries the Allwinner T536 with four Cortex-A55 cores at 1.6 GHz and a 2 TOPS NPU for cost-optimized edge AI builds.

The memory and storage envelope scales with the processor tier. The Rockchip RK3568 variant supports up to 8 GB LPDDR4X paired with up to 64 GB eMMC, the Allwinner T527N variant supports up to 4 GB LPDDR4 with 32 GB eMMC, and the lower-cost variants ship with appropriately tighter memory budgets. The connectivity envelope is uniformly generous: up to two Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, two USB 3.0 plus two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI 2.0, MIPI DSI/CSI, and up to two PCIe lanes depending on the processor.

Why the Pin-Compatible Design Matters

For industrial product designers, the UP4 family's pin-compatibility is the standout architectural decision. A single carrier board design can be qualified once, certified once, and shipped to multiple end customers with different processor selections — an industrial-economics win that is hard to replicate with single-SoC SoM designs. The 487-pin LCC + LGA footprint is also engineered for thermal stability across the full -40°C to +85°C industrial operating range, which directly supports outdoor and harsh-environment deployment.

The hybrid LCC + LGA connector design itself deserves a callout. LCC connectors offer the manufacturing simplicity of leadless edge contacts, and LGA connectors provide the dense pin count and signal integrity that modern SoCs require. Combining both in a single 487-pin footprint gives the UP4 family the manufacturing economics of a large SoM with the pin-density flexibility of a smaller form factor. That combination is what makes the multi-SoC variant strategy electrically and mechanically credible.

The Software and Operating System Story

Software support across the UP4 family is one of the cleaner stories for an industrial SoM launch. Forlinx is shipping Linux 6.1.36 with Qt 6.5.0 for the NXP i.MX 9352 variant, Linux 5.10.160 with Qt 5.15.8 for the RK3568 variant, and similar combinations for the other variants. The Linux kernel coverage spans from 5.10.198 to 6.1.36 depending on the processor, which gives designers the flexibility to align with their preferred kernel base.

For the maker and embedded community more broadly, the UP4 family fits into the broader spring 2026 industrial single board computer story alongside the recent Banana Pi BPI-SM10, the Raspberry Pi CM0 reaching hobbyists on AliExpress, the ESP32-C5 Mini, and the M5Stack Cardputer Mesh Kit. The shared theme across these landings is that the embedded hardware ecosystem continues to expand the range of options available at every price point and feature level — and the multi-SoC pin-compatible SoM strategy is one of the more sophisticated takes on that expansion.

Industrial Applications and Target Use Cases

Forlinx is positioning the FET-MX9352-UP4 specifically for industrial process control, the FET3568-UP4 for high-performance edge AI, the FET3562J-UP4 for industrial AI vision, the FET527N-UP4 for higher-tier multi-core industrial workloads, and the FET536-UP4 for cost-optimized edge AI. The variant alignment is clean — each processor's strengths align with a specific industrial use case, and the shared pin-compatible carrier board lets a single design serve multiple vertical markets.

For embedded engineers evaluating the UP4 family for new industrial builds, the practical posture is straightforward. The 40×40 mm pin-compatible footprint, the five-processor coverage, the wide industrial temperature range, the strong I/O envelope, and the diverse Linux software support combine to make the UP4 family one of the more flexible mid-2026 industrial SoM options. For anyone designing a single carrier board that needs to span multiple performance points or industrial vertical markets, the UP4 family is worth a careful evaluation.

Sources: CNX Software Forlinx UP4 Coverage (April 30, 2026), Forlinx Embedded UP4 Product Documentation (April 30, 2026), Tux Machines Forlinx UP4 Coverage (April 30, 2026)