[Update: I’ve finally received an answer: Lemon Pi and RoseapplePi makers are different companies, but they just happen to both use the same Actions Semi S500 reference design, and RoseapplePi is manufactured in Taiwan. The picture above is V1.0 board, but V1.1 will have some modifications]
Lemon Pi development board was launched this May via a Indiegogo campaign. The board, based Actions Semi S500 quad core Cortex A9 processor, got fully funded by over 200 backers, but at the time of launch, some people questioned the used of the word “Lemon” in a product name, as it has several pejorative meanings, including “something that is useless or crappy”. I was contacted about a new Roseapple Pi board yesterday, and upon checking out the details, it looks exactly like the Lemon Pi, except it got upgraded to 2GB RAM, just like in Indiegogo…
The board name on the PCB also reads Actions_S500_V1.0 on both boards, so although I have yet to receive a confirmation, that means Roseapple Pi is either the new name of the Lemon Pi, or Lemon Pi makers cooperated with Roseapple Pi, unless a company went copy & paste in a big way…
Roseapple Pi specifications:
- SoC – Actions Semi S500 quad core Cortex A9 processor with 512KB L2 Cache and a PowerVR SGX544 GPU with OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0, OpenVG 1.0.1, and OpenCL support
- Memory – 2GB DDR3
- Storage – micro SD slot up to 64GB, 4MB SPI NOR flash. Option: 4 to 64GB eMMC 4.5 flash
- Video Output & Display I/F – HDMI 1.4 with HDCP, 3.5mm jack for composite output (shared with audio), MIPI DSI
- Audio – HDMI, 3.5mm jack for Line out & microphone
- Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, optional WiFi dongle with RTL8188ETV or RTL8188EUS
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x USB 3.0 port, 1x micro USB for power only
- Camera – MIPI CSI-2 interface
- Expansion Header
- 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible header with I2S, PCM, 16 GPIOs, UART, SPI, and I2C.
- 4-pin header for microphone, L/R audio, and IR
- Debugging – 4-pin UART header for serial console
- Misc – On/off, sleep/wake/reset, and ADFU (Actions Device Firmware Update) keys
- Power Supply – 5V/700mA via micro USB port- ACT260X PMIC and Audio codec chip
- Dimensions – 85 x 56 mm
Supported operating systems include Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, and Android 5.0/5.1. I’ve been informed source code and hardware files will be uploaded to xapp-le guthub account (there’s nothing there right now), and developers can get support via linux-xapple open source community (aka XApple) dedicated to Linux on Actions Semi processors and boards with Forums and a Wiki. XApple is said to stand for “Actions (represented by X) APplication Processors with Linux Embedded”.
There’s no price for Roseapple Pi board, but for reference Lemon Pi was $35 + shipping on Indiegogo, and it should be shipping soon since I’ve been asked to provide my address for a sample. A few more details can be found on Roseapple Pi website (Still work in progress).
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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