Shenzhen Tomato has been selling Android TV boxes for a few years now, but one of their next product will be a development board based on Amlogic S905X processor with 8GB flash, 2GB RAM, and the usual 40-pin Raspberry Pi header.
SZTomato TVI development board specifications:
- SoC – Amlogic S905X quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz
- System Memory – 2GB DDR3 (1GB or less as option)
- Storage – 8GB Samsung eMMC flash (other capacities as option) + micro SD slot
- Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz
- Connectivity – Fast Ethernet port, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 (Ampak AP6212) with IPEX connector
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports with 500mA fuses, 1x USB type C port for power and USB devices (no video)
- Expansion header – 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible header with USB, UART, I2C, ADC, PWM, JTAG, I2S, and GPIOs
- Misc -Blue & red LED, dual channel IR, power/function/reset keys, header for RTC battery
- Power Supply – 5V via USB type C or extra header with 2.5A fuse
- Dimensions – 82.0 x 57.5 x 11.5 mm
The company will provide support for Android 6.0, OpenELEC 7.0 and Ubuntu 16.04, and source code will be provided to customers.
The bad news is that the board will only be sold to companies purchasing in volume, not to hobbyists. The company told me they already have engineering samples, and accept order from OEM/ODM customers. Price has not been disclosed publicly, but I’m guessing it should probably be around $40 or less. [Update 24/08/2016: More info can now be found on TVi product page. They have four versions: TVi, TVi Lite, TVim and TGVim with different memory, storage, and wireless configurations]
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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Will that Ubuntu be 32- or 64-bit?
And is the kernel mainline, or is it hand-picked copy-and-forget software?
If 64-bit and mainline, then I hope there will be a reseller, so that I can buy one.
Would have been great if the thing was Pi sized and could re-use Pi cases… Still good specs…
Oops, that is the sound of inevitability, Mr. O’Droid.
Someone ought to get a purchase block of about 1000 or so units together for companies like this…
There is support for many amlogic SOCs in the current source code of libreelec so people you don’t need a dev board to start with, and fast Ethernet hmm …NO thank you.
No, nope, not at all. I’d rather have a sensible port layout than reuse a $10 case (which I’d probably keep using for an RPi anyway)
OpenELEC is DEAD! Anyone claiming to have support for OpenELEC 7 is a big fat liar!!
There hasn’t been a new commit to the OpenELEC github repository in over 3 months, and OpenELEC still hasn’t released (and probably never will release) a final OpenELEC 7 build based on Kodi 16 – the only available version of OpenELEC 7 is actually a BETA release (and Kodi 16 is no longer actively developed, OpenELEC release cycles are that slow!) so it makes me laugh when this manufacturer claims to have support of/for an unreleased and unfinished distribution! Nobody has seen or heard from the sole remaining OpenELEC developer (the project owner) in months. This lack of communication, and these interminable release delays, are the main reasons why ALL of the developers (apart from the project owner) quit the OpenELEC project as the project owner has been asleep at the wheel for many months and refused to delegate the control that would have allowed the project to move forwards. I guess he thought he could do it all on his own, but looks like he was wrong. Eventually OpenELEC users will realize they’ve been abandoned.
The future for OpenELEC is now LibreELEC, as this is where all of the old OpenELEC developers can be found, and they’ve been very busy without the millstone that was the OpenELEC project owner. Official LibreELEC 7 release builds based on Kodi 16 were made available a couple of months ago (fully supporting upgrades from OpenELEC – just drop the LibreELEC upgrade tar file in the Update folder and reboot) and LibreELEC 8 Alpha builds (based on Kodi 17 alpha) have been available for the last month, with a first beta coming just as soon as Kodi 17 Beta1 is tagged.
All of the existing OpenELEC platforms are supported by LibreELEC, along with official support for new platforms such as Odroid C2 and WeTek Hub.
@Frank: you seems to missed yesterday’s activity on OpenELEC github 😉
@Peter
@Peter: Nothing in the main OpenELEC.tv repository though, just a handful of commits out-of-the-blue to the various affiliated firmware repositories.
The repeated absences of the sole remaining developer, impossibly long delays between releases (of a supposedly “bleeding edge distribution”, a description that becomes ever more laughable with each passing day) and complete lack of communication/news must still surely serve as an enormous red flag for this project and it’s unreliable stewardship. If it’s not dead, it’s certainly on life support and there are now much better project managed options/alternatives available.
I think at some point it’s only fair to inform existing OpenELEC users of the possibility they’ve been abandoned as it may take a while before they realise they’ve not had any updates for a very long time!
@Frank
OpenELEC is not dead, but they only have a couple developers left which are practically bought by WeTek, so any development for anything other for WeTek devices, unless they can kust copy the code from LibreELEC for other devices.
@Harley
I download both the LibreELEC and OpenELEC, and build both of them at the branch 7.0 for the imx6 and rpi3, but the OpenELEC is now working(reboot again and again), the LibreELEC works fine.