Following the steps of the $74 Android 4.0 mini PC (MK802), a couple more ARM based mini PCs have shown up, including Shenzhen Kimdecent Technology Droid Stick KVD-13 powered by a Renesas processor based on Cortex A9 with a PowerVR SGX530 GPU (possibly Renesas NEC EV2 processor), featuring 512 MB RAM, 4GB Flash and running Android 2.3.
The good thing with this mini PC is that the HDMI connector is of the right gender: male. No offense to HDMI female connectors ;), but for this type of device, it’s just neat to plug it directly into the TV/monitor HDMI connector.
Here are the device specifications:
|
CPU |
Renesas Cortex-A9 Dual Core Processor @ 1GHz with PowerVG SGX530 GPU |
|
System Memory |
512MB DDR3 |
|
Storage |
4GB NAND Flash |
|
Connectivity |
WiFi 802.11b/g/n |
| USB Ports |
1x USB 2.0 Host |
|
Video Output |
1x HDMI 1.4 (Up to 1080p) |
|
Video Codecs and Containers |
Codec: MPEG1/2/4, H.264, VC-1, Divx, Xvid, RM8/9/10, VP6 |
|
Audio Codecs and Containers |
Codecs: DTS, AC3, LPCM, FLAC, HE-AAC |
|
Picture Format |
JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF |
| Remote Control | Support IR Wireless control |
|
Power |
90-230V,50/60Hz input, max. power: 30W, Output: 5V/2A |
|
Dimensions |
90*40*10mm |
|
Net Weight |
25g or 38g (depending where you read…) |
The Droid Stick KVD-13 also comes with a standard power supply, an HDMI cable, a dual USB cable (USB A to USB A + micro USB) and a user manual in English (or most probably in Chinglish).
This device appears to have better hardware specifications than the MK802 but if it’s effectively the Renesas NEC EV2 it’s clocked at 533 MHz. For some reasons, it has almost become a tradition in the web to show this dual core processor as a 1GHz processor by simply multiplying the frequency on one core (533 Mhz) by 2, and there you go… you’ve got a 1 GHz processor! If that’s the case, the MK802 based on AllWinner A10 Cortex A8 processor @ 1.5 GHz might actually have a better performance.
This HDMI dongle currently runs Android 2.3, but ffxx68 (user in XDA developer forums) is doing some work on the Renesas NEC EV2 and Android AOSP (gingerbread), the kernel and the bootloader source code is available. This means it should still be possible to run Android 4.0 or Ubuntu on the device, but it would require more efforts than with AllWinner A10 devices where (alpha) Linux images are already available.
The Droid Stick KVD-13 is available for $83 USD on Aliexpress, excluding shipping costs which depend on the destination country. For example, the cheapest price to the US including shipping via iParcel is 90.87 USD.
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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Android mini-PC a un grand fonction
Another low cost mini pc based on Rockchip RK2908:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Android-4-0-Smart-Internet-TV-Box-Dongle-1080P-Mini-PC-HDMI-WIFI-USB-1-2G-RK2908-/221122188120?pt=US_Cable_TV_Boxes&hash=item337be8d358
Still price-wise nothing can beat the $35 / EUR35 Raspberry Pi for ARM/Linux experiments.
But this device is designed for other purpose – to make your casual TV a SmartTV.
@A. Genchev
FYI, you can know get an ARM11 device for $34 including shipping, $40 Cortex A8 and $50 dual core Cortex A9 devices, also including shipping.
http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/11/03/rockchip-rk3066-ug802-mini-pc-is-now-available-for-just-46-50/
However, it’s not as hacker friendly as the R-Pi because of the lack of GPIO and the ARM11 and cortex A9 devices mentioned in the link above have currently very poor Linux support.