iPPea Inc announced iPPea TV, an Android 4.0 dongle based on Ingenic JZ4770 MIPS SoC that “brings the ‘smart’ Android experience to any HDMI-enabled DTV for $50 US”. This is the first MIPS based Android mini PC that I’ve seem among all the ARM based floating around.
Here are iPPea TV specifications:
- Ingenic JZ4770 applications processor (MIPS-Based XBurst CPU) @ 1.2 GHz.
- 2GB storage with support for up to 32 GB external storage via a microSD slot.
- 512 MB of DDR2 RAM
- HDMI ouput (up to 1080p)
- 802.11b/g/n Wifi
- USB 2.0 port and micro USB 2.0 OTG port
- Video format – AVI,MKV(XVID/px/H.264),MOV,TS,M2TS, RM/RMVB,FLV,3GP,MPEG,DAT,MP4
- Audio format – AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI, M4A
- Picture format – GIF, BMP, JPEG, PNG
- Ebook format: PDF,EPUB,HTML,TXT
- Dimensions – PCB: 80 mm x 20mm x 6.5 mm | mini PC: As small as 95.5 mm x 31.5 mm x 12 mm.
- iPPea TV Dongle is said to draw only 350mA. .
- Android 4.0.3
The device also support 1080p video decoding. You can see the board PCBA in the video below, and watch it in action.
The company claims it will offer OTA upgrade to the device, but I suppose like many other mini PCs (excluding AllWinner A10) you’ll only be able to run Android on it. Oh Wait… They have a developer kit page… oh well, it’s an empty forum for now.. But if you browse further you’ll also see forum sections for programming, and an “operating systems” section with Debian, Android and Linux kernel sub-forums, as well as a “projects” sections. All are empty for now, but there may be some potential here. If Linux is going to run on iPPea TV, the easiest is to use a distribution that supports MIPS, which is probably why they plan support for Debian, but not Ubuntu.
If you wonder about the performance, it’s using the same SoC as Ainol Novo 7 tablet which appears equivalent to AllWinner a10 tablets on several benchmarks (e.g. Antutu: 2816 to 3000).
iPPea TV can be pre-ordered on iPPea eStore for $50 + $15 shipping (worldwide) and is expected to ship by the end of July. The package also includes a USB power cable and a micro USB to USB cable. They also have optional accessories such as a 3D + gyro wireless key mouse ($22), a USB RJ45 LAN adaptor ($12), an HDMI extension cable ($8) and a 360 degree HDMI connector ($8).
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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