If you like low cost boards by Hardkernel such as ODROID-U3, but the add-ons required, and/or shipping costs put you off, an alternative will soon be available thanks to FriendlyARM NanoPC-T1, a tiny computer designed and manufactured by CoreWind Tech FriendlyARM Guangzhou, and powered by Samsung Exynos 4412 quad core Cortex A9 SoC with 1GB RAM, and 4GB built-in flash.
FriendlyARM NanoPC specifications:
- SoC – Samsung Exynos 4412 quad core Cortex-A9 @ 1.5GHz + Mali-400MP4 GPU
- System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM, 32bit data bus
- Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash + SD Card slot
- Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet (RJ45)
- Video Output – HDMI
- Audio – 3.5mm Audio Out jack
- USB – 1x micro USB OTG, 2x USB 2.0 host ports
- Expansions and I/Os:
- UART – 4 x TTL UART
- LCD – TFT LCD interface, support Capacitive/Resistive touch driver
- 2x Digital sensor input
- CMOS CAMERA Interface
- MIPI interface – Support HD Camera
- 30x GPIO
- Misc – 2x User keys, 2x User LEDs
- Power Supply – DC 5V/2A input
The company will provide support for Linux + Qt, Ubuntu 12.04, and Android 4.2.2, and the source code will be available in a DVD sent with the board.
Compared to ODROID-U3, NanoPC uses a slightly slower processor (Exynos 4412 vs Exynos 4412 Prime), has less RAM (1GB vs 2GB), only 2 USB ports (vs 3 for ODROID-U3), but it does come with 4GB eMMC (only eMMC socket for U3), has much more available I/Os, and the case is included in the price.
NanoPC will be available on the 25th of February 2014 for 399 CNY / $69.95 + shipping?. Accessories (PSU, Ethernet, Serial, and USB cables) and a Universal RS-232 adapter included free for the first orders. There’s no clear information yet about shipping cost, but checking on CoreWind eStore they have 4 shipping methods: DHL/Fedex ($36), EMS/Post Express ($16), ARAMEX ($31), and “pickup” charged via your courier account. So you may not save much compared to the $25 charged by Hardkernel. When I tried to order an existing board via Paypal it defaulted to $36 on FriendlyARM.
You may also find more information FriendlyARM NanoPC-T1 page, and pre-order via andahammer.com.
Thanks to Dave for the tip.
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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No IR receiver and remote control included or sold as option?
Modified from this?:
http://dx.com/p/204096
(which doesn’t have ethernet for some reason…)
how about video decoding in xbmc ?
@anis
I’ve just quickly tested the latest gotham nightly on my galaxy note 2, which is also an exynos 4412 (but at 1.6ghz) and video decoding seems to work fine (1080p, DTS audio, 10GB file, cpu use is at about 30-40% on each core). Looks promising to me.
@anis
ODROID-U3 has working XBMC with Samsung MFC hw decoder API
@jake
@m][sko
ok thank’s
hey guys look at this a device called tron same specs as nvidia shield that plays ps3 games
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/01/can-huaweis-android-console-play-ps3-games-chinese-media-thinks-so/
I doubt they could hold the $39 price if they spent the money on offering a bunch of options that usually don’t sell in high enough volume to cover their costs.
True, I’d love a SATA port with this, but I’d expect the whole deal to become a lot more expensive with that either built in or optional.
Future, we willl released a cheap NanoPC box base on Cortex-A8.
If they supported GeeXbox (Arm XBMC distro) that would be a nice addition, you NanoPC guys should consider selling a more expensive media edition with a USB RF remote bundled in running GeeXbox out of the box.
Would be the best performing off the shelf Arm XBMC box, easily beating the Raspberry Pi and Amlogic linux boxes like the Pivos XIOS.
Does it support Wake On Lan ?
It turns out armbest.com is not the official FriendlyARM page, and CoreWind is not the company behind FriendlyARM boards. The correct links are http://www.arm9.net (Guangzhou FriendlyARM Co., Ltd) and http://www.andahammer.com (Industrial ARMWorks) if you want to order from the US. The full list of resellers is available @ http://www.friendlyarm.net/sales.
The product name is actually NanoPC-T1, and the wiki and source on github are available to people who pre-order there.
The armbest.com and the http://www.andahammer.com is only our international distibutor.
Now, we have released the NanoPC Professional website, http://nanopc.org, future, we will release the nanopc-T2, Nanopc-T3 and so on.
The world price for NanoPC-T1 is as follow:
NanoPC-T1 without case: 67USD –> have begin to sell it
NanoPC-T1 with case: 69USD –> will sell it in 2014 March
More NanoPC details, see the FAQ in our website: http://nanopc.org/Support_FAQ.html
The NanoPC-T1 was different with our old development board, so we will sell it as the Raspberry PI
I’ll just drop a comment to explain there are two “groups” claiming ownership of the FriendlyARM brand, and NanoPC(-T1) represented by the websites:
* Group 1 – andahammer.com, arm9.net, friendlyarm.net, friendlyarm.us, and nanopc.us
and
* Group 2 – armbest.com, armdevs.com and nanopc.org owned by Corewind group
I’ve been told by the first group you may not be able to get 2 year warranty from the second group. and they are only supposed to sell in China. But that’s a claim the second group denies: http://www.friendlyarm.net/forum/topic/5723
For what it’s worth, a search for “friendlyarm” in Google returns friendlyarm.net and andammer.com first, followed by arm9.net a little lower.
There’s also friendlyarm.com, but this is a completely different hardware made by somebody in Thailand.
Let me to explain all the reason:
The FriendlyARM is only a team in china, they only develop the board base on the samsung, not sell it.
The distributor sell it in the world, more website is distributor.
USA distributor: http://www.andahammer.com or friendlyarm.us
German Distributor: friendlyarm.net
and more and more distributor in the world.
But it have one questions, the manual is chinese, it is difficult to understand by the international person.
So the Armbest.com tranlate the chinese to english and sold it.
off cause, we will translate the all nanopc manual to put it on the http://nanopc.org
So don’t talk about who own the NanoPC, the real development team was not online.
Let the customer to choose the best method for buying it.
It is my wrong.
The FriendlyARM(arm9.net) is the development team for the NanoPC, they provide chinese manual and english manual for the NanoPC.
Does anybody know where I can find a solid model (e.g. STP file) of the NanoPC-T1?
Android 5.0 ahs been ported to NanoPC T1. Image and source code @ http://nanopc.org/Support_Download.html