The first pcDuino board powered by AllWinner A10 has been available for about a year, later last year pcDuino V2 was released with a built-in Wi-Fi modules and mechanically and software compatible Arduino headers, and now pcDuino3 has been announced in a form factor similar to pcDuino V2 board but replacing AllWinner A10 Cortex A8 SoC with AllWinner A20 dual core Cortex A7, and improving overall specs such as faster Ethernet, the addition of a SATA port, and LiPo support.
pcDuino3 specifications:
- SoC – AllWinner A20 dual core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.0 GHz, with Mali 400MP2 GPU
- System Memory – 1GB DRAM
- Storage – 4GB NAND Flash, SATA connector, and microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
- Video Output – HDMI 1.4 with HDCP support, LVDS header
- Audio Out – 3.5mm analog audio interface, I2S stereo digital audio interface
- Connectivity – WiFi, 10/100M Ethernet
- USB – 1x USB host, 1x USB OTG
- Expansion Headers – Arduino UNO extension interface with 14xGPIO, 2xPWM, 6xADC, 1xUART, 1xSPI, 1xI2C.
- Camera – MIPI camera support
- Misc – IR receiver
- Power – 5V, 2000mA, support for Li-Po Battery
- Dimensions – 121mm x 65mm
The board also called “pcDuino Dual core” will come with support for Ubuntu 12.04 and Android 4.2, but you’ll be able to run any Linux distributions, with some caveats related to GPU and VPU support in Linux, although this may be fixed overtime thanks to work from linux-sunxi community.
The company also provides an API to control the signal available via the Arduino heders (UART, ADC, PWM, GPIO, I2C, SPI), and you should be able to use Arduino shields that are compatible with Arduino UNO.
The board is available now, and can be purchase starting from $77 via sites Linksprite or Sainsmart. Price may or may not include shipping depending on the destination. Price looks OK, as the specs place the board between Cubieboard2 ($59) and Cubietruck ($89) both featuring AllWinner A20 with a different set of hardware features. You can get more information on pcDuino.com, and more pictures and a pcDuino V2 vs pcDuino3 comparison tablet are also available on Sainsmart blog.
Via Liliputing
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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