Rikomagic announced their MK902II mini PC based on Rockchip RK3288 in May, and which has started shipping recently for about $130. The company have now announced MK902II LE (Linux Edition) based on the same hardware, but instead of running Android 4.4, it’s running Xubuntu 14.04 with some virtualization technique that allows it to run x86 Linux programs such as Skype, and it can even support Wine to run Windows programs.
MK902II LE specifications:
- SoC – Rockchip RK3288 Quad Core Cortex A12/A17 up to 1.8GHz with ARM Mali-T764 GPU supporting OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0, Open VG1.1, OpenCL, DirectX11
- System Memory – 2GB (Dual channel 64 bit DRAM controller)
- Storage – 16GB Internal eMMC with Xubuntu 14.04 preinstalled + micro SD card slot
- Video Output- HDMI (1080p), and AV output
- Audio Output – HDMI, AV output, optical output, or external USB audio card (not included)
- Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi.
- USB – 4x USB Host ports
- Misc – IR sensor, recovery switch.
- Power Supply – 5V/2A
- Power Consumption – 2 to 5 Watts (Typical)
The device comes with an IR remote control, a USB cable for firmware updates, an HDMI cable, and a power adapter. The system is also said to boot to Xubuntu within 6 seconds. A native Linux kernel compilation takes about 10 minutes on this machine.
A video has been uploaded with the system, mostly showing web browsing experience, including playing a video from BBC iPlayer which is OK in embedded mode, but does not look so good in full screen (tearing) because there’s no video hardware acceleration in Linux, and everything is handled by software.
There are also two other videos showing a one way video call with Skype (no camera connected to MK902II LE), and Microsoft Office Word Viewer running in the device via Wine. Performance is not that great but it works.
You can access these other videos, and purchase MK902II LE on Cloudsto for 114.99 GBP including shipping. That’s about $190, or $60 more than the Android version however, but maybe that price includes the 20% British VAT too. You may also want to follow MK902II LE discussion on Rikomagic forums.
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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