An Allwinner A80 board for TV boxes / mini PC started to show up in the upcoming Z8C Alice TV box a few weeks ago, and the board, or another one with exactly the same layout, made it into Tronsmart Draco AW80 Meta and Telos mini PCs with respectively 2GB RAM/16GB eMMC, and 4GB RAM/32GB eMMC, and selling for $149.99 and $199.99 on GeekBuying.
Tronsmart Draco AW80 Meta/Telos specifications:
- SoC – AllWinner Ultra Core A80 4x Cortex 15, 4x Cortex A7 big.LITTLE processor with Imagination Technologies PowerVR GC6230 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0, Directx 9.3
- System Memory – 2GB (Meta), or 4GB (Telos) DDR3
- Storage – 16 GB (Meta) or 32GB (Telos) eMMC + SD card slot + SATA port (via a USB 2.0/3.0 bridge)
- Video Output – HDMI 1.4b + AV port
- Audio – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF
- (Main) Video Codecs – H.265/VP9 up to 1080p @ 30 fps (software decode?), H.264/VP8 up to 4K2K @ 30fps, 1080p120, or 720p240
- Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with external antenna, Bluetooth 4.0
- USB – 1x USB 3.0 OTG port (full size), 2x USB 2.0 host ports
- Misc – IR receiver
- Power Supply – 12V/2A
- Dimensions – 16.4 x 16.4 x 2.75 cm
- Weight – 442 grams
The box runs a rooted Android 4.4 firmware pre-loaded with XBMC/Kodi, Netflix, Youtube, Hulu Plus, Plex Skype, and supporting OTA updates. Linux (Ubuntu/Fedora?) beta images will be released by the end of November. Draco AW80 is sold with a simple IR remote control, a SATA cable, and HDMI cable, a male to male USB cable (for OTG port), a power adapter, and a user’s manual. Allwinner A80 Antutu scores are usually all over the place, but for reference only, this device manages to get 55,106 points in Antutu 5.1.5. Beside the fast processor, this is only of the rare boxes with fast interface include Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, and SATA. The main downside is that the price is very close to competing fanless Intel based mini PCs.
Tronsmart Draco AW80 Meta (2GB/16GB) will ship now, but the 4GB RAM version, AW80 Telos is only available for pre-order with shipping scheduled for the end of November. I understand people who purchased Tronsmart Orion R28 Beta may be able to get a $20 discount, and an SDK for the device will be released. However, based on previous experience, the Android SDK is likely to be outdated.
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.
Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress
“…Linux (Ubuntu/Fedora?) beta images will be released by the end of November”
VPU, GPU HW acceleration?
HDMI 1.4 or HDMI 2.0?
I wonder if that USB3 to SATA bridge is able to supply SMART info from HDD.
@Harley
Geekbuying refered to hmdi “a” for 2/16go and hdmi 1.4b for 4/32go
both of them should be hdmi 1.4b.
Has anybody here have experienced Tronsmart hardware before ? I’m fed up of my Minix’s freezes and consider buying something more reliable.
Nice to see these A80 devices starting to show up. That will help push Linux adoption on them!
1.4b
@miniNodes
How exactly would any of these AllWinner A80 system Linux adoption in any way?
Sure both A10 and A20 processors did help, but A80?
For pure brute force computation there are much better choices available, with similar lack of openness.
@anon
*A80 systems help Linux adoptation
I’m interested in “much better choices available”. Could you mention a few before order this device for $149?
Thanks
@javqui
I’m not sure it’s much better, but something like ECS LIVA (now $180) could be a better choice, especially if you plan to run Linux.
@javqui
or Intel Atom Z3735F HDMI dongle ( http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/10/15/meego-t01-hdmi-tv-stick-supports-android-windows-8-1-and-ubuntulinux/#comment-286432 )
Thanks for your suggestions, these boards are really interesting but they didn’t provide the 4k features that A80 have. According with the specs on geekbuying, this board is capable to encode 4k video h.265 @30fps.
I’m looking for a board with 4k features with enough power to handle it and looks like the A80 is the right path.
If somebody know a board with similar features, I will really appreciate any suggestion. At the moment, looks like this is the only board available (apart from Optimus board) with this huge amount of video decoding and encoding, a critical part (decoding) for a 4k settop box.
Considering the large and deep experience of miniNodes with the A80, hope he will have some extra comments and suggestions.
Thanks for your suggestion. Your site is an excellent reference point for A80 news and other SoCs and boards. You are doing an excellent job. Thanks for the great editorial and content.
XBMC should work on A80 as it uses LibStageFright and MediaCodec API
Audio Quality – anyone know if this SOC is able to do HD Audio, 24 or 32 bit 192khz ?
Serial port seems to match:
http://linux-sunxi.org/Merrii_A80_Optimus_Board#Serial_console_port
J13:
1: GND (arrow) (blue)
2:
3:
4: rx (red)
5: tx (green)
Colors: https://www.olimex.com/Products/Components/Cables/USB-Serial-Cable/USB-Serial-Cable-F/
U-Boot 2011.09-rc1-00001-gb2cf859 (Sep 18 2014 – 16:37:24) Allwinner Technology
[ 0.723]version: 1.1.0
[ 0.730]pmbus: ready
use pmu by pmu_id from sys_config.fex
[ 0.737]PMU: AXP808
[ 0.739]PMU: AXP808 found
[ 0.742]power: oz found
the same board of Tronsmart Draco AW80 is also on CX-X8 from http://www.Sunchip-tech.com (on Alibaba is sold as CX-A99)
@Fred phoesh
hi, have you found out about audio quality of Tronsmart Draco AW80 ?