Firefox OS Ported to MIPS Based Tablet (Ingenic JZ4780)

Imagination has announced that an experimental version of Firefox OS has been ported to a reference tablet powered by Ingenic JZ4780, a MIPS based processor, that’s also used in MIPS Creator CI20 development board, and that the company organized a raffle to send 15 of these tablets for people to try or develop on.

The tablet is said to cost less than $100, runs either Firefox OS or Android 4.4 KitKat, and comes with the following specifications:

• SoC – Ingenic JZ4780 dual core MIPS32 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Imagination PowerVR SGX540 GPU. 32kI + 32kD per core, 512K shared L2.
• System Memory – N/A
• Storage – N/A
• Display – 9.7” screen; 1024 x 768 resolution
• Video Output – mini HDMI port
• Audio – Headphone jack, stereo speakers, microphone
• Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
• USB – 1x Micro USB port
• Camera –  Front and rear cameras
• Misc – Sleep/wake, back, and volume buttons
• Power – 5V
• Battery – Unknown capacity
• Dimensions – N/A

I could not find Ingenic JZ4780 based tablets on Aliexpress, Alibaba, or anywhere on the web, so this model is just a reference design, possibly to be sold in a few weeks or months. Firefox OS source code for the tablet and CI20 development board should soon be available on GitHub.

The build is still experimental, and they still have some work to do as the tablet still feels quite sluggish as you can see from the demo below. YouTube appears to be working just fine though thanks to the H.264/VP8 video decoder (up to 1080p30) inside the MIPS processor.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

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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