Banana Pi developers, in this case SinoVoIP, and not LeMaker, are about to launch a new board: BPI-M3 powered by Allwinner A83T octa core Cortex A7 processor with 2GB RAM and 8GB eMMC.
Banana Pi M3 board specifications:
- SoC – Allwinner A83T octa-core ARM Cortex-A7 @ 2.0 GHz with PowerVR SGX544MP GPU supporting OpenGL ES 2.0/1.1, OpenCL 1.1, DX 9.3.
- System Memory – 2 GB LPDDR3
- Storage – 8 GB eMMC + SATA (via Genesys GL830 USB bridge, shared with 2 USB ports) + micro SD slot
- Display Interfaces / Video Output – HDMI 1.4 up to 1920×1200, MIPI DSI connector
- Audio – 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone, HDMI audio
- Camera I/F – MIPI CSI and Parallel camera interfaces
- Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet (Realtek RTL8211E/D), 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 (AP 6212 module)
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB OTG
- Debugging – UART for console
- Headers – 40-pin mostly Raspberry Pi compatible header
- Misc – Power, reset and u-boot buttons, IR receiver
- Power Supply – 5V/2A via
power barrel ormicro USB port [Update Dec 2015: It seems only micro USB port is provided now] - Dimensions – 92 x 60mm
- Weight – 45 grams
The company claims the board supports Android 5.1, Debian linux, Ubuntu linux, Raspberry Pi images, and more. I have never had the opportunity to test a Banana Pi board myself before, but I can see quite a few complains about documentation and software support in their forums.
Despite being an octa-core processor, Allwinner A83T processor is not the fastest processor around, as when I tested an Allwinner A83T tablet last year, the system just got under 27,000 points with Antutu 5.3.
SinoVoiP has not provided any price yet, nor do we have any release date, but the company has already manufactured 100 pieces to complete development, so this should just take a few more weeks or a couple of months. More details can be found on the product page, and especially on the forum post announcing the board.
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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And still no hardware acceleration in Linux and ho hw decoding support for Kodi/XBMC.
This cores are for nothing unfortunately.
@kusta
Ya, but still a -quite- good performer for a torrent station, amule, privoxy and owncloud (and other services). For the hw acceleration still looking for an Amlogic board, S905 based.
“The company claims the board supports Android 5.1, Debian linux, Ubuntu linux, Raspberry Pi images, and more”
we’ll see
@bizz
Yeah, for that kind of computing probably is really nice, but still I am not willing to spend 80+ USD as I guess if A80 is still expensive this one will be too.
we have do first sample to test . 80 USD is too high. if we sale it with 65-70, we will try to do cost down.
main cost is A83T and 2G LPDDR and eMMC flash cost .
22 x 60mm
Is it right?
@Salinas
Nope. I’m not sure how this happened.
The right dimensions: 92x 60 mm
@bizz
For that situation I will much rather pay more for Minnowboard with Intel Atom that has hardware crypto to encrypt hard drives and native SATA.
@ banana pi
Why not to have a similar board without eMMC flash, only the sdcard and Sata?
If you manage to boot directly from sata Hd then it will be perfect!
And, if you sell it for less than 50 USD it will be a huge success!!!
@JotaMG
sata is not native, goes over USB 2.0, that is worse than sd, sd is not great either, eMMC is FAST compared to those two
No, it is not!
On real life performance, depending on eMMc quality and the software you run, they could all 3 be on a similar level….
@JotaMG
yes , eMMC is a option, we will have two module . one maybe not eMMC onboard. we will try to do cost down. as you know ,we know just do the first 100 pcs RD sample .
@JotaMG
we add eMMC, can add many appplication, such as , eMMC run OS, and SD to save data. and we also test ,if run on eMMC, boot faster than SD card
So, when will it be available – what’s the release date. I read October 2015 somewhere – is that right?
I like the banana-pi but for all existing boards, I miss real good disk I/O performance to build an energy efficient NAS server. So a dual SATA 3 would be great using a cheap ASM 1061 chip os something similar would be great! Also USB 3.0 would be nice but if I could get two native SATA 2/3 using an affortable apropriate extra chip, I would be very happy (and nobody else has tat). That is the! enabler for a usable NAS. I would pay the extra price for the two full speed SATA ports and many of my friends… Read more »
@knopserl
Something like WiTi router? -> http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/08/12/witi-openwrt-router-board-features-6-ethernet-ports-dual-band-wifi-sata-and-usb-3-0-ports-crowdfunding/
The WiTI router has some of the capabilities I’m looking for, but it’s tailored for a router and thus focusing an some other things like many LAN ports and WiFI. But the idea is good to have a croudfounded deticated project. So a NAS tailored board with two (or even better 4 SATA 6G) ports one or two GB LAN and two USB 3.0 would be great. In addition at least a quadcore CPU and 2GB RAM. Thats it.
Since this is still Google’s 1st hit when searching for this device it would be great if you add the following corrections:
– power barrel replaced by Micro-USB connector (expect voltage drops)
– only one USB host port is used for USB-to-SATA bridge and the 2 USB ports (internal USB hub)
– really slow onboard USB-to-SATA performance
http://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/474-quick-review-of-banana-pi-m3/
@tkaiser
i got Banana pi on top for “Banana Pi BPI-M3” search here. Anyway, I’ve updated the post with the precision.
So they don’t offer the power barrel as option anymore?
The PCB is prepared for both Micro-USB and barrel plug and they said they could populate it on request with the latter. But default on the first production batch is unfortunately Micro-USB 🙁