Giveaway Week – A80 Optimusboard Development Board

Together with Rockchip RK3288, Allwinner A80 is one of the most powerful Chinese ARM processors for mini PCs or development board, and today I’m starting a giveaway for A80 OptimusBoard development board based on Allwinner octa core big.LITTLE processor.

Top of A80 OptimusBoard (Click to Enlarge)
Top of A80 OptimusBoard (Click to Enlarge)

When I got the board last year, it was indeed powerful as shown in benchmarks. But unfortunately after Allwinner provided me with a new firmware supposed to fix some NTFS write performance issues, I quickly discovered it also had some stability issues whose reasons were not clear, and Merrii Technology support is not very good to say the least, at least for hobbyists, and even now there’s no operating system for download on the board page. Luckily PcDuino Arches (previously known as PCDuino8) is basically the same, and you can download some Lubuntu & Android images on Linksprite website instead. The firmware has not been updated since 2014 however.

A80 OptimusBoard with Power Supply and Debug Cable (Click to Enlarge)
A80 OptimusBoard with Power Supply and Debug Cable (Click to Enlarge)

To enter the draw simply leave a comment below.

Other rules are as follows:

  • Only one entry per contest. I will filter out entries with the same IP and/or email address.
  • Contests are open for 48 hours starting at 10am (Bangkok time) every day. Comments will be closed after 48 hours.
  • Winners will be selected with random.org, and announced in the comments section of each giveaway.
  • I’ll contact the winner by email, and I’ll expect an answer within 24 hours, or I’ll pick another winner.
  • Shipping
    • Free EMS for winners with a shipping address in Thailand
    • $15 for registered airmail small packet for the rest of the world payable via Paypal within 48 hours once the contest (for a given product) is complete.
    • If Paypal is not available in your country, you can still play, and I’ll cover the cost of sending the parcel by Sea and Land (SAL) if you win.
  • I’ll post all 7 prizes at the same time, around the 11th of November
  • I’ll make sure we have 7 different winners, so if you have already won a device during this giveaway week, I’ll draw another person.

Good luck!

A80 OptimusBoard development board is still available for purchase for $140 on up on eBay, Aliexpress, and GeekBuying.

Share this:
FacebookTwitterHacker NewsSlashdotRedditLinkedInPinterestFlipboardMeWeLineEmailShare

Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress

ROCK 5 ITX RK3588 mini-ITX motherboard

243 Replies to “Giveaway Week – A80 Optimusboard Development Board”

  1. why not, I’ll throw my name in the hat. Thanks! By the way, I like reading your reviews.

  2. Allwinner did a good jod for A10, but now they seem not be able to compete with Rockchip now.

  3. Ooooh now thats the one i have been eyeing for the giveaway! Holding thumbs!

  4. Please add me to the draw 🙂 And thank you for such great site, I visit it almost every day.

  5. Hi all.
    This board had so many potential hut indeed the support from Chinese como anise is very poor

  6. Great site, great giveaway! I would like to start developing my own devices with A80 Optimusboard:)

  7. The Optimusboard looks great. Is it possible to run it hardware accelerated and dualboot Android / Linux? Thumbs pressed – for all.

  8. Hi all.

    This is one of my favourite boards, but indeed the lack of support and updates….. damn chinese support..

  9. Nice board. I am a college student from China. Can you send me a sample for testing and reviewing? I will promote this board.

  10. Oooh! I have some of the Olimex A20 boards and their great. Hopefully I can try on of these boards.

  11. I am very interested in this board, I’ve never programmed such board before. Looking forward to see that puppy in action.

  12. That was an exciting giveaway! Random.org selected number 72, meaning Crypto is the winner!
    No answer within 24 hours, so I have to turn the Random wheel again… and… Gil (#132) is our new winner!

Comments are closed.

Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products
Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products