FriendlyELEC Core4418 is a Low Profile Samsung S5P4418 Board

Samsung (Nexell) S5P4418 & S5P6818 quad/octa core Cortex A9 processors used to have dismal Linux support with a very old & unsecure Linux 3.4 kernel, but in the last year or so software support has greatly improved, likely because those processors are used in some Samsung Artik IoT modules.

FriendlyELEC has been manufacturing several S5P boards starting from their NanoPi2 board launched in 2015, and more recently they introduced NanoPi Fire2A & Fire3 boards based on S5P4418 & S5P6818 processor respectively. But this month, they’ve launched two more S5P platforms, and today I’ll look at Core4418 board, which has a lower profile than any of their previous board since the RJ45 Ethernet jack and USB type A ports are not included.

FriendlyELEC Core4418 specifications:

SoC – Samsung S5P4418 quad core Cortex A9 processor @ up to 1.4GHz, Arm Mali-400MP GPU
System Memory – 1GB DDR3
Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, micro SD Slot up to 128 GB
Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet transceiver (no RJ45 port), 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth via AP6212 wireless module + u.FL connector
Display I/F- 45-pin RGB LCD connector, 24-pin LVDS connector
USB – 1x micro USB port for power and data, 1x USB host on header
50-pin expansions header with I2C, SPI, UART, GPIOs, PWMs, Audio in/out, Gigabit Ethernet with LEDs, RTC battery in, and power signals
Debugging – 4-pin header for serial console
Misc – Power switch, reset button, power and status LEDs
Power Supply – 5V/2A via micro USB port
Power Management – Dynamic voltage scaling, software power on, RTC alarm power-on
Dimensions – 75 x 45 mm (6-layer PCB)
Weight – ~21 grams
Temperature Range – 0 to 80°C

The board should be good if you have limited space for your project, or need some flexibility in the design. The DVP camera interface usually found on other FriendlyELEC S5P boards is however gone. The company provides Lubuntu desktop and Ubuntu core based FriendlyCore firmware images for the board. I could not find a Wiki for Core4418, but the instructions and software for Smart4418 CPU module – which I’ll cover in a separate post – should be compatible, and firmware images are actually the ones provided for NanoPi2 board.

Core4412 can be purchased together with is heatsink for $45 on FriendELEC store, where you’ll also find optional 4.3″ and 7″ touchscreen displays, and other accessories.

Thanks to theguyuk for the tip.

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.