Over two years ago, we reported about Amlogic A111, A112, A113 processors designed for audio applications such as smart speakers. A111 features four Cortex-A5 32-bit core, while A112 and A113D/A113X processors come with four Cortex-A53 cores instead.
We have not heard much about those since then, but all those processors are still listed on Amlogic website, A112 is supposedly used in Xiaomi AI smart speaker, and Amlogic A113X1 Far-Field Dev Kit is still listed on Amazon’s list of devkits for Alexa voice service, but currently out of stock.
Amlogic has been working on a more cost-efficient processor for smart audio and IoT applications with Amlogic A113L dual-core Cortex-A35 processor shown as Meson A1 in the Linux source code. It was just added in Linux 5.5.
We don’t have much information about it, but it’s interesting as it’s the first Cortex-A35 processor from the company, and it targets the same smart audio application as Rockchip RK3308 quad-core Cortex-A35 SoC found in the $10 Rock Pi S SBC.
Jianxin Pan, the Amlogic developer who committed code to mainline Linux, explains:
A1 is an application processor designed for smart audio and IoT applications, with Dual core ARM Cortex-A35 CPU. Unlike the previous GXL and G12 series, there is no Cortex-M3 AO CPU in it.
This serial add basic support for the Amlogic A1 based Amlogic AD401 board: which describe components as follows: Reserve Memory, CPU, GIC, IRQ, Timer, UART. It’s capable of booting up into the serial console.
Amlogic A113L probably does not come with GPU nor video output support, and I would expect a sub-$10 Amlogic A113L SBC later this year working with mainline Linux.
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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