Khadas VIM1S is an upcoming low-profile single board computer powered by an Amlogic S905Y4 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor that’s meant to provide an upgrade to the Amlogic S905X-powered Khadas VIM SBC introduced in 2016, and since then renamed to Khadas VIM1.
Khadas has been teasing two new SBCs: the low-end Khadas VIM1S with S905Y4 SoC, and the most powerful Khadas Edge2 board equipped with a Rockchip RK3588S octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor.
I have received both as you can clearly see from the photo above :), but I’m only allowed to write about information available publicly at this time, so today I’ll introduce the Khadas VIM1S which looks just like the VIM1 board.
Khadas VIM1S specifications with highlights in bold showing the differences against the VIM1 Pro model:
- SoC – Amlogic S905Y4 quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 @ up to 2.0 GHz (real frequency) with Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU @ up to 850 MHz
- MCU – STMicro STM8S003 for power management and boot selection (eMMC or SPI flash)
- System Memory – 2 GB LPDDR4 @ 1176 MHz (vs 2GB DDR3 @ 750 MHz in VIM1 Pro)
- Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash, micro SD slot (UHS-I), 32MB SPI flash
- Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.1 up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR, CEC, HDCP 2.2/2.3
- Video
- Decoder
- H.265, AV1, VP9, AVS2 up to 4Kp60
- H.264 up to 4Kp30
- Mmulti-video decoding up to 4x 1080p60
- Encoder – Software H.264/VP8
- Decoder
- Connectivity
- Fast Ethernet port
- Dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 (Ampak AP6256) with IPEX connector and antenna
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports with 500mA fuses, 1x USB type C port for power and USB devices (no video)
- Expansion header
- 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible header with USB, UART, I2C, ADC, PWM, JTAG, I2S, and GPIOs
- 30-pin 1.0mm FPC connector
- Misc – White & red LED, dual-channel IR, power/function/reset keys, header for RTC battery, 4-pin PWM fan header
- Power Supply – 5V via USB Type-C or 4-pin connector
- Dimensions – 82.0 x 58 x 13 mm
- Weight – 27 grams (vs 28.5 grams)
The company will provide both Ubuntu 22.04 and Android 11 (with Linux 5.4) images for the board through their OOWOW system that conveniently allows the installation directly from their servers. No MicroSD card or USB cable is needed to flash the firmware.
My board just shipped with a Quick Start Guide, an antenna, and a card pointing to the documentation website. The company did not include any heatsink or fan, even though there are mounting holes for the standard heatsink and a fan header, as I believe the board should probably run fine without a heatsink thanks to the ultra-efficient Cortex-A35 cores.
A quick calculation shows a Cortex-A35 processor (1.78 DMIPS/MHz ) @ 2.0 GHz should deliver 3560 DMIPS per core, while a Cortex-A53 (2.3 DMIPS/MHz) @ 1.5 GHz achieves 3,450 DMIPS per core. That does not give the full story, but I expect the CPU performance to be similar between Khadas VIM1S and VIM1 Pro. The Mali-G31 GPU is much more recent than the Mali-450 GPU used in Amlogic S905X, so I’d expect improved graphics performance and compatibility bearing in mind it’s still a low-end part. Memory bandwidth would have to be tested, but the Khadas VIM1S uses faster memory.
MicroSD cards will have to potential to run faster, and the additional 32MB SPI flash enables network boot and the OOWOW system. Khadas probably makes the thinnest SBCs on the market, and the Khadas VIM1S is no exception thanks to the use of a low-profile Ethernet port that may be important for space-constrained applications such as robotics. The only downside compared to Khadas VIM1 Pro is the lack of a hardware video encoder, and instead, H.264 video encoding is done by software.
Khadas VIM1S is now available for sold for $64.90. Khadas VIM1S review is coming in a few weeks first with Android and then 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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