Dmitry (omgfire), one of my awesome readers, compiled a great tabular list of Linux friendly boards and products that sells for less than $300 US (usually less than $200). This list includes technical details such as the processor, GPU, memory, NAND flash, connectivity, ports, supported Linux distributions… as well as availability and pricing information.
There are currently 39 Linux devices in total. The vast majority are ARM based boards, but he also included 2 x86 products by VIA, but those are relatively pricey ($265 and up).
Here’s a summary list with SoCs used, links to blog posts and product pages (if available), as well as price information.
- Raspberry Pi Model B – Broadcom BCM2835 (ARM11) – Blog post (That’s my first post about the R-Pi last year, and the board is much different now) – Product page – Price: $35 + shipping
- Rikomagic MK802 – Allwiner A10 (Cortex A8) – Blog post – Price: $70 to $80 inc. shipping
- Mele A1000 – AllWinner A10 (Cortex A8) – Blog post – Product page – Price: $70 + shipping to $100 (inc. shipping)
- Rhombus-Tech A10 EOMA-68 – AllWinner A10 (Cortex A8) – Blog post – Product page – Price: $15 (Estimated BOM Cost only)
- Gooseberry board – AllWinner A10 (Cortex A8) – Product page – Price: 40 GBP + shipping
- A13-OLinuXino – AllWinner A13 (Cortex A8) – Blog post – Product page – Price: 40 Euros (without Wi-Fi) or 50 Euros (Wi-Fi version)
- VIA APC – Wondermedia WM8650 (ARM11) – Blog post – Product page – Price: $49 + shipping
- VIA ARTiGO A1200 – VIA Eden X2 (x86) – Product page – Price: $310 + shipping
- VIA ARTiGO A1150 – VIA Eden X2 (x86) – Product page – Price: $265 + shipping
- BeagleBoard Rev. C4 – TI OMAP3530 (Cortex A8) – Blog posts (articles related to Beagleboard) – Product page – Price: $125 + shipping
- BeagleBoard-xM – TI DM3730 (Cortex A8) – Product page – Price: $149 + shipping
- BeagleBone – TI Sitara AM3359 (Cortex A8) – Blog post – Product page– Price: $89 + shipping
- PandaBoard – TI OMAP4430 (Cortex A9) – Blog posts (articles related to Pandaboard) – Product page – Price: $174 + shipping
- PandaBoard ES – TI OMAP4460 (Cortex A9) – Blog post – Product page – Price: $189 + shipping
- Cotton Candy – Samsung Exynos 4210 (Cortex A9) – Blog post – Product page – Price: $199 + shipping
- CuBox – Marvell Armada 510 (ARMv7 architecture like Cortex-A) – Blog post – Product page – Price: $135 + shipping
- Hawkboard – TI OMAP-L138 (ARM9) – Product page – Price: $161 + shipping
- ISEE IGEP v2 – TI DM3730 (Cortex A8) – Product page – Price: 188 Euros + shipping
- ISEE IGEP COM Proton – TI DM3730 (Cortex A8) – Product page – Price: 160 Euros
- ISEE IGEP COM Module – TI DM3730 (Cortex A8) – Product page – Price: 164 Euros
- Gumstix Overo series – TI Sitara and OMAP processors (Cortex A8) – Blog post – Product page – Price: $115 to $229 + shipping
- Origen Board – Samsung Exynos 4210 (Cortex A9) – Blog post – Product page – Price: $199 + shipping .By the way, it seems the Quad core version is coming in Q3 2012.
- Ionics Plug Nimbus – Marvel Kirkwood 6281 (ARM9) – Product page – Price: $99 + shipping
- Ionics Plug Stratus – Marvel Kirkwood 6281 (ARM9) – Product page – Price: $139 to $145 + shipping
- SheevaPlug dev kit (Basic) – Marvel Kirkwood 6281 (ARM9) – Product page – Price: $101.99 + Shipping
- GuruPlug Standard – Marvel Kirkwood 6281 (ARM9) – Product page – Price: $103 + Shipping
- GuruPlug Display – Marvell ARMADA 168 (ARMv7 architecture) – Product page – Price: $199 + Shipping
- DreamPlug – Marvel Kirkwood 6281 (ARM9) – Blog post – Product page – Price: $163 + Shipping
- D2Plug – Marvell PXA510 –Product page – Price: $253 + shipping
- Trim-Slice series – NVIDIA Tegra 2 (Cortex A9) –Product page – Price: $213 – $338 + Shipping
- Snowball – ST-Ericsson Nova A9500 (Cortex A9) – Blog post – Product page – Price: 144.84 € – 322.57 € + shipping
- i.MX53 Quick Start Board – Freescale i.MX53 (Cortex a8) – Blog post – Product page – Price: $149 + shipping
- Pineriver H24/MiniX – AllWinner A10 (Cortex A8) – Blog post – Product page – Price: $77 inc. shipping
- Smallart UHOST – AllWinner A10 (Cortex A8) – Blog post (Oval Elephant HDMI stick based on UHOST) – Product page – Price: $89 (512MB), $95 (1GB)with shipping
- Genesi Efika MX Smarttop – Freescale i.MX515 (Cortex A8) – Product page – Price: $129 + shipping
- Embest DevKit8600 – TI Sitara AM3359 (Cortex A8) – Product page – Price: $189 + shipping
- Embest SBC8018 – TI Sitara AM1808 (ARM9) – Product page – Price: $99 + shipping
- Embest SBC8530 – TI DM3730 (Cortex A8) – Product page – Price: $199 + shipping
- Embest DevKit8500D – TI DM3730 (Cortex A8) – Product page – Price: $199 + shipping
The list is obviously not exhaustive (this would include hundreds of boards), but this still pretty good. Bear in mind, that is also included some recently phased out boards (e.g. Hawkboard) and devices (e.g. Genesi Efika MX Smarttop), but you might get one of those second hand on eBay or similar sites.
You can download Dmitry’s PDF file that shows side-by-side comparison of 5 devices at a time.
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.
Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress
Speaking of Linux friendly devices: here is “List of Allwinner A1X devices”: http://www.j1nx.nl/arm/list-allwinner-a1x-devices/
To addition to the J1nx’s Allwinner devices list (tablets, settop boxes and handhelds) netbooks appear which is described as allwinner based:
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/579717834-Drop-shipping-Android-4-0-ICS-10-1inch-mini-Netbook-Laptop-with-Allwinner-A10-WIFI-512M-wholesalers.html
http://www.sevenextreme.com/google-android-4-0-ics-10-1inch-mini-netbook-laptop-with-allwinner-a10-wifi-512m-4gb-ethernet-3g-1080p-flash-10-1-p-409.html
Hey, thanks.
That’s surely useful.
The Gooseberry’s GBP40 (ie USD~60, not GBP60) + USD<~5 shipping.
@ Onebir
Oups… Post updated.
^^^ See http://gooseberry.atspace.co.uk/?page_id=108
Added DMP eBox to the list. It is x86 (i586), but smaller and cheaper than VIA. Unfortunately, Vortex86MX does not support CMOV command.
http://omgfire.narod2.ru/SBC_comparison41.pdf
excellent post.
44 devices: http://omgfire.narod2.ru/SBC_comparison44.pdf
good reading.. one could also consider buying cheap 1st-2nd gen Android phone (HTC G1 ~20GBP). then practice kernel/ firmware internals by compiling/modding AOSP for it 🙂
@ noxo
I’ve given up playing with AOSP for now, because you need a pretty powerful (or new) machine to build it in a decent amount of time. So I’m just playing with Linux/Kernel stuffs until I buy a new machine.
I can’t find the GTA04 smartphone development board.
It is another plattform worth mentioning here, featuring UMTS, Wifi, Bluetooth, Touchscreen and a LOT of sensors.
Having direct serial access and the opportunity to flash it with any OS you like, replacing the default Debian GNU/Linux.
It’s a very powerfull device, which could as well be used a you daily smartphone if you put it into a case.
@ slyon
I did not know about this interesting platform, but at 666 Euros, I would not call it “Low Cost”.
Maybe the ALIX series (AMD Geode processor) of boards is as well interesting, see http:\\www.pcengines.ch
@ Adrian
Thank for that, around $100 for x86 boards that’s a pretty good price.
Carambola is a small low cost (22$) board that runs openwrt: http://www.8devices.com/
@ Tom
Thanks for that (Looks like it’s 22 Euros however). It’s funny, because I’ve just posted an article about a $23 openWRT router 5 minutes ago 🙂
A9-Quadcore at price of BeagleBoard – with AOSP ICS :
$129 – ODROID-X SAMSUNG Exynos4412 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 1.4GHz http://www.hardkernel.com
@ crxz0193
Yes very interesting board, I wrote about it (http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/07/11/hardkernel-odroid-x-low-cost-exynos-4412-quad-core-cortex-a9-development-board/), but never update this post.
I’ll have a low cost board page soon with what I consider to be the best 10 Linux boards.
Hello Sir,
I finding one Embedded Development Board for Prototype of my project and also i have already been done my project experiment on some another board but that board developer company are not customized design developing board according to my requirement.
So, Please suggest me that type board developing company that which make customized board according to my requirement.
For example,
I need below following customized requirement into the board.
-> Run Linux based OS
-> 256MB RAM
-> 512MB Flash ROM
-> On Board WiFi
-> One USB port
-> RTC
-> I2C,SPI,UART
@Pratik Gajera
Maybe Cubietech could make a board to your requirements using an Allwinner processor, as long as you pay for development fees, or/and the purchase quantity is high enough.