Last month we covered Banana Pi BPI-F2S single board computer (SBC) for industrial, IoT, and smart audio application that was powered by the intriguing SunPlus SP7021 “Plus1” processor featuring four Cortex-A7 cores, one ARM9 ARM9 real-time core, and one 8051 I/O controller core, as well as up to 512MB built-in DDR3 RAM.
At the time, the board was not available, and we had limited information about software support, except the company would provide a Yocto-based Linux distribution. The good news is that you can now buy Banana Pi BPI-F2S industrial SBC on Aliexpress for $58 and Taobao for 390 RMB, and the company released source code and OS images for the board.
Here’s a reminder of Banana Pi BPI-F2S specifications:
- SoC – Sunplus SP7021 “Plus1” with a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 1.0 GHz, one Arm A926 microprocessor, an 8051 core to handle I/Os, and 128MB or 512MB DDR3 DRAM.
- Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot
- Video Output – HDMI 1.4 output
- Camera I/F – MIPI CSI connector
- Connectivity – 2x 10/100M Ethernet
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB port
- Expansion
- 40-pin GPIO header compatible with Raspberry Pi header
- 2x 50-pin FPGA interface for Trenz Electronic TE0725LP-01-100-2D Artix 7 FPGA board
- Unpopulated, undocumented 50-pin header that’s appears to be routed to one of the headers for the optional FPGA board
- Debugging – 3-pin header for UART console, 10-pin JTAG header, SWD ICE port
- Security – TPM 2.0 via ST33TPH2EI2C secure element
- Misc – Power switch, reset button, boot selection dip switch
- Power Supply – 12VDC via power barrel jack
- Dimensions – Still not documented
- Temperature Range – -40C ~ +85°C (at least true for the processor, but not specified for the board itself).
While the board has been launched, we still don’t know for sure whether it comes with 128MB or 512MB RAM, so specs are incomplete, and we cannot be 100% sure it’s really industrial-grade since the company did not clarify.
Software-wise, the company released Linux 4.19.37 on Github, as well as Debian 10 Buster and Fedora 31 Mate firmware, and links to various other resources on the Wiki.
The video below shows a short GPIO demo in Debian 10.
There’s also an “SOC education and training practice suite” featuring the SBC, a Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA board, and a “teaching sheet board” with 4-digit LCD, DIP8 socket for SPI flash, and 8x LED’s but it’s not for sale at least not on Aliexpress.
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
