Raspberry Pi 3, ODROID-C2 and Pine A64+ Development Boards Comparison

Raspberry Pi 3 and hardkernel ODROID-C2 launched the same day, and together with Pine A64/A64+, are the only ultra low cost (<$40) 64-bit ARM development boards available or soon-to-be available, so I’ve decided to make a comparison of the three boards the same way I did with ~$10 boards with a Raspberry Pi Zero, C.H.I.P, and Orange Pi One comparison. I’ve used features of Pine A64+ instead of Pine A64 since features and price are closer to the other two boards. Text highlighted in green means a board is clearly better than the other two for a given features, while a red highlight means it’s the weakest of the three. Raspberry Pi 3 ODROID-C2 Pine A64 Plus Processor Broadcom BCM2837 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz(4x ~2760 DMIPS) Amlogic S905 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 2.0 GHz(4x ~4600 DMIPS) Allwinner A64 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ […]

64-bit ARM (Aarch64) Instructions Boost Performance by 15 to 30% Compared to 32-bit ARM (Aarch32) Instructions

Yesterday was quite an eventful day with the launch of two low cost 64-bit ARM development boards, namely Raspberry Pi 3 and ODROID-C2, and as usual there were some pretty interesting discussions related to the launch of the boards in the comments section. One of the subject that came is that while Raspberry Pi 3 board is using a 64-bit processor, the operating systems are still compiled with 32-bit instructions (Aarch32) and even optimized for ARMv6, and they intend to keep it that way according to Eben Upton interview: Eben readily admits that not all the capabilities of the new parts are going to be used at launch, however. “Although it is a 64‑bit core, we’re using it as just a faster 32-bit core,” he reveals about the Pi 3’s central processing unit. “I can imagine there’d be some real benefits [to 64-bit code]. The downside is that you do […]

Rhombus Tech 15.6″ Libre Laptop is User-Upgradeable with EOMA68 CPU Cards

When the first Raspberry Pi model launched, there was just not enough boards to fill the demand, and as people kept waiting they were also investigating alternatives, and a growing community worked on Allwinner based platforms. At the time (2012), the main hardware project  was EOMA68 CPU card using a PCMCIA connector, with ended up inside Improv development board, and aimed at providing user replaceable and upgradeable CPU cards. Sadly the initiative got some issues, and things did not quite work out as expected, but the person who launched the whole project, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton (LKCL), did not give up on the idea, and has kept on working on EOMA68 standard with CPU cards from Allwinner and other SoC vendors. Recently, he’s been working on a Libre Laptop based on an Allwinner A20 EOMA68 CPU module, and will showcase the prototype at FOSDEM 2016 in Brussels this coming week-end. […]

Ocean is a Battery Powered Mobile Server Powered by Allwinner A20 Processor

ocean_server

iCracked, a company selling and repairing iPhones, has designed a thin and battery powered mobile Linux server called Ocean. The device is powered by Allwinner A20 processor with 1GB RAM, 4GB flash completed with 8 to 64 GB internal storage (SD card), and runs Debian 8.1 Jessie. Ocean mini server specifications: SoC – Dual core ARM Cortex A7 processor @ 1.0 GHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3 @ 480 MHz Storage – 4GB flash for firmware, 8 to 64 GB internal SD card Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi up to 72 Mbps, and Bluetooth 4.0 LE + EDR with 10 dBm Antenna USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x mini USB for power Misc – Programmable RGB button Battery – 4,200 mAh; good for two days of continuous CPU usage; Charged via mini USB port (~4 to 5 hours) or Qi charger (~10 hours) Dimensions – 15 x 7.8 […]

Allwinner A10 Android TV Stick Sells for $9.99 Shipped (Promo)

Android TV sticks started to become popular in 2012 thanks to Rikomagic MK802 that was based on Allwinner A10 Cortex A8 processor. Now these devices would be considered slow and outdated, but they may still be useful for some simple applications, and I’ve just seen GeekBuying is selling A22 TV Stick, that’s basically the same as MK802 for $9.99 with free shipping, likely to get rid of stock. A22 specifications: SoC – Allwinner A10 Cortex A8 processor @ 1.0 GHz with ARM Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 512 MB RAM Storage – 4GB flash + micro SD slot Video Output – HDMI female Connectivity – WiFi 802.11b/g/n (Ralink8188) USB – 1x mini USB 2.0 OTG port, 1x USB 2.0 Host port Power Supply – 5V/2A Dimensions – 8.8 x 3.5 x 1.2cm It’s still running Android 4.0, but since it’s based on Allwinner A10 you could easily hack it to […]

ADBoard 3G/4G Digital Signage Board is Powered by Allwinner A83T Octa-Core Processor

MQMaker officially launched their WiTi router board earlier this week, but the company has also introduced ADBoard, an octa-core board specifically designed for digital signage with a connector for LVDS display including backlight, an RTC with backup battery, and a mini PCIe connector for 3G/4G connectivity combined with a SIM card slot. ADBoard specifications: SoC – Allwinner A83T octa-core ARM Cortex-A7 @ 2.0 GHz with PowerVR SGX544MP GPU @ 700 MHz supporting OpenGL ES 2.0/1.1, OpenCL 1.1, and DX 9.3. System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 16 GB eMMC + micro SD slot Display Interfaces / Video Output HDMI up to 1080p60 with HDCP 1.2 and CEC support connector LVDS connector, LCD backlight control header and capacitive touch panel header Audio – HDMI, 3.5mm audio output, speaker connector, microphone connector Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x […]

$15 pcDuino3 Nano Lite Board Includes Gigabit Ethernet and a Real SATA Port

I often read people complain about the lack of SATA and Gigabit Ethernet on devices, and following up a discussion on a recent post about QNAP TAS-168 and TAS-268 NAS, I was made aware that pcDuino3 Nano board had a little brother without NAND Flash, nor an IR receiver that’s currently selling for $15 on Amazon US. pcDuino3 Nano Lite board specifications are exactly the same as the other version minus the stricken-through items: SoC – AllWinner A20 dual core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.0 GHz with Mali 400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DRAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash, SATA connector and microSD card slot (up to 32GB) Video Output – HDMI 1.4 with HDCP support Audio Out – 3.5mm analog audio interface Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet USB – 2x USB host, 1x USB OTG Expansion Headers – Arduino UNO extension interface with 14xGPIO, 2xPWM, 6xADC, 1xUART, 1xSPI, 1xI2C. […]

Allwinner A64 Android 5.1 SDK and Linux Source Code

Allwinner A64 is likely to become quite popular as it will be used in PINE A64 board, Olimex open source hardware laptop featuring A64-OLinuXino board, and some low cost tablets. We’ve already got some documentation such as Allwinner A64 datasheet and user’s manual, but AFAIK, there was no source code released for the board. The good news is that you can now download Android 5.1 SDK and Linux source code on Baidu with four files available: lichee_A64_A5.1_V1.0.tar.gz – Linux source code android_A64_A5.1_V1.0.tar.gz– Android 5.1 SDK android_prebuilts_A64_A5.1_V1.0.tar.gz – Some pre-built binaries for Android A64硬件资料.zip – Documentation including the datasheet, product brief, and user’s manual which we’ve already got, but also some hardware with reference schematics, PCB layout files, and BoM for an Allwinner A64 tablet. That’s about 7.4GB to download, and apart from the documentation, the download is not quite complete yet, so I could not look into the details of […]

Youyeetoo X1 x86 SBC