Allwinner alternatives to Raspberry Pi a winner?

Hi - I saw a couple interesting bits today about Allwinner-based devices. While more expensive than the Pi, I would still consider relatively "low cost":

From PCWord:

$70 ARM PC Can Run Android and Ubuntu Linux

Currently available for as little as $70, the Mele A1000 is a small ARM device that runs Android but can apparently be configured to run Ubuntu Linux as well [...] The Mele 1000 is powered by the ARM-based Allwinner A10 chip, a 400-pin, 1.2GHz Cortex A8 ARM core with a MALI400MP OpenGL ES 2.0 GPU.

Rhombus-Tech has posted about hacking they have been doing on the Mele A1000:

http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/hacking_the_mele_a1000/

And while the i.MX233-based OLinuXino is progressing well, Olimex is starting to plan a version based on the Allwinner A13:

A13-OLinuXino Single Board Computer

It uses the first Cortex A8 available in eLQFP176 package: A13 Cortex A8 processor at 1000Mhz, 3D Mali400; 512 MB RAM

[UPDATE: CNX Software has a nice post on this, too: Olimex A13-OLinuXino Could Become a Proper Raspberry Pi Alternative]

I'm quite interested in both of these as, personally, the price difference between the Pi and anything less than a $100 doesn't matter all that much in single quantity. The Pi is appealling to me as I have a project where I would like to make 10+ embedded units where ability to run Linux would be advantageous versus implementing with microcontroller (of course, this would be in future when Pi production meets demand).

Anyone else interested in these Allwinner-based devices?

Cheers,

Drew

morgaine over 13 years ago

We had quite an interesting discussion about the Allwinner A10 over in the Element 14 Embedded Systems forum recently, in the middle of the thread about Olimex's forthcoming OLinuXino board that Drew linked. The A10 part of the discussion started here -- http://www.element14.com/community/message/50174#50174 .

The A10 seems to be an excellent ARM Cortex-A8 device for low-cost boards ($7 is the quoted SoC price), and I like Rhombus Tech's concept of using the EOMA68 form factor a lot -- http://rhombus-tech.net/ . Obviously such a pluggable module is hugely attractive for making clusters!

Rhombus Tech has a concise description of the device here -- http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/ . The A13 which Drew mentioned is slightly cut down from the A10 to reduce BOM cost further, eg. no HDMI, and is already featured in many of the newest cheap Chinese tablets.

I'm strongly hoping that Raspberry Pi has opened Pandora's Box and that now lots of manufacturers will make their own very cheap Linux boards in the same price range as the Pi, or lower. The A10 and A13 seem to be great candidates for that.

It's worth pointing out that Olimex is pitching the OLinuXino as 100% open hardware and software, so hardware hackers could quite easily build their own versions of the board at substantially lower cost than Olimex's list price, and Olimex is totally happy with that (no royalties).

Morgaine.
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fustini over 13 years ago in reply to morgaine

I hope too that Raspberry Pi has sparked a trend. Before the Pi, I hadn't really thought about the space between my laptop (or smartphone) and my microcontrollers. I think it is great too that OLinuXino is open hardware. Following the Yahoo group is quite interesting to see how the development occurs in "real time" (I didn't really pay attention to the Pi until February).
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Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to fustini

I'm eager to receive my raspberry pi but would also love to get my hands on Always Inovating's HDMI Dongle (dual core, bluetooth, wifi). They suggest that it could be available for $50 - $70.
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fustini over 13 years ago in reply to Former Member

Ah thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't heard of it before and a quick search revealed: http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/products/hdmidongle.htm. I'll be very interested to check this out when available.
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morgaine over 13 years ago in reply to fustini

TI dual-core Cortex-A9 OMAP4 and open source hardware ... \o/

Yep, Raspberry Pi has opened Pandora's Box. And even if correlation does not imply causation, that Box is definitely open.
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Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to morgaine

The other product I've been watching is FXI Technology's 'Cotton Candy' however I've lost a little bit of interest due to it's $199 price tag.
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