PhoenixA20 – First Pico-ITX board using Allwinner SoC only $59

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chih...@gmail.com

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Nov 22, 2013, 9:04:08 AM11/22/13
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Today,I'm glad to introduce you to a new board - PhoenixA20.PhoenixA20 uses the Allwinner A20 as the the core processor.It is the first Pico-ITX board base on A20 and open source code. A20 is one of the popular processors using in the MID or tablet pcs.It has two ARM Cortex-A7 processors and two mali400 graphic processors.It is one of the most powerful vedio decoding appliction processor in the world. PhoenixA20 integrate most of the common use interface and make it very suitable for product protoype designed,DIY and education.

Spec
CPU : ARM Cortex-A7 dual-core
GPU : ARM mali400 mp2
Memory : 1G Bytes DDR3;4G Bytes On board Nand Flash;32G Bytes Micro SD card(extern)
Video : UHD 2160P video decoding;3D video decoding;Support various video decoding formats, including VP8, AVS, H. 264 MVC, VC-1, MPEG-1,2,4, etc;H.264 HP video encoding up to 1080p @ 30 fps or dual-channel 720p @ 30 fps
Display Interface : HDMI,VGA,LVDS(extern),RGB(extern),CVBS(extern)
Camera Interface : CSI
Net : 100M Ethernet,WIFI,bluebooth 4.0
Extended Pins : 3×UART,2×IIC,1×IIS,1×CVBS,4×TVIN,2×Line IN,1×SPDIF,2×PWM,2×LRADC,2×FMIN,1×Headphone,4×TVOUT,MIC,IR,TP
OS : Android4.2 or up;Linux3.3 or up

link:
http://www.anichips.com/news/phoenixa20-first-pico-itx-board-using-allwinner-soc-only-59

Vedio:
http://www.vimeo.com/79393525

Michal Suchanek

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Nov 22, 2013, 10:40:03 AM11/22/13
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Hello,

It's nice idea to make an AW board compatible with a standard so
people can use off-the-shelf cases that include a PSU, disk mount
position, etc.

Given the (un)availability of off-the-shelf PicoITX cases this does
not seem to be that much of a win, unfortunately.

Also the PicoITX standard is somewhat dubious. All the cases I see
have fixed port openings - no backplate. So the PhoenixA20 will most
likely require a custom case although it may be technically
standard-compilant.

Thanks

Michal

Gustavo Zamboni

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Nov 22, 2013, 11:05:09 AM11/22/13
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It would be great if someone devolp an AW tablet with exposed unused
gpios and serial console.

Thanks,

Gustavo

Le 22/11/2013 16:40, Michal Suchanek a �crit :

Patrick Wood

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Nov 22, 2013, 11:36:28 AM11/22/13
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So this brings up the question of how open is this "open" board?  Is it open like the Olinuxino boards, where the actual layouts are available, or is it more like the Cubieboards, where only the schematics and BOM are available?  I checked the swiftboard github repos, and right now only the schematics are available.  What are your plans regarding the layout files?

TsvetanUsunov

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Nov 22, 2013, 12:28:45 PM11/22/13
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Let me guess, yet another Open Source Hardware abuser from China :)

Rosimildo DaSilva

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Nov 22, 2013, 1:35:18 PM11/22/13
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It seems to be just another board, with a copy of Android installed and no docs whatsoever.... even for the external headers.

Most likely nothing that Android uses probably has even been checked.... don't we have seen that a few times so far.... oh brother....

R

Patrick Wood

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Nov 23, 2013, 12:07:40 AM11/23/13
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Actually the schematics and header pinouts are here: https://github.com/swiftboard/resources/tree/master/hardware.

Rosimildo DaSilva

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Nov 23, 2013, 5:26:08 AM11/23/13
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I like the competition side of all this, since it leads to cheaper boards!

But, what I meant was another board, where the manufacturer would claim features such as:

Supports cameras:  but, it would not document how to hook one, which models are available, which cables set should we order or buy.
The max we get is a blurb is Chinese that few people is able to read!

The same applies to the "TV inputs". For example, which kernel driver I need, how to hook, is it necessary extra H/W for each input... some minimal documentation on how to do it.

All boards are pretty much the same.... the features that are fully encapsulated in the SOC, like a timer,  memory, etc work...

But, the accessories in all boards are painful to get them to work. I call accessories the extra chips to provide features, like Wifi, G-Sensor, GPS, etc.

Luc Verhaegen

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Nov 23, 2013, 5:49:08 AM11/23/13
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On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 09:28:45AM -0800, TsvetanUsunov wrote:
> Let me guess, yet another Open Source Hardware abuser from China :)
>

I cannot spot the OSHW logo this time round. I think that they just
claim "open source" support, and refer to linux-sunxi from time to time.

In related news, the OSHW logo toting itead still does not seem to be
proper OSHW:

http://blog.iteadstudio.com/recommend-a-free-open-source-pcb-design-software-kicad/

They now refer to http://itead.cc/down/html/?16.html as having
everything necessary. Priit Laes just looked at it and believes this is
still not complete...

Luc Verhaegen.

Tsvetan Usunov, OLIMEX Ltd

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Nov 22, 2013, 11:44:17 AM11/22/13
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