Allwinner A10 chip + A13

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don570
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Allwinner A10 chip + A13

#1 Post by don570 »

There's a good description of the Allwinner A10 chip
and the newly announced A13 chip HERE

The A10 chip is the one that Barry Kauler is so excited about.
A10 is around $7 for 5 numbers purchase and around $12-14 for smaller quantities.

In April 2012 Allwinner released the A13 strip down version of A10 which is same
but without SATA interface and HDMI, targeting purely the Tablet market.
The new chip is $5 if you by any chance decide to buy one million chips
from Allwinner and can be purchased for $10 in smaller quantities.]

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don570
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#2 Post by don570 »

Here's a circuit diagram of the A13.

It doesn't support HDMI though

Image

starhawk
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#3 Post by starhawk »

Not a circuit diagram ;) that's a functional block diagram, which is different -- it tells you what it does, but not how (no individual components).

What display output *does* it have...?

Also, HDMI is kinda useless to a lotta folks (me included) since everything I have is VGA -- my TV's composite/component inputs don't work, even!

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darkcity
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#4 Post by darkcity »

Image

A10 has vga

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don570
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#5 Post by don570 »

Olimex.com has already put together a preliminary board
using the A13. It has VGA output and quite inexpensive.
http://www.olimex.com/dev/


Here's a pic

Image

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Dougal
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#6 Post by Dougal »

starhawk wrote:Also, HDMI is kinda useless to a lotta folks (me included) since everything I have is VGA -- my TV's composite/component inputs don't work, even!
Apparently you can go via a PC running VNC... (see last post here)
What's the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
But I think it's your mind

aarf

#7 Post by aarf »

Last edited by aarf on Wed 29 Aug 2012, 09:44, edited 1 time in total.

aarf

#8 Post by aarf »

Last edited by aarf on Wed 29 Aug 2012, 09:47, edited 2 times in total.

aarf

#9 Post by aarf »

Last edited by aarf on Wed 29 Aug 2012, 09:48, edited 1 time in total.

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don570
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laptop using A10

#10 Post by don570 »

http://www.shanzhaiben.com/60/n-6060.html
in chinese
Here are pictures of the first A10 processor notebook developed for
the consumer market. Apparently it does not have a hard drive!!
It looks like it was designed with the
cheapest PC components that are available in China.
10.1-inch screen
1024x600 512MB/4GB,
It runs Google Android 4.0 and supports HD video playback,
WiFi, and Ethernet connections.
The mini-laptop has an SD card slot, 3 USB ports, audio jacks,
and offers up to 5 hours of battery life.


The price is 500 yuan (about $80US) . This is presumably the
price that a big department store in the US could buy it.

A factory worker in China can make
1000 to 2000 yuan a month so this is very affordable.

Image

http://www.shanzhaiben.com/60/n-6060.html

_____________________________________________
.... Following this product is very popular
in the domestic low-end flat-panel A10 processor, based on the Cortex A8
architecture, clocked at 1.1GHz, 512M memory, built-in 4G memory,
using the 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 LCD screen. To run Android4.0.3 system,
the wealth of Android apps can be installed to support 2160P HD video
playback, can be relatively smooth to play online video, with the front
camera for video calls, the body is equipped with three USB ports,
you can easily connect a variety of outside set, RJ45 Ethernet port,
3.5mm audio input and output, a standard SD card slot, battery life
of 4-5 hours.:
Edit: liliputing has an article in English about this laptop

http://liliputing.com/2012/05/10-inch-n ... china.html

_____________________________________________________

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don570
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A10 notebook in April

#11 Post by don570 »

Charbax discovered an A10 notebook in April.

http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/04/16/ ... 0-netbook/

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Arm profits surging

#12 Post by don570 »

ARM quarterly profits up 45% year/year
January 31, 2012
ARM just published their Q4 2011 numbers:

Q4 2011 – Financial Summary
------------------ Q4 2011 Q4 2010
Revenue ($m) 217.0 179.6
Revenue (£m) 137.8 113.9

Profit before tax (£m) 69.0 47.6 45% increase
Earnings per share (pence) 3.71 2.90 28% increase

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James C
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another Allwinner A10 mini computer

#13 Post by James C »

The MK802 is slightly larger than a thumbdrive and has a microSD card slot to add to its built-in 4GB flash storage. Wi-Fi is also supported.
A Chinese-made computer that's slightly larger than a typical thumbdrive can now be purchased online for just $74.

http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/56 ... alers.html
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#14 Post by don570 »

Here's an article on the Chinese government's plans to back a processor...

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/12 ... chitecture
According to reports from various industry sources, the Chinese
government has begun the process of picking a national computer chip
instruction set architecture (ISA). This ISA would have to be used for any
projects backed with government money China has a long history
with MIPS and Alpha.

There are at least five existing ISAs on the table for consideration —
MIPS, Alpha, ARM, Power, and the homegrown UPU


According to EE Times, there are some 34 ARM licensees in China, but at
$5 million for a single Cortex-A9 core license, it’s unlikely that ARM will be
China’s choice. The Power ISA is cheaper, but lacks the software
ecosystems that ARM and MIPS enjoy. ShenWei/Alpha is also a possibility,
but again it cannot compete with MIPS’ installed base.


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#15 Post by don570 »

APC is using a less powerful chip by VIA ---> WM8750
It uses Android 2.3
$49
It needs a special power adaptor.
One of the other amazing aspects of this system is that at load it only
consumes 13.5 watts of power and hardly anything at idle coming in at
just 4 watts. The system will ship with just a small 15 watt external power
supply.
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/via- ... -20120522/


WonderMedia is a fabless SoC company headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan.
[1] It is a subsidiarity of VIA Technologies.[2] It is notable for creating the
low cost processors used in a large number of Chinese Android devices.
The SoC designs are collectively called the WonderMedia PRIZM platform
and are based on the reference implementations provided by ARM.[3]

Products

Wonder Media System on Chips
Model ARM Core ARM Architecture CPU Freq Graphics
WM8505[4] ARM926EJ-S ARMv5 300Mhz
WM8650[5] ARM926EJ-S ARMv5 600MHz
WM8750[6] ARM1176JZF ARMv6 800MHz
WM8950[7] ARM Cortex-A9 ARMv7 800MHz ARM Mali-400
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#16 Post by don570 »

There's a nice VIDEO about the APC desktop computer

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don570
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microsoft + Arm

#17 Post by don570 »

Feb9 2012

Microsoft details Windows for ARM at length: desktop Office applications confirmed, first devices expected with Windows 8 release

Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky has posted on his blog a report on
Building Windows 8 blog posts. The short of it
is that Windows for ARM promises to offer the same out of the box experience as the x86 edition of Windows 8. That includes the
full Windows desktop (complete with File Explorer and the like), and the same desktop Office applications including Word, Excel
and PowerPoint (but only Office applications, it seems). So-called Metro-style apps from the Windows Store will also be able to
support both Windows on ARM and Windows for x86/64, and you can expected hardware-accelerated HTML5 support
with Internet Explorer 10.

What's more, Sinofsky also notes that PC manufacturers are now working on devices designed specifically for
WOA (or Windows on ARM), and that their "collective goal" is for them to ship at the same time as PCs
designed for the x86 edition of Windows 8.


News this week from microsoft about arm:

To run Windows 8 Release Preview, your test computer will need
a processor with a clock speed of 1GHz or greater, 1GB (32-bit version),
or 2GB (64-bit version) of RAM, at least 16GB (32-bit) or 20GB (64-bit) of
available hard drive space, and a graphics card that supports DirectX 9
with a WDDM driver.

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don570
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iMX233-OLinuXino-Mini - 35 EUR

#18 Post by don570 »

Here is the latest info about olinuxino board which uses A13 chip
from olimex . Available for 35 EUR in July.

Specifications:
http://www.olimex.com/dev//imx233-olinuxino-mini.html

Code: Select all

iMX233-OLinuXino-Mini - Single Board 
Linux Computer with 3xUSB host, TV-out,
 GPIOs, SD-CARD, Audio-In, Audio-Out, UEXT	
EURO 34.95
_______
It's nice to see the improvement to design 8)
but apparently it has only composite video out.

Circuit diagram has been published.
So after evaluation of different options we add GL850G USB hub
to iMX233-OLinuXino-Mini which increase the number of USB hosts to 3,
and we spared one internal ON-board USB host where to connect the
nice RTL8188CU WiFi modules which will add WIFI to
iMX233-OLinuXino-Mini! The WIFI module will be optional,
so you can order iMX233-OLinuXino-Mini or
iMX233-OLinuXino-Mini-WIFI later with on-board WIFI module.

We run prototypes and will test them in 1-2 weeks, if everything
works as expected the production is to follow and these boards
will be ready in stock mid July.
Picture of IMX233-OLINUXINO-MICRO

Image
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Dougal
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Re: microsoft + Arm

#19 Post by Dougal »

don570 wrote:What's more, Sinofsky also notes that PC manufacturers are now working on devices designed specifically for
WOA (or Windows on ARM)
You know what that means, right?
MS have dictated to manufacturers exactly which components have to be on the SoCs... so every company will make a "different" device which is pretty much the same (and I'm not sure about WOA, but Windows Phone only supports one kind of ARM deriviative -- Qualcomm's).
What's the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
But I think it's your mind

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don570
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#20 Post by don570 »

I made a mistake about the iMX233-OLinuXino-Mini :oops:

It uses a very low end ARM9 processor not the Allwinner A13
which is ARMv7

Code: Select all

ARM926 Processor

ARM9
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ARM9 is an ARM architecture 32-bit RISC CPU family. With this design generation, ARM moved from a von Neumann architecture (Princeton architecture) to a Harvard architecture with separate instruction and data buses (and caches), significantly increasing its potential speed. Most silicon chips integrating these cores will package them as modified Harvard architecture chips, combining the two address buses on the other side of separated CPU caches and tightly coupled memories.
There are two subfamilies, implementing different ARM architecture versions.

The ARM926EJ-S™ processor features a Jazelle® technology 
enhanced 32-bit RISC CPU, flexible size instruction and data 
caches, tightly coupled memory (TCM) interfaces and memory management unit (MMU). 
It also provides separate instruction 
and data AMBA® AHB™ interfaces suitable for Multi-layer AHB 
based systems. The ARM926EJ-S processor implements 
the ARMv5TEJ instruction set which includes an enhanced 16 x 32-bit 
multiplier capable of single cycle MAC operations and 16-bit fixed point 
DSP instructions to enhance performance of many signal processing 
applications as well as supporting Thumb® technology.
.

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