Allwinner A80 Android TV Boxes Coming Soon, Starting with Zero Devices Z8C Alice

Allwinner A80 based tablets such as Onda V989, and development boards such as A80 OptimusBoard started to ship one to two months ago, but there was absolutly no news about Android mini PCs / media player based on the latest Allwinner processor. This is about to change as ZeroDevices twitted about their Z8C Alice TV Box, apparently designed by Sunchip, and in collaboration with a UK based digital signage company called Eclipse Digital Media.

Zero_Devices_Z8C_AlicePreliminary technical specifications that we can infer from the picture above:

  • SoC – AllWinner Ultra Core A80 4x Cortex 15, 4x Cortex A7 big.LITTLE processor with Imagination Technologies PowerVR GC6230 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0, Directx 9.3
  • System Memory – N/A
  • Storage – ?? GB eMMC + SD card slot + SATA port (most probably via a USB 2.0/3.0 bridge)
  • Video  Output – HDMI + AV port
  • Audio – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF
  • Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, probably Bluetooth too
  • USB – 1x USB 3.0 OTG port, 2x USB 2.0 host ports
  • Misc – IR receiver (not soldered on the picture above).
  • Power Supply – N/A
  • Dimensions – N/A

There’s a header at the back of the picture that might be used to connect a small board with for power button, and/or LEDs (TBC). The four through holes very close to the power barrel and S/PDIF connector is most likely the UART pins. Zero Devices also started a thread on Freaktab, where they posted a picture with showing the device get 54,253 points in Antutu. For some reasons, Antutu scores reported with devices and boards powered by Allwinner A80 have varied a lot from just a little over 30,000 to 65,000 depending on the firmware used, so any score should be taken with a grain of salt.

Pricing and availability are unknown at this stage.

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19 Comments
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passante
passante
9 years ago

Could be huge if the price will be competitive. sata even to usb is a great choice

TLS
TLS
9 years ago

The small header near the S/PDIF connector is the IR, it’s a 2.5mm jack to which you’d need to connect an IR receiver such as this http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-5-Feet-Extender-Receiver-108060/dp/B005E2XLNM/ for example (althoug the connector is the wrong size).

Jacob Ritzema
9 years ago

CNX earlier reported some A80 issues (freezing, USB 3.0 speed), assume Zerodevices has solve these?

javi
javi
9 years ago

You are right in the article, the white connector is used to connect a small board for IR and led light.

AC/DC Adaptor is 12V

anon
anon
9 years ago


Simplest power fix that can extend beyond singular hack is to get a big lab supply, and use a hacked USB hub as a “extension cord”, personally used one of those el-cheapo 7-port hubs with individual switches (as sticks cannot be powered up without removing the power first), only mod being changing the individual port fuses with 4A ones (maybe a 6A would suit these RK3288/A80/M802 ones better).

Javi
9 years ago

I’m making 4K resolution tests too with ZERO Devices Z8C Alice

Jacob Ritzema
9 years ago

That’s good to know! 20Watt power supply sounds logic, but not USB common.

anon
anon
9 years ago


Those cheap adjustable PSUs are terrible, they are not even close to stable, or EMI, free.

A proper SMPS fixed voltage supplys are much better (and >90% efficient while at it), some have currency/power display too, but personally my default to go mfg is MeanWell, that does those SMPS supplys where you wire it up yourself… to a USB hub with hacked 5VDC cable, those cost next to nothing.

As simple shunt + voltage meter can act for currency/power measurement.

Javi
9 years ago

This board is 12V

ovi
ovi
9 years ago

Question for Tom Cubie :

Tom how allwinner will manage to solve the availability of open source drivers for PowerVR GC6230 ?

As long as this issue is not solved im afraid that this amazing board is waste of time and good components.

anon
anon
9 years ago

@Javi
Yep, but the overall scheme of SMPS + “hacked extension cord” still stands, there are also those “one to n” 5.5mm * 2.1mm barrel cables for “CCTV” and other such 12VDC equipment, so that would work nicely, in case that is 5.5/2.1 instead of something more exotic. 🙂

prima.king
prima.king
9 years ago
Javi
9 years ago

Z6C plans was changed, hope to have some update soon

Gabe
Gabe
9 years ago
Javi
9 years ago

prima.king :
what about Zero Devices Z6C ? http://liliputing.com/2013/12/zero-devices-z6c-is-a-quad-core-android-video-gaming-box.html

Finally it is probably the Z6C will be launched soon but after some deep changes… news soon!

Javi
9 years ago

The ZERO Devices Z8C ALICE now supports Linux UBUNTU:

Here the UBUNTU image file:
https://mega.co.nz/#!nAF2iBQQ!ILZ5mqFjqhA8Ufl1Rv95wXHdrpkzC0MAYZJkhVxwwyI
AllWinner devices can be flashed by using the “Phoenix Suite”
https://mega.co.nz/#!LFFHiRTZ!-T95D9NNnn4UBfH3hzSOhOBj5Ran4FS-WmK2YeXwgl4

Also available on official website

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