Hikey was the first 64-bit ARM development board compliant with 96Boards specifications, and supported by Linaro. Availability always seemed to be an issue however, and pricing was set to $129. But Lemaker, the makers of Banana Pi boards, recently joined Linaro, and they’ve built a lower cost version of the Hikey board, still featuring Hisilicon Kirin 620 octa-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, but with 1GB and 2GB RAM versions, priced respectively at $75 and $99.
LeMaker Hikey board specifications:
- SoC – HiSilicon Kirin 620 octa core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz with ARM Mali-450MP4 GPU
- System Memory – 1 or 2 GB LPDDR3 @ 800 MHz
- Storage – 8GB eMMC + micro SD slot
- Video Output / Display – HDMI up to 1080p, MIPI-DSI interface
- Connectivity – 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 LE (WL1835MOD module)
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG
- Camera – MIPI CSI interface
- Debugging – UART header), unpopulated 10-pin JTAG header (back)
- Expansion headers
- 40-pin LS (Low Speed) Expansion connector – UART, I2C, 12x GPIOs, SPI, PCM, PWM, SYS_DCIN, 1.8V, 5V, and GND,
- 60-pin HS (High Speed) Expansion connector – SDIO, MIPI_DSI, MIPI_CSI, I2C, USB 2
- Misc – Power button, jumper for power/boot/user, LEDs for Wi-Fi/Bt, and 4x User LED
- Power Supply – 8-18V @ 3A as per 96Boards specs via 4.5/1.7mm power jack. Hi6553V100 PMU
- Dimensions – 85 x 55 mm
The new version of the board also increases the internal storage from 4GB to 8GB. The board supports Android 4.2 & Debian Linux, and you can find technical documentation, binary images, and source code on the Wiki.
Nicolas Charbonnier (Charbax) is at Linaro Connect SFO 2015, and he interviewed LeMaker co-founders about their Hikey board, but they also brought a suitcase with most of their board including Banana Pi, Banana Pro, LeMaker Guitar (Action Semi S500), and LeMaker Piano (Freescale i.MX6).
I also learned a few interesting facts about LeMaker company. They have over 60 employees, sold over 150,000 Banana Pi boards, and, unless I misunderstood, the two founders started the company right after graduation, without previous working experience…
They currently have a limited number of 1GB boards going for $75, but 2GB are currently out of stock, and listed for $99, and broad availability of both versions is scheduled for November 2015. The only difference between the two boards I could find is the amount of RAM, so you’d pay $24 for one 1GB extra RAM, which seems a bit stiff. Shipping and handling are not included in the price, and in my case would add $20 to the cost.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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The Qualcomm based DragonBoard 410C (96Boards) will also be $75, and go into mass production in Q4 2015 (end of year).
http://partners.arrow.com/campaigns-na/qualcomm/dragonboard-410c/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=142&v=btgoK8F2oPY
These days i wouldn’t buy anything that doesn’t have an HDMI v2.0 and more than 2GB Ram with an 64bit soc
I really miss Ethernet ports on 96Boards.
Anybody try to overclock this SOC ? 2GHz would be nice 🙂
Does anybody know what happened in the IP battle between LeMaker and SinoVoip?
In the forum of Lemaker and on their webpages all such items seem to have disappeared while SinoVoip still holds up their allegation.
It is also interesting to see that LeMaker seems to have stopped developing new Banana products and now go with music instruments 😉
Good. My first aarch64 board right there (the 2GB version).
Hikey has been upstreamed and you can now download the code directly from https://source.android.com/
Hikey960 with Hi3660 (Kirin 960) with 2x Cortex A73, 4x Cortex A53 coming soon -> https://lkml.org/lkml/2016/12/16/31