The Mele A1000 is an Android 2.3 IP Set-top Box (STB) powered by AllWinner A10 (Cortex A8) CPU with 512 MB RAM and 2 GB NAND Flash. AllWinner A10 is the CPU to be used by the 15 USD (BOM Cost) Rhombus Tech Linux Computer, an alternative to the Raspberry-Pi. Since they do not have an alpha board yet, the Mele A1000 STB is apparently the development platform chosen by developers involved in Rhombus Tech low cost board while they wait for the hardware.
Let’s have a look at the device specifications:
| CPU: | ARM CortexA8 1GHz (AllWinner A10) |
| Memory: | DDR3 512MB RAM / |
| OS System: | Android 2.3 |
| External Storage: | Supports SD card up to 32GB, supports 2.5″ SATA HDD up to 1TB, Supports max 16GB USB flash disk |
| Video coding: | HD MPEG1/2/4.H.264.HD AVC/VC-1,RM/RMVB, Xvid/DviX4/5/6, RealVideo8/9/10, VP6 |
| Video Format: | ts/m2ts/tp/trp/mkv/mp4/mov/avi/rm/rmvb/wmv/vob/asf/flv/dat/mpf/mpeg |
| Audio Format: | MP3/WMA/WMV/OGG/FLAC/MKV |
| Subtitle Format: | SRT/SMI/SSA/ASS |
| Network interface: | RJ45(10/100Mbps) |
| WiFi: | 802.11b/g/n |
| Interfaces: | SD/SDHC + 3 x USB HOST + OPTICAL + LAN + HDMI + VIDEO + L + R + VGA |
| Features: | Internet TV box, Software application supported, 1080P media player, QQ/MSN/Skype etc. |
| Language: | Simplified Chinese/Traditional Chinese/English |
| Accessories: | 1 x 2.5 HDD cover |
| 1 x AV cable (130cm) | |
| 1 x AC 100~240V power adapter (2-flat-pin plug / 110cm cable) | |
| 1 x Remote controller (2 x AAA batteries not included) | |
| 1 x Chinese & English manual |
The device is available for 100.70 USD at Hong Kong based dealextreme.com with free shipping worldwide and 469 RMB (75 USD) + shipping on taobao and other Chinese websites. You could also buy it for 70 USD + shipping on aliexpress.com
it’s not available anymore. I’ve just bought it on dealextreme.com (Bear in mind that delivery can be very slow with this company, like a few weeks or months…).
Since it has VGA output and Wifi support it may be cheaper than the Raspberry Pi for some people, as they may not need to buy an HDMI capable monitor and/or a WiFi USB dongle. I also like the fact that since it is based on Cortex A8, we should be able to run Ubuntu on it and possibly make use of the work done by Linaro.
As mentioned in the title, the Mele A1000 is hackable and has already been hacked with instructions available on Rhombus Tech wiki. The only inconvenience with hacking this device is that you need to make 2 cables: one to connect to the UART port to see the console and another to connect to the internal USB connector to use ADB. At first since we need to update u-boot in the flash, I thought it would be brick-able, but A10 devices hacking instructions on elinux.org seem to confirm the device can always be upgraded via USB.
[Update: On the mailing list:
Summary: the A10 machines are unbrickable.
1. you can always update nand with livesuite, even the nand flash is blank.2. you can use a special sd card image to flash nand no matter firmware on nand is ok or not3. The sd card boot priority is higher than nand, so if there is a bootable image on sd card, nand is ignored.
You can get further development resources at the end of the post “AllWinner A10/A1X Processor Resources, Development Board and SDK” and in arm-netbook mailing list where developers hacking the Mele A1000 discuss.
If you are interested in the media player itself, you can see some screenshots of the user interface on Mele A1000 page.
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.
Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress
