Following the launch of the $49 APC ARM11 board as a Raspberry Pi alternative last year, VIA has just announced two new APC products based on a WonderMedia WM8950 Cortex A9 processor:
- APC Rock – $79 Android board
- APC Paper – $99 Android PC with a case made of recycled cardboard
Both products run Android 4.0 (ICS) and mostly share the same specifications:
- SoC – VIA WonderMedia WM8950 ARM Cortex-A9 @800Mhz + Mali-400 GPU
- System Memory – 512 DDR3 SDRAM
- Storage – 4GB NAND Flash + microUSB slot
- Video Output – HMDI (Rock & Paper) and VGA (Rock only)
- Audio I/O – Audio out / Mic in combo
- Ethernet – 10/100 Mbps
- USB – USB 2.0 (x2) and microUSB (OTG)
- 20-pin ARM-JTAG header
- Extra GPIO, SPI and I2C busses on a header
- Dimensions (Board) – 170 x 85mm (W x H), Neo-ITX Standard.
APC Paper is basically the same as APC Rock, except it lacks VGA, but comes with a cardboard casing. $20 for a piece of cardboard seems expensive to me…
Documentation, mechanical files, firmware, as well as bootloader, and kernel source codes are available at http://apc.io/library. The ARM11 to Cortex A9 means it will be able to run Ubuntu and other variants (ALIP, lubuntu…), although performance will be limited by the lowly 512 MB of system memory.
APC Rock can be purchased now for US$79, and APC Paper is expected to begin shipping in March of 2013 for US$99. You’ll also have to add between $16 to $25 for shipping depending where you live.
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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+shipping fees (ave $20) = $100 or $120 (Rock/Paper) for a single core 512mb Android board
Perhaps I’m missing something, but there doesn’t seem to be anything compelling about this offering?
@onebir
I forgot about shipping. I’ve just added that.
You’re right, the price is not very competitive. Maybe some people will take advantage of the neo-ITX form factor. VIA claims it’s compatible with Mini-ITX and MicroATX, so I suppose this means it can easily be fitted into standard enclosures.
Too expensive. For $79 I can get a mini laptop based on the same VIA SOC or even a tablet. It’s also possible to get that with 1 GB of RAM.
If these at least had 1 GB of RAM I’d consider them.
512 MB of RAM, seriously VIA?…
For $10 more you can actually get this one:
http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G135341370451
And well … there’s really no comparing the 2 in terms of performance. The only benefit I do indeed see with this one is the form factor.
Anyway I do remember Via as the company that always delivered the weak performing stuff and this is no exception unfortunately. Not saying their products are bad in term of quality, they just don’t have good performance compared to the rival products.
They should have used the dual core wm8980 with 1GB RAM:
http://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/CES-2013-WonderMedia-Dualcore-PRIZM-SoC
Good to see they’re using a Cortex-A9 core now, but the 512MB of RAM is keeping this from being useful for a general-purpose Linux desktop.