AllWinner A20 is a dual core Cortex A7 processor destined to provide an easy pin-to-pin compatible upgrade for AllWinner A10 devices, and the first devices start to appear on the market with several Cloudsto offerings running the latest Android 4.2 Jelly Bean:
- A20 Media Stick – AllWinner A20 mini PC with 1GB RAM, 4GB Flash, HDMI output, 2x USB Ports and IR receiver. Price: 59.99 GBP ($90.88 US)
- A20 Media PC – AllWinner A20 set-top box with 1GB RAM, 4GB NAND Flash, onboard Ethernet, HDMI + RCA Video output, Optical output, and 2 x USB Ports. Price: 84.99 GBP ($128.77 US)
- Cloudsto Media PC PRO DRIVEDOCK – AllWinner A20 set-top box with 1GB RAM, 4 GB Flash, a 2.5″ SATA Hard Drive Bay, HDMI, VGA, and RCA video output and more. Price: 94.99 GBP ($143.92 US)
The Media PC PRO DRIVESTOCK is the star of the show, and just looks like an upgraded version of the Mele A1000/A2000 set-top box powered by AllWinner A10. Cloudsto is based in the UK, so prices include VAT, and the usual European markup, so hopefully, it will be possible to get this device for around $100 from China.
Here are the full specifications of the device:
- SoC – AllWinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 + Mali-400MP2 GPU
- System Memory – 1GB RAM
- Storage
- 4GB NAND Flash
- SD/MMC memory slot (up to 32 GB)
- SATA dock with 2.5″ drive (up to 2 TB)
- Video Output – AV out, HDMI and VGA
- Audio Ouput – Optical out, HDMI and AV
- Video Container Formats – RM, RMVB, MPEG1/2/4, MPEG2 Transport Stream, VOB, AVI, ASF, WMV, MKV, MOV, MP4, RMP4, IFO, ISO
- Audio Codec – AAC, MP3, OGG, WMA, WAV, M4A
- Connectivity:
- 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
- Bluetooth
- USB – 4x USB Host ports
The device comes with a remote control, a power supply (100-240V), an AV-RCA cable, and an English user’s manual. It can be pre-ordered now for delivery in mid-march.
Contrary to the Mele A1000, source code is not yet available, but once (if?) it becomes available, I’m pretty sure linux-sunxi community will be all over it (and/or other A20 devices) to provide Linux support to A20 SoC, unless they got fed-up with AllWinner lack of documentation and compliance with the GPL… [Update: It turns out that A20 and A31 code is already leaked. It’s based on linux 3.3, but linux-sunxi guys have already started to clean it, and will start integrating it into 3.4 and mainline once they get some hardware to play with. Thanks to Alejandro Mery (amery) for the correction]
You can find more information on Cloudsto Android mini PCs page.
Via Liliputing
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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Shame there’s not a proper SATA caddy – sticking up, the disk is vulnerable to getting knocked…
1.after a couple of months -compared to others- they decided to release a dual core…
2.if they are lucky enough there will be a few to buy them…
3.the ones that already bought for them I don’t believe that they will return…
4.the (free source) developers no longer believe them,how could they actually…
5.bad luck Allwinner…you had the pottential but you followed the wrong strategy…
@onebir
You should be able to use sata cables for the disk and keep it lying next to device .. then again they could just make some space to put 2,5″ drive inside.
A bit on the expensive side for a dual core A7. Let’s not forget the RK3066 sticks can be bought for as low as 43$ with free shipping. Even if you do include the VAT and all that it still doesn’t add up.
Also the RK3066 is a dual core A9 which is a bit better than A7 and has a quad Mali while this has a dual. Source code is also available for RK3066 while for this there’s none.
@Marius Finally, I did not follow linux-sunxi mailing list closely enough (too many emails over there), and they already have source code for both A20 and A31. The price is not really competitive for the stick, but AllWinner said A20 should cost about the same as A10, so we may have to wait for the Chinese sell it to find the real market price. AFAIK there’s so complete solution like the one above (3 video output, SATA support, SPDIF based on Rockchip), so it could be interesting to some people. By the way, I’ve found a Rockchip RK3066 mini PC… Read more »
@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) cleaning yes. integration, not yet. because we don’t have hardware to test 😉
cnxsoft : @Marius Finally, I did not follow linux-sunxi mailing list closely enough (too many emails over there), and they already have source code for both A20 and A31. The price is not really competitive for the stick, but AllWinner said A20 should cost about the same as A10, so we may have to wait for the Chinese sell it to find the real market price. AFAIK there’s so complete solution like the one above (3 video output, SATA support, SPDIF based on Rockchip), so it could be interesting to some people. By the way, I’ve found a Rockchip RK3066… Read more »
Well we all know what happened the last time there was a low price stick on DX … Maybe we should ask if they really plan on selling this for that price first 😀
@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) Sure ; looki forward to
Does anyone know if it is real SATA or usb-to-SATA?
@wycx
I don’t know for sure but since AllWinner A20 SoC supports SATA, it would be really stupid to use a USB to SATA chip in the device.
@Marius
“A bit on the expensive side for a dual core A7. Let’s not forget the RK3066 sticks can be bought for as low as 43$ with free shipping. Even if you do include the VAT and all that it still doesn’t add up.”
i think the price difference between these CPUs might not be larger than 5-6$.
as i imagine the ports (sata, 4 USBs, ethernet, vga, Bluetooth) take the largest part of the price.
Whats about the power of the Allwinner A20.
Anyone knows is it faster or slower as an MK802III with RK3066 ?
I want a device like this as an mini PC, so i must have VGA out (no HDMI, no DVI)
Can i use 1680×1050 with this ?
I there a way to use Linux like Picuntu / Ubuntu ?
@Captain It will be (significantly) slower than RK3066 in benchmarks, and you should also notice it during normal usage, but power consumption will be lower. In AllWinner A10 code, the following resolutions are included in the source (https://github.com/allwinner-dev-team/android_device_allwinner_common/blob/master/include/drv_display_sun4i.h) : typedef enum { DISP_VGA_H1680_V1050 = 0, DISP_VGA_H1440_V900 = 1, DISP_VGA_H1360_V768 = 2, DISP_VGA_H1280_V1024 = 3, DISP_VGA_H1024_V768 = 4, DISP_VGA_H800_V600 = 5, DISP_VGA_H640_V480 = 6, DISP_VGA_H1440_V900_RB = 7,//not support yet DISP_VGA_H1680_V1050_RB = 8,//not support yet DISP_VGA_H1920_V1080_RB = 9, DISP_VGA_H1920_V1080 = 0xa, DISP_VGA_H1280_V720 = 0xb, DISP_VGA_MODE_NUM = 0xc, }__disp_vga_mode_t; So 1680×1050 is supported by the hardware, and as long as they enabled it… Read more »