Telechips TCC893x Dual Core ARM Cortex A9 + Cortex M3 SoCs: TCC8930, TCC8933, TCC8935

Sometimes last year, Telechips discreetly released a triple core SoC comprised of 2 ARM Cortex A9 cores and one Cortex M3 core for tablet, set-top boxes, media player and car AVN (Audio, Video & Navigation). A dual core release in 2013 may not be that interested, but the addition of a Cortex M3, and high performance interfaces such as Gigabit Ethernet and USB 3.0 may make it interesting. Let’s have a look.

Telechips TCC893x Block Diagram
Telechips TCC893x Block Diagram

There’s very little information on Telechips TCC893x page, apart from the block diagram above and the following description:

The TCC893x is a system-on-chip with powerful multimedia solution and high performance such as dual decoding. It is ideal for high-end multimedia devices such as Set top box, Media Box, Car AVN, and Tablet. TCC893x multimedia application processor based on Cortex-A9 Dual & M3 has multi-format hardware video accelerator optimized to reduce power consumption, high-performance 2D/3D graphic engine for rich GUI, and various peripherals to save total cost. In addition, TCC893x supports stable open operating systems such as Android, Linux and Windows Embedded Compact 7 with Telechips’ outstanding solution.

We can extract most the key specs from the block diagram, and some Google searches:

  • Processor – Dual ARM Cortex A9 @ 1.2GHz to 1.5GHz with 64KB RAM,  32KB BootROM, 32KB L1$ and 512LB L2$,  as well as support for NEON and ARM Trust Zone.
  • MCU – ARM Cortex M3 with 16KB I-RAM & 16KB D-RAM
  • GPU – ARM Mali-400MP2
  • VPU – Unknown VPU
  • Memory – NAND Controller, DDR3/DDR2 controller
  • Video Output – HDMI 1.4 Tx,  LVDS Tx, Composite Tx, 2x Display Controllers
  • Video Input – 2x Video In
  • Peripherals and Others:
    • USB 2.0 Host, USB 3.0
    • 6x UART, 4x SDIO, 4x ADC, I2c, 4x GPSB (General Purpose Serial Bus)
    • Touch screen controller
    • Serial & parallel TS, TS demux
    • I2S stereo, I2S 7.1 Ch, SPDIF Tx/Rx
    • Timer/RTC
    • 9x DMA
    • 2x CAN
    • IR Receiver

The SoCs are available for consumer products (TCC893x) and automotive products (TCC893x-i), and several models are part of the family: TCC8930, TCC8933, and TCC8935, which some variations adding B and C suffixes according to Telechips’ “Certificate list”.  The only problem is that I have no idea what the differences are between the different models, although TCC8930 and TCC8933 appears to be clocked @ 1.2GHz, and TCC8935 @ 1.5GHz according to my buddy Google.

The company has also uploaded Linux Kernel 3.1, Android Jelly Bean, and the VPU drivers GPL source code on their site, and according to their CES 2014 press release, showcased Android Kitkat for Tablets, and a low power Android TV HDMI stick. Technical materials are only available with a login and password.

I’ve been looking for hardware using TCC893x, and there does not seem to be any available for retail apart from A318C media player sold by an Aliexpress seller without any feedback. Several products can however be seen on wholesalers sites, or have been unveiled by manufacturers including TizzBird N2 HDMI TV Stick, Newstar (HK) media player, Artway Technology FVD-22 Android STB, as well as a tablet based on TCC8935, among others. There also appears to be a development platform called TCC8935 uPC,  with the firmware available here.

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24 Comments
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Harley
Harley
10 years ago

Any support for XBMC yet?

Gabe
Gabe
10 years ago

Mele will have an STB with TCC893x SOC playing BD-ISO:
http://armdevices.net/2014/01/04/mele-4k-player-allwinner-a31-based/

Gabe
Gabe
10 years ago
onebir
onebir
10 years ago

What advantages does having the Cortex M3 core offer? (Potentially…)

onebir
onebir
10 years ago

Thanks 🙂 I guessed about the standby mode, but hadn’t thought about IP protection 🙂

Could also make a good dev board in theory perhaps? (Like Udoo…)

Gabe
Gabe
10 years ago


I have a leaked Android 4.22 Telechips SDK 🙂

onebir
onebir
10 years ago

@Gabe Leak it more!

Gabe
Gabe
10 years ago

It supports TCC893x, it’s “Telechips TCC892x/3x SDK source code version v13.03”.
Here it is(around 2.5 GB):
https://mega.co.nz/#!tZUmAJIK!FEK09DvZ9JHCRnL93jsVNAD7-ZoeUUF1iPp2OvK_myY

Aidin
Aidin
4 years ago

Hi Gabe
The file does not exist anymore. Would you mind provide it again? Thanks a lot.

Gabe
Gabe
10 years ago


I will reupload to another site.

Gabe
Gabe
10 years ago

Yes, it is expensive. Maybe, because it has external SATA & plays BD-ISO( not sure if it plays BD menus though).

Stuart
10 years ago

When the SoC will be available? What’s the strong points compared with Rockchip & Allwinner’s?

SMTSoft
SMTSoft
6 years ago

Can anyone share the link? Please 🙂

Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products