There’s a three processors fight right now in the Android mini PC market with Rockchip RK3288, Allwinner A80, and Amlogic S802/S812 SoCs. All have their own strength and weaknesses, and have about the same performance, but so far I like Rockchip RK3288 for 3D gaming, Amlogic S802 and S812 for video playback, and Allwinner A80 for its possibly better potential to run Linux desktop distributions (TBC). Rikomagic have already been selling Rikomagic MK902 II powered by Rockchip RK3288 processor for a little while, and they’ve now announced two new upcoming products: MK80 with Allwinnert A80, and MK12 with Amlogic S812.
Rikomagic MK80 and MK80 Plus
Preliminary and probably incomplete product specifications:
- SoC – AllWinner Ultra Core A80 4x Cortex 15 @ 2016 MHz, 4x Cortex A7 @ 1320 MHz big.LITTLE processor with Imagination Technologies PowerVR GC6230 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0, Directx 9.3
- System Memory – 2GB (MK80), or 4GB (MK80 Plus) RAM
- Storage – 16 GB (MK80) or 32GB (MK80 Plus) eMMC + external SATA port (via a USB 2.0 bridge) + micro SD up to 64GB
- Video Output – HDMI 1.4 + AV port
- Audio Output – HDMI, AV and optical S/PDIF
- Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with external antenna, Bluetooth 4.0 (TBC)
- USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, 2x USB 2.0 ports.
- Power Supply – 12V/2A
The board will run Android Kitkat, and they also claim 4K2K H.265 support, which is probably a mistake, since Allwinner only claims H.265 support up to 1080p30, and the codec is not even listed in Allwinner A80 datasheet, contrary to H.264, VC-1 and others. And in my Draco AW80 review, another Allwinner A80 box, none of my H.265 videos could play with H/W decoded in either Kodi or MX Player. So H.265 support @ 2160p is not something I would expect to be possible with Allwinner A80, although I’d be happy to be proven wrong. MK80 and MK80 Plus specifications match exactly the one for Tronsmart Draco AW80 Meta and Telos mini PCs, so I would not be surprised if they were based on the same Sunchip board.
Rikomagic MK12
Technical specifications:
- SoC – Amlogic S812 quad core cortex A9r4 @ 2 GHz with octa-core Mali-450MP6 GPU @ 600+ MHz
- System Memory – 2 GB DDR3
- Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot up to 32GB
- Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 (AP6330)
- Video Output – HDMI 1.4 up to 4K2K @ 30 Hz
- Audio Output – HDMI, optical S/PDIF
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG
- Power Supply – 5V/2.5A
- Dimensions – 116 x 112 x 18.91 mm
MK12 will run Android 4.4 Kitkat, and support 4K2K H.265 video codec. It’s also the first Amlogic TV box I’ve seen that feature the promised Gigabit Ethernet port, so let’s hope that part is correct. The box will ship with an HDMI cable, a USB cable, a power supply, a remote control, and a user’s manual in English.
Pricing and availability information is not available for either MK80 or MK12 for now.
[Update: There’s also MK05 with Amlogic S805, and product pages for MK80 and MK12 are now up]
Via Google+ Mini PC community and China Gadget Reviews.
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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“Allwinner A80 for its possibly better potential to run Linux desktop distributions (TBC).”
Please Jean-Luc, as soon as you find out, tell us ! 🙂
@embedded_geek
I’m relying on Allwinner promise to port 5 operating systems to A80 -> http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/04/21/allwinner-a80-to-support-5-operating-systems-products-to-become-available-in-may/, as well as Imagination Technologies claim of being open and supporting Linux.
Or maybe I’m a bit too optimistic? or even naive?
Anyway, I’m confident an MK80 LE version will eventually be released.
Sure hope so. We can’t deploy A80’s until we have an easy way to flash and run Linux!
Only really supported ARM chips for native/mainline Linux seem to be the Exynos chips (a’la Odroid), the rest has all kind of stupid loops to go through, and even then have crippled feature set… From those crippled systems, the RockChip systems have the least problems… I’m really hoping the “new kids on the block” Amlogic gets their platform really going for the native Linux group.
About Gbit on Amlogic… I have confirmation that S805 and S812 both have support for at least 2 different gigabit NICs, but it’s up to manufacturer if it’s going to switch to gbit NIC or stay on 100mbit.
What is the issue with these recent ARM chips and Gigabit Ethernet support? The old Kirkwood (ARM5) chip from Marvell had Gigabit support years ago.
Amlogic did not had Gigabit eth support before S805 chip. Now they support Gigabit NICs (network interface controllers), but it’s up to manufacturer of particular device if they will use 1Gbit NIC or 10/100 Mbit. As I was told, in China they don’t really care that much about Gigabit net (and chip also costs couple cents more probably).
Imagination promised open source linux drivers in 2011, for atoms….. anyone has seen them?
@matt
Maybe you might want read all about that mess from Phoronix?
Not going to happen. 🙁