The SoC unfortunately features a Mali 400-MP2 graphics processor, a GPU that isn’t well supported and lags behind the efforts to open source the Broadcom VideoCore IV found in the Raspberry Pi. The quad-core ARM A53 Allwinner CPU is effectively the same CPU that is found in the Raspberry Pi 3. The hardware is pretty much what you would expect from a 64-bit ARM board. This would never pass QA from any manufacturer. A very slight bend in the middle of the Pine64. If I were grading Pine’s QA, this would be a solid D – the board works, but I’m surprised that it does. It’s difficult to photograph, but you can see it plain as day. The board itself is bent in the middle, with a visible gap between the board and spacer of the pin headers. There’s a DSI header to connect a touch sensitive LCD, but the connector for the touch panel is on the other side of the board.Ĭoncerning the specific Pine shipped to me, I would have to rate the assembly as somewhat lackluster.
![allwinner a64 composite video allwinner a64 composite video](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/H3ff9fde1596244baac3c9b2bca6a2120H/BPI-M64-Banana-Pi-Allwinner-A64-Board-64-bit-Quad-core-mini-single-board-computer.jpg)
Power, Ethernet, and HDMI are all on one side of the board, USB and the 3.5mm mic and headphone jack are opposite, the SD card is along the side.
ALLWINNER A64 COMPOSITE VIDEO FULL
There’s a lot of space on the Pine64, and the headers, ports, and plugs take full advantage of this fact. This is significantly larger than the current crop of Raspberry Pis and the Odroid C2. It’s just a hair larger than 3″ x 5″, more exactly 127mm x 79mm.
ALLWINNER A64 COMPOSITE VIDEO PLUS
The top-tier Pine64+ 2GB includes 2GB of RAM, priced at $29, plus $7 shipping to the US, $12 for the rest of the world.Īlthough this is a little esoteric for a hardware un-review, I would like to mention the mechanical layout of the Pine64. This version costs $19 USD, plus $7 shipping to the US, $12 for the rest of the world. The Pine64+ includes 1GB of RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, and connectors for a camera, LCD, and a touch panel. The lowest tier, the one being reviewed here, is $15 USD with worldwide shipping. Right now, the Pine64 is available for preorder in three configurations.
![allwinner a64 composite video allwinner a64 composite video](https://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00hWSGgdHzEloJ/Allwinner-A64-Android-Mother-Board-Android-8-1.jpg)
That’s surprisingly fast for a Kickstarter campaign, and not at all a knock at the Pine team. According to the Kickstarter campaign, this board should have shipped in February. This is the reward for pledging $15 to the Pine64 Kickstarter campaign. This un-review covers the least expensive Pine64, featuring a 1.2 GHz Allwinner A64, 512MB of RAM, Ethernet, HDMI, and two USB ports. Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the ‘Silicon Delta’ Hardware This post is not a review, as I can’t fully document the Pine64 experience. I pledged $15 USD to the Pine64 Kickstarter, and received a board with 512MB of RAM, 4K HDMI, 10/100 Ethernet and a 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex A53 CPU in return. The boards are beginning to land on the doorsteps and mailboxes of backers, and the initial impressions are showing up in the official forums and Kickstarter campaign comments. Introduced to the world through a Kickstarter that netted $1.7 Million USD from 36,000 backers, the Pine64 is already extremely popular.
![allwinner a64 composite video allwinner a64 composite video](https://www.the-toffee-project.org/truebench/i/CPUDETAILS/69/M3-heat-sink_en_081.jpg)
One of the first of these 64-bit boards is the Pine64. The hardware was there – powerful 64-bit ARM chips were available, all that was needed was a few engineers to put these chips on a board, a few marketing people, and a contract manufacturer. Even before the announcement and introduction of the Raspberry Pi 3, word of a few very powerful single board ARM Linux computers was flowing out of China.