The Cubieboard is a tiny computer board with an Allwinner A10 ARM-CortexA8 processor, Mali 400 graphics, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of flash storage and 2 SD card slots for additional storage space.
It will be available soon for $49, making it one of the cheapest Allwinner A10-based computers around. That’s partly because this is a developer board rather than a full-fledged PC. There’s no case, and you’ll need to plug in USB dongles if you want to add WiFi or Bluetooth support.
Update: The Cubieboard is now available for $45 plus shipping.
Still, for $49, the Cubieboard is a pretty versatile little device. It has 2 USB host ports, 1 USB OTG port, an IR sensor, and an Ethernet port.
There’s an HDMI output for connecting a monitor or TV.
The Cubieboard also has 96 expansion pins including lvds, SATA, and more — although you’ll have to solder the connections yourself.
Like the MK802 and most other devices with Allwinner A10 processors, the Cubieboard should be able to support Android 2.3, Android 4.0, or a range of Linux-based operating systems including Ubuntu and Fedora.
The Allwinner A10 isn’t exactly a speed demon, but it can handle 1080p HD video playback of H.264 and MP4 files, and it handles basic web browsing, gaming, and other tasks about as well as a 2-year old smartphone.
via CNX Software and Linux-Sunxi
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10 Comments on "$49 Cubieboard is an Allwinner A10 developer board (mini PC)"
In other words for just a few dollars more it slaughters the Pi in almost every other way. Now we just wait to see if they have better luck in actually shipping product.
Another interesting android board. So where is there a list or comparison of these devices so we can keep track as they pop up?
I think this is a really cool thing, just 14 bucks more than the RasPi, but it has so much more (faster cpu, 4 times more ram, SATA support, etc.)
I wonder if it has any exposed GPIO though (looks like it, but would like some confirmation).
i hope somebody would make the case for this
More expensive yet less powerful than rasp. Pi. The graphics rank behind the r.pi.
No storage? The cubieboard website says 4GB nand (which is pretty much standard on A10 devices…)
Thanks. They added that to their website after this article was written. I’ve updated the article!
That was quick 😉
With internal storage, it’s a pretty nice package. And at $49, it’s a very nice dev board as well.
AFAIK, the cubieboard is the only A10 device to feature 1GB ram and ethernet. So if the various hackers working on HW acceleration gets it working, it would be awesome for XBMC.
(All the wifi devices struggle with higher-quality 1080p content, unfortunately)
you can buy the cubieboard 512M prototype now at http://www.aliexpress.com/item/cubieboard-prototype-512M-2012-8-8-revision/633305897.html
Unfortunately, the audio ports are too close to connect them at the same time