Allwinner has announced that the first products featuring its new octa-core processors should arrive by the end of the second quarter of 2014. The Chinese chip maker also says its A80 Optimus Board developer platform should ship in May.

Allwinner UltraOcta A80
Allwinner

The Allwinner UltraOcta A80 features an 8-core CPU with 4 ARM Cortex-A15 cores and 4 lower-power Cortex-A7 cores. The chip uses ARM big.LITTLE technology and heterogenous computing so that you can use all 8 CPU cores at once when needed, while using a combination of fewer cores most of the time to conserve power.

Allwinner’s chip features PowerVR G6230 graphics with OpenGL ES 3.0 support and can handle H.264 and H.265 video decoding. The chip maker says it can power up to 3 displays at once and it can handle 1080p or 4K video.

The chip supports up to 8GB of RAM and features support for eMMC v4.5 flash storage.

While most Allwinner chips are used in Android or Linux tablets and TV boxes, the company is also positioning the Allwinner UltraOca A80 as a solution for notebooks, smart TVs, desktops, digital signage.

a80 optimus board

The A80 Optimus Board could also be an interesting alternative to a Raspberry Pi for folks looking for a more powerful single-board computer for development purposes… or for DIY system building.

The board is small enough to hold in the palm of your hand, and features Allwinner’s A80 CPU as well as USB, Ethernet, and other ports along with UART, GPIO, and JTAG connectors.

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8 replies on “Allwinner A80 octa-core chip coming in Q2, 2014”

  1. OMG!
    Imagine this thing running …
    Debian linux
    gnome-shell
    inkscape
    gimp
    blender(with GPGPU solution)
    4k videos

    You’d have one Apple killer…. f**k PC/windows and x86.

    Im buying this. Im definitely BUYING THIS.

  3. Now that the chip supports 8GB RAM maybe it will help manufacturers to make mini pc’s with upto 8GB RAM thus enabling to be more powerful Linux PC’s

  4. I’m disappointed by the fact that H.265 is limited to fullHD but it’s nice to see a DoC provider who is upfront about what they mean by H.265 decoding capabilities. I think they’re actually the first ones.

  6. I’m uncertain if the Optimus board is meant for hobbyists / consumers, since there’s little mention on Allwinner’s website about purchasing options. Perhaps the board is solely targeting tablet/phone/set-top box manufacturers, and maybe someday a manufacturer will make a RPi / board device with A80 running Linux, for hobbyists.

    1. It’s too late for manufacturers to get this board now if products are expected to ship at about the same time.
      This board is more likely aimed at the RPI or Cubieboard crowd. I’d guess it’s made for hobbyists who like to tinker , like the Sunxi crowd.

    2. Hi, A80 OptimusBoard shall be ready to ship by the end of May. It will be open to any hobbyists/consumers as long as you are interested in it. It will be provided by our partners rather Allwinner itself.

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