We just assembled our first A31-SOM module prototypes.
They have these features:
- A31 Quad Core Cortex-A7 @ 1Ghz, Octa core Power VR SGX544MP2 GPU, designed for power efficiency, 1MB L2 Cache, 32K I-Cache, 32K D-Cache, FPU, NEON SIMD
- 2GB DDR3 RAM with 64 bit data bus for fast access
- optional 8GB NAND Flash
- Power Management Unit AXP221
- LiPo battery charger and step up for USB 5V supply
- micro SD card
- 3 buttons
- UART0 console connector
- all GPIOs and pins on x6 40 pin 0.05″ connectors
- RTC, Timer, HS-Timer
- 16-Ch DMA
- USB-OTG
- x2 USB Low/Full/High speed Hosts
- 4SPI, 5 TWI/I2C
- x6 UARTS
- x2 PCM
- x2 I2S
- ITU601 / MIPI CSI
- MIPI DSI
- HDMI 1.4
- x2-CH LVDS
- x2-CH RGB LCD
- IR
- LRADC
- GMAC
- Audio codec
- 4K x 2K video playback
We need some weeks to test them before run production, so these modules will be in stock end of September earliest. A31-SOM price will start from EUR 44 for 1000 pcs, A31-SOM-8GB price will start from EUR 54 for 1000 pcs order.
We also designed A31-SOM-EVB for A31-SOM modules, which is OSHW mother board reference design and have these features:
- Gigabit Ethernet
- USB-OTG connector
- 2x USB Host connectors
- UEXT1 and UEXT2 connectors
- SD-MMC connector
- LCD connector compatible with our LCD displays – 4.3″, 7″, 10″, 15.6″, 15.6″HD
- Audio output 3.5 mm jack
- Audio input 3.5mm jack
- 2Mpix @30 fps Camera on board
- HDMI connector
- LiPo battery connector
- RTC CR2032 Li battery backup connector
- GPIOs on prototype friendly 0.1″ connectors
- Power jack 6-16VDC
A31-SOM-EVB evaluation board with A31-SOM-8GB on it will cost EUR 97 in single quantity.
Although A31 is only Cortex-A7 you can see here interesting comparison between RK3188 and A31 video performance.
A31 have better picture and faster video playback than RK3188 which do not have native HDMI but used LCD-> HDMI converter.
A31 supports up to 4K video playback and have 64 bit RAM data bus.
Android 4.2.2 runs fine on A31-SOM and all features are supported.
Regarding the Linux Support, there is more than year and half efforts from Maxime Ripard @ Free Electrons to bring A31 to mainline, but still some major drivers are missing though like Video, Audio and NAND.
Linux-Sunxi tree miss A31 so far, probably because there is no good development hardware for A31 platform – all devices available are either tablets either Android dongles with no Ethernet, GPIOs etc. exposed. Now when this changes perhaps some Linux-Sunxi developers may be interested 😉 we built 5 prototypes and use only 2 of them so we have 3 to send to interested developers.
With the current Linux support A31 is still good for headless Linux server with the Quad cores, 2GB RAM and Gigabit Ethernet.
Linux kernel from Allwinner SDK is also option but it will be step back from mainline. Anyway with the missing Linux-Sunxi support this is also an option for these who need Linux instead of Android.
A31-SOM will be good platform for digital signage, video processing, IP cameras, or VoIP etc.
olimex 
Aug 19, 2014 @ 22:20:39
Would be nice to see a SATA interface on board 🙂
Aug 19, 2014 @ 22:58:13
Thanks, this looks like a very interesting hardware even though it does not have SATA and uses PowerVR GPU (zero hope for 3D drivers support with the fully open source system and mainline kernel).
Just one question. Can you provide more information about how the boot order is handled? According to http://linux-sunxi.org/Boot#A31 , there should be two boot select pins. Does the EVB board expose them on a common GPIO header (or as separate jumper pins) to allow easy configuration of the boot order in a “civilized” way? Being unbrickable is definitely a must. But also preventing the possibility to accidentally boot from the wrong media is surely a nice feature too. I wonder if anyone still remembers catching viruses by accidentally booting from rogue floppies in the prehistoric DOS era 🙂
Aug 20, 2014 @ 04:22:47
Great work on this! I’ve been wondering about the performance of A31 and also the A33 in a SBC package, for use as micro servers. Looking forward to checking these out when they are ready.
Aug 20, 2014 @ 15:30:57
What happened to the board which was supposed to have rk3188 on it? Will you still produce it or something happened?
Aug 21, 2014 @ 08:28:58
I looked A31 datasheets but didn’t find any information about I2S bus capabilitys. I wish to know what sample rates and word lenghts are avaliable. Do you have any information about I2S?
May 12, 2015 @ 04:20:30
What’s the status of this SoM? I’ve seen Allwinner now also has H3 with Mali GPU but, alas, only 512 KB L2 cache, while A31 has 1MB.
May 14, 2015 @ 17:50:04
Guys, A31 is not produced and Olimex dropped the project after the initial design phase.
May 12, 2015 @ 09:32:34
When will these boards be avalibale?
May 14, 2015 @ 17:53:16
Guys, A31 is not produced and Olimex dropped the project after the initial design phase.