About

180 comments on “About”

  1. Prashanth Gopinath on said:

    This seems to be a compelling product at this price point, with A10 processor. :)
    Have some questions around it:
    * Will this support SATA port?
    * Is the Ethernet through USB like other boards or is it separate chip?
    * Any support for Bluetooth/WIFI ?
    * What will be the boot loader and linux kernel support for this board?
    * Launch date and availability of this product.

    • cubieboard on said:

      This seems to be a compelling product at this price point, with A10 processor.
      Have some questions around it:
      * Will this support SATA port?
      YES
      * Is the Ethernet through USB like other boards or is it separate chip?
      the A10 has EMAC inside plus a ethernet phy outside
      * Any support for Bluetooth/WIFI ?
      Yes, usb BT/WIFI
      * What will be the boot loader and linux kernel support for this board?
      U-boot 2011.09 and linux 3.0.36
      * Launch date and availability of this product.
      The first 100 pcs beta board will be available by 1st, Sep

      • Prashanth Gopinath on said:

        Thanks for the information. How to place order for the beta boards and when will it be open to place orders?

      • Andreas Budde on said:

        more Question´s about BT / WIFI

        - do i need extra Antenna to get BT / WIWI working ?
        - will the BT Port work with all kind of BT unit´s like keybord , GPS, Serial data unit´s …ect ?

  2. Carlos Granados on said:

    Is a 1Ghz CPU along with the GPU? The Mali 400 GPU runs at 400MHz, is the CPU running at 600Mhz?

  3. Carlos Granados on said:

    Thanks for the information.

  4. sagt3k on said:

    Which Linux distribution will be supported? Debian will be available? All ports I2C, UART, GPIO are all available in linux?
    Thanks
    SAGT3K

    • cubieboard on said:

      Fedora ARM is going to be ported, Puppy Linux and Arch Arm Linux is already ready to run on cubieboard. Debian can run on this board, but not official. We will try to get Debian official support. All ports, I2C, spi are all available under Linux.

  5. SAGT3K on said:

    When will a schematic in PDF format, in order to understand the potential of this great board?
    Thanks

  6. JF on said:

    Hi,
    Is it possible to buy this board in quantities of 1, 10, 50 OR 100?
    If yes, when? Whats the origin country?
    Where can I get more information like expansion port pin assignment, etc?
    Thanks

    • cubieboard on said:

      yes, but not now.
      it’s made in Shenzhen, China.
      we will release more documents in the future.

  7. terual on said:

    Does this board expose i2s on the extension pins?

  8. Eric Moreau on said:

    Is there a USB device or USB OTG connector ?

  9. derp on said:

    What’s the dimensions of the board? (height, length, width).

    And since it seems like it has a fair bit in common with the Mele A2000, does the firmware of the Mele A2000 work on the Cubieboard?
    And also firmwares made for the MK802 series (without usage of the S-ata port obviously)?

    I assume the way firmwares are flashed onto the Cubieboard is done alá the same way as other Allwinner A10 based devices without a OTG/HOST port, by making a “phoenix card” Micro-SD card for flashing, correct?

  10. Alexufo on said:

    Hello, open firmware for android supported?

    • cubieboard on said:

      yes, we will provide android firmware.

      • MetalFRO on said:

        Will the Android firmware be able to make use of the SATA functionality? I would love to see a unit like this capable of Android with high-capacity storage, because I have a car audio project I’ve been dying to explore with the right base hardware.

  11. Yuriy on said:

    What kind of power supply will it need? Is the power supply included?

    • Morgan on said:

      The pictures of the board show the power connector in the back right, and silk-screened on the board it says, “DC5v@2A” It looks like something that would accept a power supply from radio shack.

  12. andrea franceschini on said:

    the board have a mic input?
    In the pictures i saw two 3.5 jack, are the MIC in and audio out?

    Thanks

  13. Milan Stanković on said:

    I see there’s no either S-Video, Composite or SCART video out ports. Is there a way to connect the board to standard 4:3 CRT TV?
    Thanks in advance for your answer.

  14. Akshay on said:

    How do I register to be informed about availability ?

  15. Carlos Valdes on said:

    Hi,
    any hardware documentation, manual, datasheet ??? pinout, levels, etc ??
    do you plan to build shield boards??
    thxn

  16. David on said:

    Is there any possibility to get this in Spain?
    What about drivers for some wifi hardware?
    Thanks

  17. Zerith on said:

    How open is the board going to be? How much of the hardware documentation is going to be released?

  18. uduoy on said:

    能不能支持触摸屏？

  19. igneous on said:

    Does your SATA controller support Port Expansion? What controller are you using, specifically?

  20. Martin on said:

    Hi! What is the current draw of the device? (prefereable a base reading, idle, just after boot, with no USB or ethernet plugged in).

    Will it support the various linux sleep and hibrinate modes? Any timers to auto wake up the device from sleep?

    It looks like there is a plug for an external microphone. Will sampling rates beyond 44.1kHz be supported?

    • cubieboard on said:

      yes, we support linux sleep and hibernate. waking up device from sleep is not timer, it’s rtc. we will add rtc in the future revision.

  21. Alberto on said:

    Is this for real? The lack of information on the site and the wiki makes this look like a scam. Even the cubieTech site is almost barren.

    • cubieboard on said:

      hi, it’s real. Everything is going to fast that we don’t have time to construct our website. We are a small team but there are a lot to do. Currently we focus on the most important thing now – get the board shipped.

      • Alberto on said:

        Thank you for the quick answer. I’ll be keeping an eye on your work, looks promising and interesting. Best of luck.

  22. Alexander on said:

    Hey! Do you ship to Sweden? If you do is there a way to get an email when they are available?

  23. Paul Holder on said:

    What is the power usage like (and how is it powered.) I’m comparing to the 3W of the Raspberry Pi… for my intended usages, low power for an always on device is of utmost importance.

  24. Mattias on said:

    Will there be support for HDMI-CEC?

    • simos on said:

      There is ongoing work.
      Check the wiki at http://linux-sunxi.org/ for more details or contact the discussion list (see Contact page).

  25. Mat on said:

    Have some questions:
    - Is there a port to connect a battery?
    - How does this card receive its power (with power supply port, usb port)?
    - Can you please provide some specs about power input and consumption?

  26. Tom on said:

    What SATA revision is on the soc?

    You said beta boards will be available by September 1st, are there likely to be changes made on the next batch?

    Is the final design the same as that in the pictures?

  27. Dennis Womack on said:

    Is there a JRE for this system?

    I want to use the board with a system called Ignition. It is based on Java 6/7.

    Check it out at www.InductiveAutomation.com

    Thanks

    Dennis

  28. Connor Roberts on said:

    Hi, just wondering how much will shipping to the UK cost? Thanks :)

  29. Sanyix on said:

    This would be an excellent thing, if it would have gigabit lan, and maybe a DSUB next to the hdmi(i have only one tv with hdmi at home, but 2 usable monitors with dsub only).

    But it’s good enough for now, i hope it can be bought very soon, and not just in the “center of world” (north america), but in the old poor europe too :D

  30. Tommy Tai on said:

    Can you send me a block diagram of the interfaces?

  31. RobbieG on said:

    Is it possibile to supply with power via usb port (for example from TV) or do i need some kind of external power source.

  32. Luca on said:

    Why dont you answer the question for a release date?
    I think everyone here would be happy about a date :) .

  33. Niklas on said:

    hello i also have some questions:
    1.can i overclock more than 1,5 ghz(may unstable)?and is cooling needed on overclock
    2.is it able to run 3d java games?
    3.is the nand memory fast or should i use a sata hdd for the OS?
    4.whats about the power consumentation(without/with oc)

    • cubieboard on said:

      1. no, 1.5G is the limit.
      2. yes, mali400 is not very good but not that bad.
      3. you can use either.
      4. 5V/1A without sata, 5v/2A with sata.

      • Niklas on said:

        thank you,do 1,5 ghz work 100% or is it sometimes unstable on some boards?
        does the OS support a USB hub so i can use mouse, keyboard, wlan stick and a usb stick?

  34. gsnpy on said:

    As I understand an external SATA port multiplier will not work with the host controller of this board ? At all ? It would be such a pity because the board would have a great for a DIY low power NAS solution – even limited at 100Mbps :(

  35. Phani on said:

    which NAND controller is available on this board?

  36. vando on said:

    Section “checkout” doesn’t work. Maybe it’s an error with HTTPS.

  37. niklas on said:

    can u overvoltage cpu?
    and overclock gpu?

  38. Edman Lau on said:

    pls keep me up to date on this product..pricing, channel, case for the board etc.
    tks much

    Edman

  39. THC on said:

    Hi! Do you ship to Romania ? If yes when i will be able to buy it ?

  40. Peter on said:

    Do you currently have any mechanical layout documentation? If not, the length and width of the PWB would be enough.

  41. Lee on said:

    Will this board be CE or FCC compliance like the Raspberry Pi

  42. Lamp on said:

    Can you make a cheaper version like $30-35?
    This can easily steal all the rpi future customer.

    -reduce the ram
    -remove unnecessary thing (the pins)
    -etc

  43. James on said:

    Does the board include the hardware and software licensing for any accelerated video encode/decode support?

    One disappointing fact about Raspberry Pi is that is has a good GPU, but sadly doesn’t include the licensing to do MPEG-2 decoding; so such decoding has to be done in software.

    I would love to know if this board will be more capable for video playback/decode projects and what other hardware features it might include.

  44. uduoy on said:

    已经看到淘宝有了，问几个问题：

    1，说支持触摸屏，是怎么解决的？用USB的电阻屏可以吗？
    2，预装是什么系统呢？
    3，能不能支持加点则启动？

  45. Peter on said:

    I see the A10 chip has 2 camera interface ports – one appears to be an 8-bit parallel and the second appears to be 24-bit. Are either of these ports available? The clock controller shows the camera interface supports PLL7(x2). I think the base clock speed was 3Mhz, so can I drive the camera interface port at 54Mhz?

  46. Lamp on said:

    What are the chances that you guys making a cheaper version by reducing the RAM and NAND storage?

  47. sagt3k on said:

    Who can give details on the pins?. There is the ability to power the internal clock of A10 to maintain date and time will be up to date even when cubieboard off?

  48. Malte on said:

    Can u tell us the dimensions of the board and positions of the mounting holes? Better would be a technical sheet or 3D Model.
    We need this for custom case, may in your interest?

    Greetings

  49. Pingback: Cubieboard: Raspberry Pi competitor with SATA port | Linux-Support.com

  50. Fish on said:

    http://shop36642524.taobao.com/?spm=a1z10.1.2.1.24cdc4

    这是你们的淘宝店吗？

  51. Kshitij on said:

    I am an engineering student and
    I am very very much interested in your product.
    Can you please inform me when will it be available for purchase?

    Also as you are having difficulty in making this site attractive, I am ready to help you in making this site attractive and useful. I have created dozens of sites in wordpress and i am ready to help u for absolutely zero cost(free).

    If interested you can contact me at either my email id OR message me at https://www.facebook.com/kshitijsalgunan

  52. coshim on said:

    when can i buy this things in taobao.com
    please give me the link

    do u have plan to build s9me board with gige ethernet interface?

    • cubieboard on said:

      search cubieboard in taobao.com if you are in China.

      we do have plan to make gige ethernet board, but it’s our next one.

  53. Vasile on said:

    I tried looking but haven’t managed to find it yet.
    What is the board’s form factor?

    • cubieboard on said:

      you can download the autocad file of the board, and measure yourself. It’s on the download page.

  54. RobbieG on said:

    Does Wake On Lan work via Eth connection?

  55. kuukie on said:

    Is it save to buy the board from this website ( http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/cubieboard-prototype-1G-2012-8-8-revision/511685_652108200.html ) and is the 2012-8-8 the latest revision for the 1gb ram board?
    when will it be available in your store?

    • cubieboard on said:

      it’s save. it’s the prototype, the hardware has some small bug to fix and it’s for early developers. that will start shipping by the end of Oct.

      • kuukie on said:

        Will there be released a bug-fixed revision soon?
        Does the board support class 10 32GB micro-sdhc cards?

  56. Darren on said:

    On google groups a question was raised regarding the power to the 2 USB ports. Do they support 500mA each?
    Thankyou

  57. Michael on said:

    Hi, just wondering what the h264 decode performance is like on the Mali 400? 1080p at what bitrate? Thanks

    • cubieboard on said:

      hi, Mali 400 is the GPU, doesn’t do hardware decoding, there is a separate hardware decoder in A10. please refer to http://linux-sunxi.org/CedarX

  58. Radziej on said:

    Can Cubieboard power the wifi dongle by itself or the external active hub is needed?

  59. primzi on said:

    How many pins can be used as digital i/o?

  60. rahul on said:

    Does the Mali 400 come with OpenGL drivers for Linux desktop i.e. for X?

    • simos on said:

      It comes with OpenGL drivers, however the full stack is apparently not there.
      Have a look at http://malideveloper.arm.com/develop-for-mali/drivers/open-source-mali-gpus-linux-exadri2-and-x11-display-drivers/
      and the part about the full driver stack.

      You can bug ARM to make available the full driver stack to everyone.

  61. Legailutin on said:

    I was about to picth in but…
    Is this board going to be open sourced? The page says Open ARM Box

  62. Nita on said:

    Will you release drivers for X.Org that actually do support things like XRender acceleration and DRI, or will X be unaccelerated like it is on the RPi? And how do you implement H/W acceleration of encoding and decoding, ie. will it happen via custom GStreamer – plugins, or what?

    • cubieboard on said:

      For X.org, please refer http://linux-sunxi.org/Mali400

      For H/W acceleration please refer http://linux-sunxi.org/CedarX and http://linux-sunxi.org/VLC

  63. Jindřich Novák on said:

    Hello, very nice minis,
    what is the maximum speed of I2, SPI, UART?
    thanks for answer JN

    • cubieboard on said:

      For the speed of I2C, SPI, UART etc, please refer to A10 manual: http://dl.linux-sunxi.org/A10/A10%20User%20Manual%20-%20v1.20%20%282012-04-09%2c%20DECRYPTED%29.pdf

  64. integer on said:

    I know these questions will sound a bit odd, and I apologize for that, but as a developer and a security enthusiast, I must ask.

    - Does the boot process of the Cubieboard involve any closed-source firmware or software? (For example, in the Raspberry Pi, the first stage bootloader is a large impossible-to-audit closed-source binary that runs on the GPU.)
    - Aside from hardware video rendering and 3D graphics, can the Cubieboard be used at its fullest potential (including non-accelerated video output) without any closed-source firmware or software? If not, what parts require such closed-source firmware or software?
    - Does the documentation cover the hardware well enough to allow the writing of alternative homebrew toy operating systems?

    Oh and if you answered “no” to the first question and “yes” to the second, you might consider marketing your device as “secure” and “truly open”.

    • cubieboard on said:

      - Does the boot process of the Cubieboard involve any closed-source firmware or software? (For example, in the Raspberry Pi, the first stage bootloader is a large impossible-to-audit closed-source binary that runs on the GPU.)

      No. Cubieboard has open source bootloader, native u-boot spport, both u-boot-spl and u-boot.

      - Aside from hardware video rendering and 3D graphics, can the Cubieboard be used at its fullest potential (including non-accelerated video output) without any closed-source firmware or software? If not, what parts require such closed-source firmware or software?

      Yes, everything is open source except the hardware decoder and the 3D gpu, and the this RE of these are listed as the high priority project of FSF.
      http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/reverse-engineering

      - Does the documentation cover the hardware well enough to allow the writing of alternative homebrew toy operating systems?
      Yes, we have A10 manual available, which has register guide.

  65. integer on said:

    Can the LVDS output be connected directly to any 18-bit or 24-bit LCD panel or does it need an adapter board (for voltage fixups and such)?

  66. BT on said:

    Hi, I want to input 24bit RGB data,
    As you reply to Peter on September 10, 2012
    “You have csi1, the 24-bit one in the header”

    However, the expansion ports show in the
    http://linux-sunxi.org/Cubieboard#Expansion_ports
    The CSI1 date input pins just only have CSI1-D0~D7.
    According to A10′s datasheet CSI1 data input pins should be CSI1-D0~D23.
    How do I input 24bit RGB data? Thanks for your help.

    • simos on said:

      This is a technical request, so it is better to ask at the Google Group for the Cubieboard. See
      http://cubieboard.org/contact/ for more.

  67. zebooka on said:

    How to power HDD when connecting to SATA?
    I see there is white port 5V SATA, but where to get power cable?

  68. arpalhands on said:

    Hi

    Is there a way (plugging extra daughter board, modding/hacking main board) to get legacy video signals:
    1/ composite
    2/ Y/C
    3/ YPbPr

    If no, it will be cool to facilitate access to all of these legacy signals in a future revision of cubieboard.
    It’s very difficult to find board with complete availability for video signals (legacy & modern).
    I’m sad to see all is done today to force people to buy new video equipments and drop their old fully fonctionnal devices: I can understand that in classic biz model so my hope rely on projects like cubieboard…
    What’s your opinion about that?
    Is it technically difficult and/or expensive?

    Last point, when you say cubieboard is wifi&bt capable, is it a builtin feature or an usb dongle is required?

    Many thanks for this very exciting project…

    • simos on said:

      (Replied earlier to join the discussion group at
      http://cubieboard.org/contact/)

      For Wifi, you need a USB dongle.
      For analog video, you need to either mod or get a baseboard. The Cubieboard supports analog video output (VGA or even TV), however it does not have the connectors. The aim is to have a small developer board and put the connectors on a baseboard.

  69. arpalhands on said:

    My previous reply (long version) was erased!
    So I post again but a short version!

    Is it possible (via hacking/modding main board or via adding daughter board) to get legacy video signals: composite, Y/C, YPbPr?

    • simos on said:

      For technical questions, join the Google Group at http://cubieboard.org/contact/.

      It is technically possible to support legacy video signals. You can either mod the Cubieboard or use a baseboard. There is a discussion for a baseboard at the Google Group, so feel free to join and help.

  70. Richard on said:

    Will the A10 CPU technical datasheet PDF be avaliable ? .. under what license is MALI under?

    • simos on said:

      See http://linux-sunxi.org/Main_Page for technical details and source code.

      Regarding the Mali400, what is missing is the complete driver stack. Parts of the driver, those the belong to the Linux kernel, are available.
      See http://malideveloper.arm.com/develop-for-mali/drivers/open-source-mali-gpus-linux-exadri2-and-x11-display-drivers/

  71. darkdragon on said:

    1.) How fast can you copy from network to sata at a maximum (usb, networkshare, …)?
    2.) Why did you only put in a 100Mbit/s network card? Is the arm processor to slow for gigabit to make sense?
    3.) Will there be another version with a faster processor? Perhaps one of the new quadcores?

    • simos on said:

      (I am not Tom; I am replying from the information I gathered from my participation to the Cubieboard discussion group (See http://cubieboard.org/contact/).

      1. Check the Google Group and the prior discussions about data transfer speeds.

      2. It is a SoC design, and it comes with specific requirements.

      3. At the moment it requires effort to get a SoC that is well supported in free software as you get with the Cubieboard. Do you have specific applications in mind that, even if optimized, would need a different SoC?

  72. Sukant Garg on said:

    When shall this board be available for purchase? Everytime I see on Shopify, it says sold out!
    Please provide some information, I am keenly interested in buying this board.
    And how much will this cost me, with shipping, for India.

    • simos on said:

      It should be available for purchase in a few days from now.
      There will be a new blog post on this website about the fresh availability of the Cubieboard.

      The FedEx/DHL shipping cost is about $20 for 1Kg of weight.
      There should be more details in the announcement for fresh availability about delivery cost,
      especially whether it is possible to use the cheaper registered post.

      Does registered post from China Post or Hong Kong Post generally arrive to India?

  73. Adam on said:

    So i tried to install the Android TV image to the NAND Mem using LiveSuit. I put the board into FEL mode, then waited for it to install, then after it was complete, pulled the cord from the device, then plugged it in.

    The green LED no longer lights up when i plug it in, only the red LED comes on…The system still boots the newly Flashed OS.. but have i screwed up the green LED?

  74. José Mendes on said:

    The new batch of Cubieboard have RTC implemented with backup battery support?

    • simos on said:

      I think they do not have an RTC.
      To be sure, join the discussion group at http://cubieboard.org/contact/ and ask.
      If you search for ‘rtc’, you may find existing discussions on this.

  75. Marcus Moore on said:

    one thing that is keeping me sold on the RPI is the old yellow video port that comes with it so i can attach it to a smaller rear-view camera screen from amazon and carry it around. will there be a way to use small monitors like those, or is there an adapter/ alternative type of mini-screen to use?

    • simos on said:

      You need the baseboard for such video input.

      Join the discussion list (see the Contact tab on this website) and follow the discussion about the baseboard.
      There are some initial baseboards available, so get in the discussion so that you can grab one of the early baseboards.

  76. Erik on said:

    Hi,
    Does it work with 3,5″ SATA HDD?

    Thanks

  77. Peter Schmidt on said:

    Hi this product looks amazing. I was wondering the following:
    1. Can the USB OTG port be used in host mode?
    2. Are the other 2 USB ports in a hub or are they both full 480Mb/s bandwidth? If they are in a hub, is the ethernet tied in with them?
    3. If you boot from an SD card, can you access the built-in storage?

    • simos on said:

      First of all, these are technical questions, so I suggest that you join the discussion list.
      See the Contact tab of this website on how to join.

      1. OTG does both the master and slave roles. Thus, the Cubieboard can read your USB stick, and if you connect your Cubieboard to your computer, you will be able to view the files.

      2. Both USB ports are USB 2.0. You can also check the schematics in the Download section. Not sure what you mean about the Ethernet being tied with the USB ports; check the schematics to be sure.

      3. You can access the NAND flash (internal memory) when you boot from an SD Card.

      • Peter Schmidt on said:

        You seemed to overall answer my questions anyway. What I was getting at with the USB ports is whether or not they were in a hub. Nearly every single ARM based platform uses a USB hub for all the available ports, which can often make them operate at 1.1 speeds. Boards that include ethernet also tend to be USB based, where they are then connected to the same hub as the other USB ports.

        • simos on said:

          My best understanding is that the Cubieboard does not use a USB interface for the Ethernet port, as it does not use a USB interface for the SATA port.
          You can check the schematics, or ask at the discussion list for more.

  78. manu on said:

    Hello,
    1- Can i plug a usb dac (audio class 1) on this board, and drive music with mpd daemon ?
    2 – Can i plug my dac on spdif gpio pin and witch is the max smaple rate/bits of spidf output ?
    Thanks

  79. César on said:

    I’ve purchased a Cubieboard last month and the problems starts since the beginning.
    Flashed Android in internal memory stopped to boot after 3 or 4 tries.

    Then I installed Ubuntu Linaro in a microSD card, i plugged a USB hard drive, i configured some applications for server and downloading purposes.
    After some days, my Cubieboard hangs everyday and i had to power off and power on manually.

    I had tried to change hard disk, connectors, adapters, configuration of linux system even changing cpu frequency to prevent heat problems, but the hangs were continuing.

    Finally, after some days my Cubieboard has definitively died and it does not start anymore (i have tried with both USB and miniUsb connectors).

    My friends have bought some units and they have similar problems too.

    I have wasted my time and money buying and using this product.
    I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody.
    I’m really disappointed with it.

    • César on said:

      I am sorry very much for my inappropriate post.
      I must admit that i was frustrated and disappointed with it.
      I ask for excuses to all the Cubieboard community.
      Tom Cubie is going to do a free cost replacement of my defective unit.

  80. Kangsik Choi on said:

    Hi.
    I have a question.

    When can I get CyanogenMod10 for cubieboard?
    I want support for bluetooth USB dongle.
    I heard that CM10 supprts the bluetooth USB dongle.

    • simos on said:

      This is a technical question, therefore please ask at the discussion group.
      See the Contact page at the forum.

  81. Peter on said:

    Can i flash in JolieOS 1.2 on this CutbieBoard?

    • simos on said:

      You can use the JolieOS “rootfs” files onto an image that has the Cubieboard kernel.
      Requires some effort, so join the discussion list (see Contact page) and ask if someone already did that.

  82. Bosh on said:

    Hi
    Does the board support class 10 64 or 32GB micro-sdhc cards?