Banana Pi

[Dirk Broer]

Banana Pi started as a fork (well, sort off) of the Raspberry Pi project, using different components while maintaining compatibility as much as possible. Wikipedia says: "Banana Pi has no direct relationship to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, though its similarities are clear. "Linux user & Developer" does not consider it a "direct clone, but a considerable evolution," whilst linux.com similarly sees it as a clone with improved performance. The board layout is very similar to the Raspberry PI board, though it's about 10% larger and the relative spacing of some connectors varies. Not all Raspberry Pi accessories will fit as a result."
Where lies the difference with the Raspberry Pi?

• The main SoC chip: An Allwinner ARM Cortex-A7 dual core, while the Raspberry Pi uses a Broadcom ARM11.
  The Banana Pi has more features, enabled by the ARMv7 architecture, but is still compatible to run applications designed for the ARMv6. The Banana Pi will perform better than the Raspberry Pi on most tasks.
• The physical dimensions of Banana Pi are bigger than those of a Raspberry Pi, so be aware!
  Current boxing designed for a Raspberry Pi is not big enough to fit a Banana Pi.
• The Banana Pi has more hardware components. For example, the Banana Pi has an on-board microphone, an internal SATA2.0 connector, an IR receiver, an OTG connector, plus a power and reset switch. These components are not available on a Raspberry Pi. Other components are beefed up, compared to the Raspberry Pi, such as 1 GB RAM and Gigabit Ethernet.
• The connectors for the LCD LVDS interface and Camera interface are different. Current Raspberry Pi camera modules therefore do NOT work with a Banana Pi.
  In addition, a Banana Pi may be able to connect external LVDS display, but not a Raspberry Pi since it never enabled its DSI connector (claims www.bananapi.org).

In summary, the Banana Pi currently has a smaller community size, less documentation and it will need to tune a OS distribution for their Allwinner SoC and its add-on hardware components in order to gain more popularity.

And where Raspberry improved on their original Model A with Model B and later Model B+, and designed their Model A all over again into the even tinier Model A+,
the Banana guys fell apart: the Banana Pi project has forked into two rival groups that are now pushing their own Banana Pi updates:

• 
  SinoVoip’s quad-core “Banana Pi M2,” which is announced but not yet shipping. Sadly it misses the Sata2.0 port of the original Banana Pi.
  SoC – Allwinner A31s quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.0 GHz with PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU
  System Memory – 1GB DDR3
  Storage – Micro SD slot up to 64GB
  Connectivity – 10/100/1000 Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi (Realtek)
  Video Output – HDMI, CVBS, and LVDS/RGB header
  Audio Output – HDMI and 3.5mm stereo jack
  Camera – CSI connector
  USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports + micro USB port (power only)
  Debugging – UART pins for serial console
  Expansion Header – 40-pin R-Pi “somewhat” compatible header with 2×13 UART, I2C bus, SPI bus, CAN bus, ADC, PWM, 3.3V, 5V, ground
  Misc – IR Receiver, power, reboot and reset buttons.
  Power Supply – 5V in via MicroUSB (DC in only)
  Dimensions – 92x60mm (R-Pi B+: 85×56 mm)
• 
  LeMaker’s recently released “Banana Pro.”
  SoC- Allwinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 processor @ 1 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU
  System Memory – 1 GB DDR3
  Storage – micro SD card slot, SATA 2.0 connector
  Video output – HDMI 1.4, 3.5mm jack for composite + stereo audio (AV), and MIPI DSI connector
  Audio I/O – HDMI, AV jack, and on-board microphone
  Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet (Realtek RTL8211E/D) + 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi (Realtek RTL8189ES)
  USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports, 1x micro USB OTG, 1x micro USB for power
  Debugging – 3-pin UART console
  Expansion – Raspberry Pi B+ compatible headers (40-pin header), Camera connector (CSI), and LCD connector (DSI).
  Misc – 3x on-board buttons for reset, power, and u-boot (FEL mode), 3x LEDs (power, Ethernet, and user), and IR receiver
  Power – 5V/2A via micro USB port. AXP209 PMIC.
  Dimensions – 92 x 60 mm
  Weight – 45 g

[NeoGen]

Let the fruit Pi boards development begin...

Someone should release a Watermelon Pi in the summer.

[Dirk Broer]

Let the fruit Pi boards development begin...

You are being served: Orange Pi


CNX-Software notes that there are three models of the Orange Pi. Two feature Allwinner A20 dual-core chips with ARM Mali-400 graphics, while a third has an Allwinner A31s quad-core processor with PowerVR SGX544MP2 graphics. Each model features 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Gigabit Ethernet, multiple USB ports, HDMI output, AV ports, and expansion headers. Each has 1GB of built-in RAM, but storage configurations vary from model to model, with some featuring built-in NAND flash storage as well as a microSD card slot, while others requires on microSD cards for all storage.
Prices range from about $40 to $69 and you can order an Orange Pi, Orange Pi Mini, or Orange Pi Plus from AliExpress.

[Dirk Broer]

So it appears that these little mini boards come in sort of families with their own distinct hardware that more or less define their capabilities.

• The Arduino Uno belongs to the Atmel ATmega328 family that BOINC-wise can best be left to connections -using shields or capes- with the following boards.
• The well-known Raspberries belong to the Broadcom BCM2835 family, as does the -discontinued- Odriod-W.
• The Beaglebone Black is part of the TI Sitara AM335x family, as are some other -far too expensive- boards.
• The original Cubieboard is member of the single-core Allwinner A10 family, as is the Hackberry A10, the MK802 II, the OLinuXino A10, the pcDuino Lite and the pcDuinov2
• The original Banana Pi is member of the more capable dual-core Allwinner A20 family, as is the Banana Pro, the Cubieboards 2 and 3, the Hummingbird A20, the OLinuXino A20, the Orange Pi and Orange Pi Mini, the pcDuino3 and the pcDuino3Nano.
• An even more capable family of Allwinners is the quad-core Allwinner A31 family, consisting so far of the of the Banana Pi M2, the Boardcon Compact A31, the Hummingbird A31 and the Orange Pi Plus.
• A versatile family is based upon the Freescale i.MX6, which can be 'sandwiched' with dual or quad core CPU modules. Members here are e.g. the expensive Armstone A9, but also the Cubox, the Raspberry-like HummingBoard, the RioTBoard, the UDOO and the WandBoard.

[NeoGen]

You are doing some serious research into the "mini-computing" field Dirk.

This is reminiscent of the late 70's / early 80's, when for example Sinclair Research developed the ZX Spectrum home microcomputer. I think over here in the US, the Amstrad and Commodore brand computers were more popular, but at least in Europe the ZX Spectrum was hugely popular.

[Dirk Broer]

It will be fun when the ARM cpus come in their '386'-era, the first x86 chip with real capabilities.
Bill Gates called the 286 'brain dead' as compared to the 386 and refused to develop OS/2 for it.

The ensulting row made MicroSoft leave the IBM OS/2 effort and begin Windows NT....
IBM bodly went on where no one had gone before and brought us

[NeoGen]

It is funny to read about OS/2 on Wikipedia...

The two companies had significant differences in culture and vision. Microsoft favored the open hardware system approach that contributed to its success on the PC; IBM sought to use OS/2 to drive sales of its own hardware, including systems that could not support the features Microsoft wanted. Microsoft programmers also became frustrated with IBM's bureaucracy and its use of lines of code to measure programmer productivity. IBM developers complained about the terseness and lack of comments in Microsoft's code, while Microsoft developers complained that IBM's code was bloated.

They were really having some fights about code back then

[Nflight]

I am following this post even though I am not saying much, As always Dirk your doing a great Job. NeoGen nice to see you active once more, its been awhile!

[NeoGen]

Yea, it's been too long. It's great to see you to Nflight.

But lets get the thread back in track again... Dirk, did you see the stack of Wandboards they call the Octopus?
Nine quad-core boards (36 cores total) all stacked neatly and running as a cluster, using only 100W of power.

[Dirk Broer]

No, I hadn't seen that one yet, but did you see this 64-core Rasberry Pi cluster yet? 64 x 4.5 Watt = 288 Watt, So Octopussy wins here!
One point that could have worked out better: "Since the nodes are stacked one above the other we use three fans to avoid heat nests and to dissipate the resulting heat."
So why stack them vertically? Try it horizontally instead...

BTW: Are there boards yet with the Allwinner A80 octo-core? Yep, but they're frigging expensive!