PINE A64, First $15 64-Bit Single Board Super Computer

About this project

Update 12/14/15 (We're putting it here so it's easier to read) : To help minimize the flooding of our inbox so we can get everyone back to all the questions and concerns... please read our FAQs at the bottom of the page. Most commonly asked is buying more than 1 board and save on shipping. Please just pledge 1 and you can add additional boards after the campaign i over, along with any upgrades accessories you want to add.  Thank You. This will help us answer emails and questions a lot faster. Thank you for your support. 

PINE A64 is not only a computer, it is a super affordable 64-bit high performance expandable single board computer (SBC).  Whether you are an IT professional, electronics hobbyist, student, teacher, hacker, inventor, or just someone who wants to have more flexibility to increase their productivity at work, the PINE A64 is a computer board made for everyone.  Enjoy more fun and entertainment at home with endless possibilities.

PINE A64 is Small

PINE A64 boards next to iPhone 6S for size comparison

PINE A64 is Powerful

ARM A53 CPU

The PINE64 CPU is a quad-core ARM A53 64-bit processor that runs at 1.2GHz. 

The GPU on the PINE A64 is a dual-core MALI-400 MP2 and runs at 500MHz, capable of 1.1 Gpixel/s throughput. This means the graphics capabilities are slightly higher than the original X-Box's level of performance.  

PINE A64 board is powered by the latest 64-bit quad core ARM A53 CPU and delivers up to 20-30% better performance than other 32 bit open source counterparts.

PINE A64 compared with Raspberry Pi

PINE A64 compared with C.H.I.P and Arduino

PINE64 is Expandable

Add different hardware interfaces to your PINE A64 as you see fit. Depending on whether you pick the PINE A64 or PINE A64+, the PINE A64 ships defaults with two USB ports, HDMI output, 3.5mm Audio/Mic Output, ethernet port, and two I/O expansion buses. On the more advanced PINE A64+ model, you will receive three additional ports to add optional accessories such as: camera module, touch panel module, and the LCD Panel port.

PINE A64 is Versatile

Add a keyboard and mice and turn PINE A64 into a full Android 5.1 computer to run Chrome Browser, Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or even watch your favorite shows on YouTube.

Load special versions of Android 5.1 and launch media players to turn this into an advanced Apple TV-like Android product.  PINE A64 supports miracast.

Shown with Android media software

Install a touchscreen module and choose from hundreds of thousands of games from the Android store to build your own arcade. 

Play your favorite games on the big screen!

Play games with optional air-mouse (Nintendo Wii type remote)

 Fruit Ninja anyone? 

Testing Fruit Ninja with an optional Air Mouse!

Build a custom enclosure to use the PINE64 in your next innovative project.

3D Printing enclosures can be fun!

Lego Enclosure, Acrylic Enclosure, and more!

PINE A64 is not just a media player, Linux platform, learning tool, or gaming device. It's a full 64-bit, 4K capable, fully expandable, single board supercomputer. 

By being so affordable at $15, PINE A64 now opens up doors to new opportunities for everyone. Use it to build just almost anything. 

Operating System

Because PINE A64 is an open source platform, you can load anything you want but we suggest to pair PINE A64 with Ubuntu, Android or openHAB IoT. By aligning the PINE A64 to be compatible with these operating systems, you basically get access to over 1.7 Million apps* on the market today, from utilities, games, and media apps.
*Android Apps available today

Supported OSes

Data provided via Appbrain.com

(original article at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pine64/pine-a64-first-15-64-bit-single-board-super-comput?)

Application ARM-based chips

As I was doing some research to write the previous article - Comparison of the Raspberry Pi B+ & the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B, I found this very interesting chart showing everyone else using the ARM V7 and V8 architecture.

We know that the Raspberry Pi is Broadcom BCM2835 (ARM V6) & Broadcom BCM2836 (ARM V7) based. We read about Microsoft with Windows on ARM, WindowsRT, Windows 8 builds for ARM which were all built for ARM V7 architecture which includes the Texas Instrument OMAP5 (ARM Cortex A-15), Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 (ARM Cortex A-9), Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Krait and Nvidia Tegra 2 (ARM Cortex A-9 and ARM Cortex A-53).

Look who else is using the ARM V7 - Apple A6, A6X & ARM V8 - Apple A7, A8, A8X, A9, A9X!

The list also includes all the BlackBerry OS 10.x based phones - PlayBook, PlayBook WiMax & 4G PlayBook HSPA+ (TI OMAP 4430), 4G LTE PlayBook (TI OMAP 4460), Q10 (Snapdragon S4 (LTE version) / TI OMAP 4470 (Non-LTE)), Q5, Z10 & Leap (Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960), Z30 (Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960T), Z3 (Snapdragon 400 MSM8230).

The Application ARM-based chips chart was lifted from ARM architecture.

[hide] v t e Application ARM-based chips ARM Holdings ARM architecture List of ARM microarchitectures List of applications of ARM cores ARM Cortex-A ARM Cortex-R ARM Cortex-M Comparison of ARMv7-A cores Comparison of ARMv8-A cores Application Processors (32-bit) Cortex-A5 Actions ATM702x Amlogic M805/S805 Atmel SAMA5D3 InfoTM iMAPx820, iMAPx15 Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Play, 200 Telechips TCC892x Cortex-A7 Allwinner A2x, A3x, A83T, H3, H8 Broadcom VideoCore BCM2836, BCM23550 Freescale QorIQ LS10xx Leadcore LC1813, LC1913 Marvell Armada PXA1920 MediaTek MT65xx Qualcomm Snapdragon 200, 400 Cortex-A8 Allwinner A1x Apple A4 Freescale i.MX5x Rockchip RK291x Samsung Exynos 3110, S5PC110, S5PV210 Texas Instruments OMAP 3 ZiiLABS ZMS-08 Cortex-A9 Actions ATM702x, ATM703x Altera Cyclone V, Arria V/10 Amlogic AML8726, MX, M6x, M801, M802/S802, S812, T866 Apple A5, A5X BroadcomVideoCore BCM21xxx, BCM28xxx Freescale i.MX6x HiSilicon K3V2 InfoTM iMAPx912 Leadcore LC1810, LC1811 MediaTek MT65xx Nvidia Tegra, 2, 3, 4i Nufront NuSmart 2816M, NS115, NS115M Renesas EMMA EV2, R-Car H1, RZ/A Rockchip RK292x, RK30xx, RK31xx Samsung Exynos 4 ST-Ericsson NovaThor Telechips TCC8803 Texas Instruments OMAP 4 VIA WonderMedia WM88x0, 89x0 Xilinx Zynq-7000 ZiiLABS ZMS-20, ZMS-40 Cortex-A15 Allwinner A80 HiSilicon K3V3 MediaTek MT6599 Nvidia Tegra 4, K1 Renesas R-Car H2 Samsung Exynos 5 Texas Instruments OMAP 5, DRA7xx Cortex-A17 MediaTek MT6595 Rockchip RK3288 ARMv7-A compatible Apple A6, A6X Broadcom Brahma-B15 Marvell P4J Qualcomm Snapdragon S1, S2, S3, S4 Plus, S4 Pro, 600, 800 (Scorpion, Krait) Application Processors (64-bit) Cortex-A53 Actions S900 Allwinner A64, H64 Altera Stratix 10 Amlogic S905 EZchip TILE-Mx100 Marvell Armada PXA1928, Mobile PXA1908/PXA1936 MediaTek MT673x, MT675x, MT6795, MT8732, MT8752, Helio X10 Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 Rockchip RK3368 Xilinx ZynqMP Cortex-A57 AMD Opteron A1100 Freescale QorIQ LS20xx Nvidia Tegra X1 Qualcomm Snapdragon 808, 810 Samsung Exynos 7 Cortex-A72 MediaTek Helio X20 Qualcomm Snapdragon 618, 620 ARMv8-A compatible Apple A7, A8, A8X, A9, A9X Applied Micro X-Gene Cavium ThunderX CN87xx, CN88xx Nvidia Tegra K1 (Project Denver) Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (Kryo)

Comparison of the Raspberry Pi B+ & the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

Raspberry Pi Foundation co-founder and spokesman Eben Upton said that from a historical perspective, the Raspberry Pi 2 is now 100 times more powerful than the original ARM-powered computer - the Acorn Archimedes, for which the ARM architecture was invented. The Raspberry Pi 2 is essentially a fully-functioning PC.

With the ARMV7 architecture, the Raspberry Pi has become "mainstream". The Linux kernel / distros for ARM have always been for the ARM V7 instruction set. The Raspberry Pi community has been modifying the ARM V7 Linux kernel for the ARM V6 instruction set for use with all the Broadcom BCM2835 ARMV6 based Raspberry Pi A, B, A+ & B+. Therefore, some older software (compiled for ARM V6) may NOT run as efficiently on the Raspberry Pi 2 until an update compiled for ARM V7 / ARM Cortex A7 quad-core architecture has been released. ARMV7 is backwards-compatible with ARMV6.

See my article on Application ARM-based chips.

Of course, you must have heard that Microsoft is going to release a special variant of Windows 10 designed for Internet of Things (IoT) developers. This will be released as a free download for all Raspberry Pi 2 owners. I haven't tried this at all, maybe something for the future.

I have gathered the following data from various sources and compiled them into a single reference. If you find any errors or omissions, please let me know for correction. If you have any request for any specific information, please let me know so that I can update this comparison sheet accordingly.

	Raspberry Pi B+	Raspberry Pi 2 B
Launch date	July 2014	February 2015
CPU	ARM11	ARM Cortex A7
CPU Instruction Set	ARM V6 32-bit	ARM V7 32-bit
CPU Speed	Single Core @ 700 MHz	Quad Core @ 900 MHz
CPU Overclocking	up to 1000 Mhz	up to 1100 MHz
L1 cache	16KB Instruction x 1 core 16KB Data x 1 core	32KB Instruction x 4 core 32KB Data x 4 core
L2 cache	128KB used by VideoCore IV	512KB
RAM	512MB SDRAM @ 400 MHz Shared with GPU Non-expandable	1GB SDRAM @ 450 MHz Shared with GPU Non-expandable
SoC	Broadcom BCM2835 CPU, GPU, DSP, SDRAM, one USB port	Broadcom BCM2836 CPU, GPU, DSP, SDRAM, one USB port
JTAG	Not populated
GPU	Broadcom VideoCore IV Dual Core @ 250 MHz Multimedia Co-Processor 1Gpixel/s (fill-rate), 1.5Gtexel/s or 24 GFLOPS OpenGL ES 1.1, OpenGL ES 2.0 Hardware-accelerated OpenVG 1.1 Open EGL, OpenMAX MPEG-2 and VC-1 (with license) 1080p30 H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC High-profile decoder and encoder Minimum amount of memory for GPU shall be 32MB
CODECS	HW decoders license - purchase separately, SW decoder by Operating system support
Scalar / Vector Processor (VPU)	Software decode VP6, VP7, VP8, RV, Theora, WMV9 at DVD resolutions
JPEG Encoder / Decoder	Hardware block assisting JPEG encode and decode
Video Encoder / Decoder	1080p30 Full HD HP H.264 Video Encode / Decode Hardware decode H264, MPEG1/2/4, VC1, AVS, MJPG at 1080p30
Image Sensor Pipeline (ISP)	Advanced Image Sensor Pipeline (ISP) for up to 20 Mpixel cameras operating at up to 220 Mpixels per second
Video Output	HDMI 1.3, 1.4 Full HDTV 1080p widescreen Aspect ratio of 16:9 Resolution of 1920x1080 & WUXGA 1920×1200
Other Video Output	15-pin DSI (Display Serial Interface) port for connecting LCD/OLED and touch screen displays See 3.5mm A/V mini-Jack
Video Input	15-pin MIPI (Mobile Industry Processor Interface) CSI-2 (Camera Serial Interface Type 2) V1.01 connector, Used with the Raspberry Pi camera or Raspberry Pi NoIR camera
H265 (HEVC)	No HW support, SW decoder by Operating system support, max 720p25
Real-Time Clock	No HW real-time clock NTP (Network Time Protocol) by Operating system support
Storage	Micro-SDHC up to 64GB No HDD / CD / DVD interface
Ethernet / USB Controller	LAN9514 USB / Ethernet By SMSC (now part of Microchip Technology Inc.) Single 25MHz crystal for both USB and Ethernet connectivity Built-in ±8kV / 15kV contact / air discharge ESD protection on both USB and Ethernet PHYs 4 x integrated downstream USB 2.0 PHYs HS (480 Mbps), FS (12 Mbps) and LS (1.5 Mbps) compatible 1 x integrated downstream 10/100 Ethernet MAC/PHY Full- and half-duplex support with flow control With HP Auto-MDIX Fully compliant with IEEE802.3 / 802.3u 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX support Preamble generation and removal Automatic 32-bit CRC generation and checking 1 x integrated upstream USB 2.0 (480Mbps) PHY
Ethernet Port (RJ45)	1 x 10/100 Mb/s
USB Ports	4 x USB 2.0 Current draw limit 600mA Software adjustable to 1.2A by Operating system support (connect a keyboard, mouse, Wi-Fi adapter & 2.5” external HDD simultaneously)
GPIO (General Purpose Input Output)	40-pins 2.54 mm (100 mil) expansion header: 2x20 strip Providing 27 GPIO pins as well as +3.3V (3V3) / max 48mA, +5V and GND supply lines. All digital I/O. No ADCs (Analogue to Digital Converters) The GPIO has 41 registers. All accesses are assumed to be 32-bit.
Wi-Fi / Bluetooth	USB adapter by Operating system support
Audio Circuit	Dedicated low-noise power supply
Audio Output	Multi-Channel HD Audio over HDMI Analog Stereo from 3.5mm Headphone Jack
Audio Input	I2S digital (via GPIO)
3.5mm A/V mini-Jack	3-pole RCA Composite Video Signal (PAL and NTSC) 4-pole TRRS (Tip-Ring-Ring-Sleeve) connector
Operating System	Raspbian, RaspBMC, Arch Linux, RiscOS, OpenELEC, Pidora	Raspbian, RaspBMC, Arch Linux, RiscOS, OpenELEC, Pidora, FreeBSD, Windows 10
Dimensions	85 x 56 x 17mm
Weight	42g
Power Supply Regulator	On-board switching power regulator
Power Supply Protection	Incorporates AP2331 a single channel current-limited integrated highside power switches optimized for hot-swap applications. It offers reverse-current blocking, over-current, over-temperature and short-circuit protection, as well as controlled rise time and under-voltage lockout functionality. Input voltage range: 2.7V – 5.2V.
Power Supply Rating	600mA / 3.0W	800mA / 4.0W
Power Supply / Voltage	1.8A @ 5V	2.0A @ 5V
Power Supply Adapter	The best adapter provides 5.1V and the USB cable with 20AWG wires - even at a full 2A draw, the voltage shall not be lower than 4.9V.
Power Input Port	1 x Micro-USB
Power Consumption	Raspberry Pi B+ / mA	Raspberry Pi 2 B / mA
Idling	200	230
Loading LXDE	230	310
Watch 1080p Video	240	290
Shoot 1080p Video (using Pi Camera)	330	350

The Power Consumption data was lifted from Raspberry Pi2 – Power and Performance Measurement which also claims that the quad-core CPU consumes 50mA / 250mW per core.

The hardware codec license for MPEG-2 license key and VC-1 license key may be purchased directly from Raspberry Pi Store.

Happy try-out!  Hope you enjoy your Raspberry Pi experience!

CAUTION: Your circumstances, connections, interfaces, options and versions may differ and needs to be re-evaluated for your specific application.