Introduce the Radxa Zero

Zero Series
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Dear community

We are happy to announce the Radxa Zero, a new member of our SBC family. We’ve been wanted to make the Zero form factor since long time ago but there is no good SoC choice. RK3326 was the close one but it doesn’t support HDMI. Until we read the news of Xiaomi TV Dongle announcement, it’s powered by the Amlogic S905Y series. It turned us on. After we checked the spec of Amlogic Y series chips, we decide to make it immediately. Amlogic Y series chips is stripped for small dongle applications both on footprint and power. We can pack as large as 4GB LPDDR4 ram, 256G eMMC and WiFi5 into a 66*30mm small board, it’s really amazing.

Brief spec of the Radxa Zero:

  • CPU: Quad Cortex-A53 1.8 GHz, 12nm process
  • GPU: Mali G31 MP2
  • RAM: LPDDR4 512MB/1GB/2GB/4GB
  • Storage: eMMC 5.1 8/16/32/64/128GB and uSD card
  • HDMI: Micro HDMI, HDMI 2.1, 4K@60 HDR
  • Multimedia: H265/VP9 decode 4Kx2K@60
  • Wireless: WiFi4/BT4 or WiFi5/BT5
  • USB: One USB 2.0 Type C OTG, one USB 3.0 Type C host
  • GPIO: 40Pin GPIO, ADC/UART/SPI/PWM
  • Others: Crypto Engine, support external antenna, one button
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Pictures:

zero_top
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zero_bottom
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Software

S905Y2 is the 12th generation architecture from Amlogic, code name g12a(g12b is S922x). See this picture. Amlogic provides Android 9 for the Y2 and it’s running very well on the Radxa Zero 2GB and 4GB version.

Armbian already has support for some Amlogic devices(g12b) and we’ve already have Armbian booting on the Zero. It will be our official support OS.

Android 9

https://dl.radxa.com/zero/images/android/radxa_zero_android_9_20210708-amlupdate.img.gz

TwisterOS

Twister-OS_Armbian_Focal_20.10_xfce-rockpi-zero-beta2.img.xz
TwisterOS.Armbian.Focal.Radxa-Zero.Beta3.img.xz
user: pi
password: root0815

Manjaro-ARM-xfce-rock-pi-zero-21.03.img.xz
user: pi
password: radxa

EmuELEC

Forum Discussion Topic

https://github.com/EmuELEC/EmuELEC-tests/releases/download/v4.3-TEST-07112021/EmuELEC-Amlogic-ng.aarch64-4.3-TEST-07112021-Radxa_Zero.img.gz

MiniMyth2

  • SD Card image

https://github.com/warpme/minimyth2/releases/download/v11.20.2-v32-Pre-2787-g4eaa9cdbad/MiniMyth2-armv8-master-11.20.2.r2787-board-g12.radxa_zero-SD-Image.img.xz

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Price & Models

  • 512MB LPDDR4 with WiFi4/BT4 - 15$
  • 1GB LPDDR4 with WiFi4/BT4 - 20$
  • 2GB LPDDR4 with 8GB eMMC, WiFi5/BT5 - 30$
  • 4GB LPDDR4 with 16GB eMMC, WiFi5/BT5 - 45$

About 100pcs with the above models mixed are ready for early developers. Free donation to open source developers as usual, Armbian, LibreELEC, FreeBSD, Manjaro etc… Massive production will be in 8 weeks.

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Thank you.

The specification is looking impressive for its price. Please design a heatsink and case for normal use.

Interesting. Manjaro ARM also have support for (g12b)

Please do send to Neil Armstrong (Baylibre Team) and Christian Hewitt(LibreElec) for pushing its support to upstream linux kernel, DM me so I can coordinate with them for you.

Great work.

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wow, that is nice, I do want to develop some boot stuff for this board, but i´m testing things with the rock pi x, and is taking some time.Can you guys made avaiable the datasheet for this board? I want to see more specs of it :).

Don´t forget to put some space for I-pex antena :slight_smile:

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I have an ongoing project which uses DepthAI OAK-D camera. I was looking for a bigger memory and powerful Pi Zero substitute since form factor is important for the deployment. Maybe I can add support for the OAK D depth camera if you can send me the 4GB version ASAP.

Thanks,
Naveen

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Count me in, I am very interested.

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nice to see a new product.
added information to the Russian forum.

it’s a good idea to make a small cluster from such boards.

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Really nice to see a new board with this form factor. I have been looking for a more powerful replacement for the Pi Zero for years (I am currently using the NanoPi Duo2).

I would love to test the performance of the board to run machine learning models.

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Would be good to get a 4GB board and get to porting

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Does this also support ubuntu 20.04?

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I see the OAK D depth camera is also USB C port, so maybe a USB C to C cable connects to the zero is enough.

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Port what software :slight_smile:

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Yes, we can select Ubuntu 20.04 as Armbian base line.

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Thanks for the Russian post. For the cluster, you mean like this?

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@jack Yes you are right! By the way what is the maximum current can be drawn from the USC C port? I think it is USB 3.0, right?

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Hi Jack,

I would love to buy one the * 4GB LPDDR4 with 16GB eMMC, WiFi5/BT5 - 45$

I have a strong following on Linkedin and will review and promote the board to my followers for you.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lanceharvie/

Thank you

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Manjaro Linux. Or have you guys already ported?

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Yes, the left USB C is 3.0 type C host only, support USB C HUB but doesn’t support PD due to the board size limitation. The max current for the left USB C port is 1A.