Introduce the Radxa Zero

this project looks amazing,
usb-c !!! yes
faster, and more ram!! yes

I think you’ve got a real winner here.

how can I get my hands on one to play with? are they for sale any time soon, or is there a early test release that I can get hold off?

regards

CoreELEC is now running on Radxa Zero

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Hi guys, I already make 2 quick videos about this amazing new board!!
this will be an amazing rockpi family

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvzq1jnDX1U&t=12s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGkF6FD83Sc&t=514s

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That was fast.

Please share link to Mainline uboot. @SleepWalker have already recieved it and want to prepare a uboot to be used with freebsd.

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Also thanks to the work by the CoreELEC team, EmuELEC is also working on the Radxa Zero, and I must say I am very impressed by this device considering the size.

I will release a testing img very soon for those that want to try it.

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For a while I have thought the Pi Zero is show its age and microcontrollers have become valid alternatives.

So the Raspberry Pi3A+ has been my fave SBC for a while but looks like especially with the Mali-G31 GPU with quad A53 but on a zero format 7 price.
Yeah wow that is looking a better product and eager to find out what overlays are available especially with I2S.

For price looks amazing and also the quad A53 from Pi experience is still a really good embedded fit.

I want one! :slight_smile:

PS does that thing also have a spare pcie lane?

Also I was pleasantly surprised but just few options as always surprises me how many options radxa often provide. They seem to be well chosen and well priced.
I was thinking I want 2gb no emmc but with some thought not needing a SD card with Wifi/BT5 the 8gb emmc is so well priced that 2gb no emmc is prob pointless.

Its a crazy small board but if it could have a M.2 or maybe a Zero-m.2 board could be created as it would be really interesting to use a Coral Ai m.2 as even the Pi CM4 can not as the nature of VC6 & the PCIe controller has problems where only very simple cards & ssd work.

Then again with https://github.com/ARM-software/armnn it will be at least interesting what sort of acceleration the mali could provide with tensorflow and the Radxa zero has advantages over the Pi3 never mind Zero

when building the mainline u-boot on the aarch64 architecture, instead of aml_encrypt_g12a, use the meson64-tools project, I did not conduct full testing (there is no board with a processor from amlogic) but this recommendation was from the issues.

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I presume much can be grabbed from other existing s905XXX SBC?

https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-c2/odroid-c2

I got that from elinux.org as are there any others apart from the usual goodies from https://docs.armbian.com/ ?

https://www.armbian.com/khadas-vim1/
https://www.armbian.com/odroid-c2/
https://www.armbian.com/lepotato/
https://www.armbian.com/nanopi-k2/

https://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_K2

I am struggling to find a specific datasheet for the s905y2 which presume is pretty much the same as a s905x2 minus ethernet.
From what I can gather it has x8 channels I2S in /out and hopefully is picked up as a codec if enabled.
The SoC for cost has extremely strong video and multimedia capability and brings up seem interesting options in gadget mode especially for x8 channels in.

I am hoping we don’t play gpio musical chairs through revisions and often wonder about the validity and density of a 40pin that is likely not Pi compatible.
I don’t think that matters that much but why even have that format where more dense ribbon connectors prob could connect to 40 pin gpio board(s) that could give a choice of mux setups.
I am not sure what that tiny board constraints are but by adding up probable pads 40 pin even on a small board isn’t going to fit?

https://linux-meson.com/doku.php is a great source of info @jack but do you have a specific soc datasheet and is anyone starting on a wiki (radxa or community)?

The Zero wiki is up :slight_smile:
https://wiki.radxa.com/Zero/hardware

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Great! In terms of specifications: in the Reference Manual I found
"SDSC/SDHC/SDXC card and SDIO interface with 1-bit and 4-bit data bus width supporting spec version 2.x/3.x/4.x DS/HS modes up to UHS-I SDR104 "

Which implies that, in combination with the usb c, usb 3.0; 5 Gb/s, theoretical maximum copy speeds from an UHS-1 SD card to an USB-c onnected SSD could reach speeds of 104 MB/s?

That would be ideal for my application, any idea when this amazing board will become available :slight_smile:?

Supposedly its UHS mode compliant unlike the Pi SD card.

There is a small amount of stock on allnet.china that devs can work on as a 1st revision.

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Believe me. You don’t need an RJ45 port! Because it’s Zero!) It has WiFi AC (802.11) and this speed is enough for work, videos and a little part of online games.

The second reason why there will never be an RJ45 is the form factor (size). There is not even a USB-A here, because technically USB-C is more compact and technologically advanced.

PS:// USB-Ethernet adapter can help you.

RJ45? True it doesn’t but where did I mention or anyone that?

I was thinking a same format usb 3.0 hub could be cool as an accessory though.
I don’t really think of the Radxa Zero in terms of the Pi Zero as the Pi Zero for me as an application SBC just didn’t have enough Ooomf even though I have a few.
I think the best products Pi do are the Pi3A+ & Pi4 2gb and the Radxa Zero is really interesting as it sits between the two.
So yeah RJ45 is no problem as a USB Gbe or USB cam module are all easy additions but why bother if you have WiFi or even gadget mode networking.

Turned up and emu-elec and retro gaming really isn’t my thing but for some reason when the above turned up in my notifications and with the advent of the Radxa Zero I have been wondering if there is a case with joypad pcbs.

A ‘builders’ modular retro console might be fun and interesting @shanti can you hack and reuse old consoles or get modular parts?

I think I will have a view of that vid and see what they think as might have a go at this :slight_smile:

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I am sure its possible, but can I do it personally? I wish I could but no, sorry

@stuartiannaylor apparently not… I just got an email back from Tom (tom@radxa.com), which i asked the same question, he replied:

“Currently Radxa Zero doesn’t support UHS sdcard. We plan to add the support for next hw revision but might be not possible since the board size is too small.”

I have already ordered a 2GB version, so I am curious how fast the current trasfer speeds might be from the uSD card slot. Once I receive the Zero, I will test this and also test the transfer speed with a usb-c to usb 3.0 dongel hub, connected to UHS-I sd card reader and SSD.

Strange though, that the specification sheet already states “supporting spec version 2.x/3.x/4.x
DS/HS modes up to UHS-I SDR104” . @jack do you possibly have more information about this :slight_smile: ?

I read that as well.

I think these initial samples are just that as my 512mb (wanted as near Pi zero just to test) didn’t go that well as can not seem to boot.

The chipset on paper looks awesome so hopefully with a revision and also because its actually more between a Pi3 & Pi4 than zero level a bigger Pi3A+ type board would be no bother to me.

PS as for modular it seems a whole cottage industry of 3rd party parts for nintendo switch joy-con has turned up that give an interesting selection of premade parts.

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你好,有方便国内下载TwisterOS和Manjaro这两个镜像的地址吗?

Googledrive a no go haimu?

If you msg me will upload it for you somewhere?