Low Cost Sipeed Tang HEX Features Xilinx Zynq-7020

Chinese vendor Sipeed has announced a $72, open spec “Sipeed Tang Hex” SBC which supports Linux on a Xilinx Zynq-7020. This is coming after they recently launched a Sipeed MaxiCube dev based on a Kenryte K210 RISC-V chip, and a FPGA board called Sipeed Tang based on an a Gowin GW1N-1-LV FPGA selling for $5. The board goes by other names like the Lychee Sugar and the Litchi candy. The Sipeed Tang HEX can be purchased for $72 with shipping on Aliexpress,  and it is referred to as the “Lychee HEX ZYNQ-7020 FPGA Development Board Raspberry pie Edition ZEDBOARD” on AliEXpress. You can also get it for 439 RMB ($62) on Taobao for people based in China, and on Amazon for $124.13 with free shipping.

The $72 price tag is fair considering the price of other open-spec Zynq-7000 SBCs such as MYIR Z-turn Board, which sells for $119, which features a Zynq-7020, 1GB RAM, and 512MB NAND flash, and the Z-turn Lite with less features, which sells for $75 and features a Zynq-7010 with a lower-end FPGA and 512MB RAM. However, the Xilinx Zynq-7020 (XC7Z020-1CLG484) features dual-core Arm Cortex-A9 processor and FPGA with 85K logic cells, 4.9Mb Block RAM, 220 DSP slices. The TANG Hex enables 1GB LPDDR3, 256MB NAND, and a microSD slot. It offers a 10/100Mbps Ethernet port, which is in contrast to the GbE on the Z-turn, and 4x USB 2.0 ports. For onboard interfaces, it features a UART, JTAG, and the 26-pin GPIO, which is unknown if it will support early Pi add-on boards. The board is powered by a 12V/3.5A DC jack, and it enables a power button and 2x user LEDs. There is no HDMI output/input just like the other boards.

The SBC specifications look ok, but it features no power supply or cables. The only information about documentation is a link to schematics. For now, there is no response from the company about the board. Hopefully, we will get better documentation about the board from the company because the documentation available looks scattered. The board might likely be an open-source board with limited tech support. The Sipeed TANG Hex is available at AliExpress for $72.47 plus $1.05 shipping to the U.S. and in China at Taobao for 439 RMB ($62) plus shipping and at Amazon for $124.13 with free shipping which is handled by it’s a company or reseller called Taidacent. Sipeed’s website does not contain enough information about the board, however, you could find more information on Sipeed’s wiki.

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