Tiny Allwinner H3 Based Linux Development Kit Comes With SoM and Expansion Board

Seeed Studio provided Zhihui with a complete service from PCBA prototyping, customization, and consignment services, bring the product from idea to market. This has led to an open-source, Linux Development Kit with SoM and Expansion Board that runs Ubuntu Core on a quad-core Allwinner H3 called the Quantum Mini Linux Development Kit.

The SoM, Quark-N, is based on Allwinner H3, Quad-core Cortex-A7, and ARM Mali400 MP2 GPU. The carrier board, Atom-N, features an array of golden finger pins to enable I/O expansion, expand SPI, I2C, UART, GPIO, and other useful interfaces. The Quantum Mini Linux Dev. Kit is possibly the smallest Linux development board on the market. It is a highly integrated kit with quad-core CPU that can run Linux at only 40mm x 35mm, which also includes network connectivity. The development kit is suitable for scenarios such as a personal server, intelligent voice assistant, and for robotic development.

The SoM, which is called Quark-N is based on Allwinner H3, Quad-core Cortex-A7, and ARM Mali400 MP2 GPU. The 6-layer high-density gold PCB design integrates a complete ARM-Linux system (CPU, DDR, eMMC) in a 2x3cm space. Also, most of the GPIOs are connected on the board through the M.2 Key-A golden finger interface to minimize the bottom board design difficulty. However, you can design your own base plate with two-layer boards. The carrier board is called Atom-N, and Quark-N is connected to Atom-N via the M.2 interface. Atom-N features a row of golden finger pins to enable I/O expansion, expand SPI, I2C, UART, GPIO, and other interfaces to facilitate the completion of your own design. It is also equipped with a microphone, MPU6050 motion sensor (accelerometer and gyroscope), onboard 4 buttons (GPIO-KEY, Uboot, Recovery, Reset), IPS display, and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity which greatly expands the possibilities with this product.

The core features of the development kit include:

• Ultra-small (31mmx22mm) and highly integrated Quad-core Cortex-A7 Linux SoM (System on Module)
• Expansion board (40mmx35mm) with rich peripherals and interfaces: Microphone, Gyroscope, Accelerometer,4 x Buttons (GPIO-KEY,
• Uboot, Recovery, Reset) and a TFT display
• Integrates a complete ARM-Linux system for advanced development
• Ability to design your own baseboard due to the M.2 interface
• Wide range of applications such as a personal server, intelligent voice assistant, and robotic development.

Application of the development kit includes:

• Microcomputer
• Personal website server
• Programming learning such as Python
• Image processing
• Robotics
• Voice assistant
• Smart home hub

Specifications listed for the Quantum Mini include:

• Processor (via Quark-N module) — Allwinner H3 (4x Cortex-A7 @ 1.0GHz); Mali-400 MP2 GPU @600MHz; 256KB L1, 1MB L2 cache
• Memory/storage:
  *512MB DDR3 SDRAM (via Quark-N)
  *16GB eMMC (via Quark-N), expandable to 64GB
  *MicroSD slot
• Networking — 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n with Bluetooth 4.0 (Realtek RTL8723BU); Ethernet support available on Quark-N
• Media I/O – TFT display; microphone
• Other I/O:
  *2x USB 2.0 host ports
  *USB Type-C port with power input
  *8x golden finger pads with SPI, I2C, UART, GPIO, ADC, speaker, 5V, 3.3V, GND
• Other features — Gyro/accelerometer (MPU6050); 4x buttons (GPIO-KEY, Uboot, Recovery, Reset)
• Power – 5V via USB Type-C
• Operating temperature — 0 to 80℃ for Quark-N
• Dimensions — 40 x 35mm (31 x 22mm for Quark-N)
• Operating system — Ubuntu Core

The development kit is a collaboration between Seeed and Zhihui, and they still want to collaborate with other developers. They say :

“If you have a design with great potential and think others would be interested in it, you can start with Seeed Fusion Marketplace. Seeed Fusion Marketplace is a great platform to make your PCBA product available to a worldwide audience without handling production and order processing. It can help you scout out the interest in your design and gauge its real market potential.”

The Quantum Mini is available for pre-order from Seeed at $49.90, with shipments due Dec. 20. More information may be found on Seeed’s shopping page and the Project Quantum GitHub page.

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