OLIMEX© 2015
A13-SOM user's manual
1.3 Features of A13-SOM boards
The A13-SOM board has the following set of features:
•
Allwinner A13 Cortex-A8 processor typically running at 1Ghz
•
256MB or 512MB DDR3 memory, depending on the board version – please note that
the 256MB version is not suitable for a smooth Android experience
•
Power management DCDC
•
MicroSD card
•
UART console connector
•
4 connectors 0.05'' step
•
Status LEDs
•
RESET, UBOOT/HOME buttons
•
Dimensions: (2400×2100)mil ~ (61×53)mm
1.4 Board variants
There are two major board variants named: A13-SOM-256 and A13-SOM-512. The 256 version has
256MB of DDR3 RAM memory compared to the 512 version that has double the amount.
It is important to notice that the 256MB of DDR3 RAM are insufficient to run Android OS properly.
If you are interested in Android development for Allwinner A13 I recommend you to get the
512MB version of A13-SOM.
A similar board is A13-OLinuXino – it is meant for fully evaluating the capabilities of A13
processor. if you are going to implement A13-SOM into custom design it would be a good idea to
first check on the A13-OLinuXino – it would be easier to evaluate the capabilites of the A13
processor, due to the
The other Olimex board with close characteristics is A20-SOM board. It is a bit bigger and a bit
more expensive. However, has a generation newer dual-core processor that is better for heavy
computations (for instance, high resolution video decoding and encoding). The A20-SOM board
also has a bigger extension shield with almost all of the peripherals supported by the A20 processor.
This extension is named 'A20-SOM-EVB'.
1.5 Board version used in the manual
A13-SOM-256 revision D board and A13-SOM-512 revision D boards were used while writing this
document. It is possible that part of the information is outdated.
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