OLIMEX/OLINUXINO

OLinuXino - Single-Board Linux Computer, Copyright (C) 2012-2019, OLIMEX Ltd

THE PROJECT:

OLinuXino is an Open Source Software and Open Source Hardware project, aiming to produce low cost (starting from EUR 24)
Linux and Android Single Board Computers (SBC) in both commercial and industrial temperature range. Board variants with extra flash memory
are also available.

People keep comparing OLinuXino with Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone project, so we would like to state some of the differences here:

Although the projects are similar there are different goals and implementations:

OLINUXINO is completely open source - including hardware and software, this means you have access to all CAD files and sources and you
can reuse them for your own personal or commercial project. There are NO restrictions to manufacture and sell these board for your own 
use or resale, just keep credits that your board is based on OLinuXino design and make sure to change the silkscreen to not confuse people that you are selling original OLinuXino.

iMX233-OLINUXINO use widely available microcontroller iMX233 which cost USD 5.50 in 100 pcs quantity, this means that people can spin 
off their own boards and manufacture them cheap as the processor is in TQFP easy to assembly by hobbyist package.

RASPBERRY PI have not released CAD files nor complete schematics, RPi uses processor from Broadcom which is not available for sale in 
small quantity, it uses BGA package which require expensive setup to assembly. RPi is designed to be home gadget, OLINUXINO viarnatns
can work in industrial environment -25+85C and are designed to be low cost but NOISE immune.

BeagleBone have open source CAD hardware files but uses BGA processor and BB board is very complex and hard to manufacture in small 
quantities.

iMX233-OLINUXINO uses processor on 454Mhz and have less memory and will not allow fancy graphics, but this is not our intention.

To name few potential applications for OLINUXINO:

- 3D rep-rap printer controller including G-code interpreter - now all 3D printers use PC/Laptop connected to Arduino stepper driver, this board will handle both without problem
- Low cost PLC running open source PLC porgramming languages
- Home Automation - connecting GSM module or Zigbee sensors would be easy with the existing UEXT connector
- OLINUXINO has 100Mbit Ethernet port, but there are many low cost $10 WIFI USB modules with Linux drivers like RTL8192 which allow OLINUXINO to connect to internet wireless and to may control relays and sensors without need for LAN wiring.
- Having small linux module with GPIOs would be handy even to embed it in other products. BeagleBone do not allow the board to be used in commercial projects, there are no restrictions with OLINUXINO

THE DEVELOPMENT PATH:

Step 1:
OLinuXino project started with iMX233 from Freescale for several reasons: this is ARM9 processor running at 454Mhz with enough power to run linux and still in handsolder friendly TQFP package, which allow hobby DIY approach. iMX233-OLinuXino-MICRO is even on 2 layer PCB and running at full speed. The maximum memory of 64MB though limited the applications with it, so we were looking around for something more powerful when A13 from Allwinner came along.

Step 2:
A13 is Cortex-A8 processor which can address up to 512MB RAM and run at 1GHz. The best of all it again comes in the hand soldering friendly TQFP package (actually it's the first and the only Cortex-A8 in TQFP package). So designing A13-OLinuXino was the next logical step. The first prototypes are already produced and everything works as expected. A13-OLinuXino production is scheduled for September.
A13-OLinuXino have 512MB RAM, 4 USB hosts (1 dedicated for WIFI), 1 USB-OTG, Audio out, Audio in, SD-card, VGA, buttons, 72 GPIOs, LCD connector

Step 3:
A10 is the big brother of A13 it's also Cortex-A8 running at 1Ghz (many Chinese tablet/set-top-box vendors write it's 1.2 or 1.5GHz but this is overclocking and same is possible with A13 too, but not recommended for normal operation). It can address up to 2GB of RAM, and on top of A13 have SATA, HDMI, VGA and composite video outputs) + much more GPIOs as it's in BGA442 package. While we developed A13-OLinuXino we got many requests for hackable A10 board as all current solutions are tablets or set-top-boxes which are not designed to have GPIO connectors and to allow hardware hacking
A10-OLinuXino will have same as A13 but including more GPIOs, 1GB RAM, HDMI, SATA and 100MBit Ethernet

Step 4:
A10S is new processor from Allwinner with Ethernet and HDMI. Low cost board with A10S Cortex-A8 @ 1GHz + 512MB RAM + Ethernet 100Mbit + USB Host/USB-OTG + SD-card + SD-MMC card + HDMI is released.

Step 5:
A20 is Dual Core Cortex-A7 processor which is almost pin to pin compatible, so A10 board can work with A20 processors too. We have low cost A20 board prototypes working and A20-SOM work in progress.

Step 6:
Texas Instruments Sitara AM3352 processor is necessary for Industrial customers who want longivity supply program, TI as Freescale guarantee that when start producing processor continue the production at least 5-10 years, this way customers are not forced to change their designs every year. So we work on AM3352 module with: AM3352 720Mhz, Cortex-A8 processor, 512MB DDR3 RAM (optional we will make 1GB RAM version also), power supply 6-16VDC, x4 USB 2.0 hosts, 100Mbit Ethernet, SD-card, VGA, CAN, GPIO connector, LCD connector with touchscreen to work with A13-LCD7TS and A13-43TS LCDs, UEXT connector, JTAG.

Step 7:
Allwinner A64 chip into A64-OLinuXino development board.

Step 8:
DYI laptop TERES-I with A64 chip.

Step 9:
RT5350F-OLinuXino first MIPS OLinuXino with Ralink RT5350 
S3-OLinuXino camera linux board with Allwinner S3 SOC
STM32MP15X-OLinuXino-LIME2 - board with same layout as A20-OLinuXino-LIME2 but with STM new DUal Core Cortex-A7 processor STM32MP157
iMX8QM-TUKHLA - OLinuXino board with most powerful NXP iMX8 processor QUAD MAX with Dual core Cortex-A72 and Quad code Cortex-A53 

Step 10:
... we don't know yet, there are lot of candidates, but we start to become a little picky. To start the development of new OSHW OLinuXino board we will look at least the SOC to have proper Linux Support as we are really overwhelmed of the tons of new SOCs released with just Android and binary blobs.
Rockchip is doing very good job recently releasing mainline Linux support for their devices.

WEB RESOURCES:

http://www.olimex.com - OLIMEX Ltd web site where the OLinuXino board info is hosted

https://github.com/OLIMEX/OLINUXINO - GitHub web site hosting the Hardware and Software sources

https://www.olimex.com/forum/index.php - Olimex forum for OLinuXino project discussions

OLinuXino IRC channel: join #olimex on irc.freenode.net , alternatively use http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=olimex for web IRC chat

LICENSEE:

HARDWARE
The Hardware project is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
You may reproduce it for both your own personal use, and for commercial use. 
You will have to provide a link to the original creator of the project http://www.olimex.com on any documentation or website.
You may also modify the files, but you must then release them as well under the same terms.
Credit can be attributed through a link to the creator website: http://www.olimex.com
You should alter the silkscreen to not confuse people who buy your product that they buy original OLinuXino made by Olimex.

SOFTWARE
The software is released under GPL3.

DOCUMENTATION
The documentation is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.