Earlier this year, we wrote aboutSipeed MAIX-II Dock AIoT vision devkitwith anAllwinner V831camera processor with a small 200 MOPS NPU, an Omnivision SP2305 2MP camera sensor, and a 1.3-inch display.
But for some reason, which could be supply issues, Sipeed has designed a much different variant calledMAIX-II Awith a board based on Allwinner R329 smart audio processor, a 720p30 USB camera module, and a 1.5-inch display.
MAIX-II A board specifications:
- Main M.2 module – Maix-II A module withAllwinner R329dual-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz,256MB DDR3 on-chip, a dual-core HIFI4 DSP @ 400 MHz, and Arm China AIPU AI accelerator for up to 256 MOPS, plusWi-Fi & BLE and a footprint for an SPI Flash.
- Storage – MicroSD card socket
- Display – 1.5-inch LCD display with 240×240 resolution
- Audio – Dual microphones, 3W speakers
- Camera – 720p USB-C camera module based onOV9732sensor
Video – H.264/H.265/JPEG 720p30 hardware video encoder- Connectivity
- Realtek RTL8723DS for WiFI 4 and Bluetooth LE On M.2 module
- 24-pin FPC connector on M.2 module for Gigabit Ethernet
- USB – 2x USB-C ports one OTG port, and for debugging (USB to TLL)
- Expansion
- 2.54mm pitch 20-pin header + 10-pin header with 11 GPIOs, up to 3x I2C, IR receiver pin, 2x I2S, 2x SPI, Gigabit Ethernet, 4 ADC, 5x UART
- 4-pin Grove connector (UART)
- Misc – Reset button, 4x user buttons, 1x FEL button to flash the firmware
- Power Supply – 5V
On the software side, the board supports the official Allwinner Tina Linux SDK based on OpenWrt 14.07, but an Arm Debian image will also be offered. The board will also come with theAIPU Buildersupporting Tensorflow Lite and other AI frameworks compatible with the ONNX file format.
I do not understand where the H.265/H.264/JPEG video encoder is, as Allwinner R329 does not embed such a video encoder, and as I understand it OV9732 module outputs raw video data. So maybe it’s handled by the DSP or AI accelerator inside the Allwinner SoC.[Update: I’ve been informed it was just a copy/paste error, and there’s no video encoder]
Sipeed should eventually release the information in English via Twitter and/or other sources, but right now the only information I have isonly in Chinese.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Just how much RAM does that really have? The block diagram says 256MB DDR… but the various spec sheets for the R329 talk about 64 or 128MB?
I’ll also note that various of the Allwinner documentation seems a bit confused about what processor is in the R329… The text says it has dual Cortex-A53, whereas the diagrams show “ARM Cortex-A7 ×2″… Sounds like Allwinner really needs to review their documentation and graphical assets..https://www.allwinnertech.com/uploads/pdf/2021020419441232.pdf
There are two dies inside the package. Allwinner can include different DRAM dies to change the storage amount. I don’t have data on which options are available.
There is a simple fix for the missing h.264 encoder. Switch USB cameras. Here’s one with an h.264 encoder included for $8.44:https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000936541045.html
These work by sending two streams over USB – MJPEG and h.264. That lets you easily display and process the images (using R329 AI) in the MJPEG stream. Then you send the h.264 stream onto the final destination without ever decoding it.
Sipeed people can likely shop around and find a better camera choice.
I wonder if one could buy just that m.2 module alone? That could be great.
是的,芯板称为M2A R329 +无线国防部ule on it
That’s great, now I wonder if it can be ordered without wi-fi, because I don’t need that either and desoldering it looks like a pain.
嗨Zepan,高兴看到你背后的这个职业ject. The V3S in the Leechi Pi helped us a lot with the FunKey S, this new board and the R329 seem like the perfect next step.
Where could we buy both the M2 module and the daughter board as soon as possible, so that we can get working?
Any taobao link maybe, I couldn’t find anything yet on Sipeed.
Does anyone have the R329 datasheet? I downloaded all of the ‘open source’ R329 stuff and there is complete build environment but no datasheet. I want to see details of I2S support.
Well it’s available on the same site (open.allwinnertech.com), but I doubt whether this site is properly i18ned.
It is there now, I just downloaded it.
Hold up, 256MB? I’m pretty sure top DRAM option was 1Gbit (128MB), has something changed for the better without any mention?
The R329 is available in two pin compatible versions – 128MB or 256MB. It is up to Sipeed to pick which one they use.
I’ve seen mentions of 64MB and 128MB dies more than 256MB.
Do you know if there is a possibility of sampling just the chip from Allwinner or someone close?
I don’t see any obvious listings of bare chips for sale that are easy for foreigners to access. Send the Sipeed people an email, they’ll likely sell you some. It is not that R329 is particularly hard to get, there is no demand for it form foreigners so no one has any up for sale.