ODroid C1+

Description

The ODROID-C1+ is esteemed to be the most powerful low-cost single board computer available, as well as being an extremely versatile device. Featuring a quad-core Amlogic processor, advanced Mali GPU, and Gigabit Ethernet, it can function as a home theater set-top box, a general purpose computer for web browsing, gaming and socializing, a compact tool for college or office work, a prototyping device for hardware tinkering, a controller for home automation, a workstation for software development, and much more.

Some of the modern operating systems that run on the ODROID-C1+ are Ubuntu, Android, Fedora, ARCHLinux, Debian, and OpenELEC, with thousands of free open-source software packages available. The ODROID-C1+ is an ARM device -- the most widely used architecture for mobile devices and embedded 32-bit computing. The ARM processor’s small size, reduced complexity and low power consumption makes it very suitable for miniaturized devices such as wearables and embedded controllers.

An additional MicroSD card or an eMMC module is required to install the OS. We recommend the eMMC module as it has much higher performance than standard MicroSD cards

Main features:

• CPU: Amlogic ARM® Cortex®-A5(ARMv7) 1.5Ghz quad core CPUs
• GPU: 2x Mali™-450 MP GPU (OpenGL ES 2.0/1.1 enabled for Linux and Android)
• RAM: 1Gbyte 32bit DDR3 SDRAM @ 792MHz
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 40pin GPIOs + 7pin I2S
• Storage: eMMC4.5 HS200 Flash Storage slot / UHS-1 SDR50 MicroSD Card slot
• USB: USB 2.0 Host x 4, USB OTG x 1 (power + data capable)
• Infrared(IR) Receiver
• RTC: Included on the board (just need a battery)
• Operating system: Ubuntu or Android OS
• Video Output: Standard Type-A HDMI connector
• Optional - Camera input: USB 720p
• Optional - Hard Drive: plug an HDD/SSD awith an external USB 3.0 SuperSpeed to Serial ATA3 for 2.5"/3.5" hard-drive and storage over SSD
• An included heat sink on board
• An I2S bus to support HiFi audio add-on boards
• CEC function that doesn't require the RTC backup battery
• Power supply: A power path from USB OTG port as well as 2.5mm DC barrel connector
• Size: 85 x 56mm
• Weight: 40gr

For Makers:

• Serial port (UART) - Take care to use the appropriate USB-to-Serial module, 1.8 Volts logic.
• GPIO 40 pins : GPIO / UART/SPI/I2C/ADC
• GPIO 7 pins  : I2S
• Support for Wiring-Pi (Please see the ODroid's wiki).
• Warning: 3.3 Volts logic, max 1.8V for the ADC function!
• Take care: the pins #37, #38 & #40 are not compatible with the 40 pins headers of the Pi B+/Pi 2/Pi 3. Those pins are reserved for ADC operations.

ODroid C2 vs Raspberry-Pi

Both are Linux-friendly ARM® single-board computers for various applications and purposes.

The ODroid-C1+ has many advantages.
Having the same size of a Raspberry Pi 3, it offers processor is an S805 SoC 1.5GHz Quad-core (vs 1.2 GHz for Pi) from Amlogic with 1GByte DDR3 RAM @ 792 MHz (vs 400 MHz for Pi), Gigabit-Ethernet (vs Eth 100 over USB for the Pi) and IR-receiver.

One powerful feature of the ODROID-C1+ is an standard compatible UHS-1 MicroSD card (@78MHz vs 50 MHz for the Pi), as well as the faster eMMC module, can be ordered with the ODROID-C1+, and arrives with the popular Ubuntu operating system already installed

It offers silent operation, 2~3W average power usage and he RTC, IR receiver and ADC features on the ODROID-C1+ offer many options for building great DIY projects.

Storage speed comparison

The C1+ can boot from a MicroSD card or an eMMC module. The MicroSD interface supports the higher performance UHS-1 mode as well. File access of a 512MB file (read/write) on two different storage options shows distinct performance differences. The eMMC 5.0 storage is ~7x faster than the MicroSD Class-10 card in read tests. The MicroSD UHS-1 card is ~2x faster than the MicroSD Class-10 card in read tests. The MicroSD UHS-1 card provides a great low-cost option for many applications!

Ethernet performance comparison

The ODROID-C1+ has an on-board Gigabit Ethernet controller. Our bi-directional streaming speed was measured at ~900Mbps.
With Gigabit connexion, the C1+ can reach 900 Mbit/s where the Raspberry Pi (2) reach 98.6 MBit/s.

About the display resolution

The 4K HDMI output shows gorgeous desktop screen on 3840 x 2160 UHD resolution.
But the rendering speed is not good due to the limited performance.

4K video playback on the Android OS is quite stable and fast for 4K/HEVC playback on a real 4K display

Somes videos

• ODroid C1+ Hardware introduction (Youtube, English)
• OpenGL ES and XMBC on Ubuntu (Youtube, English)
• OpenGL ES 2.0 with myAHRS+ on Ubuntu (Youtube, English)
• C Thinkering kit (Youtube, English)
• 16x2 LCD+IO shield (Youtube, English)
• Tekken6 emulation on ODRoid-C1 (Youtube, English)