ODroid C2

Description

The ODROID-C2 is a 64-bit quad-core single board computer(SBC) that is one of the most cost-effective 64bit development boards available in the ARM world. 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.

Insert the MicroSD card into the slot, connect a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, Ethernet and power cable, and that’s all you need to do to use the ODROID-C2! Browse the web, play games, run office programs, edit photos, develop software, and watch videos right away.

Some of the modern operating systems that run on the ODROID-C2 are Ubuntu, Android, ARCHLinux, Debian, with thousands of free open-source software packages available. The ODROID-C2 is an ARM device -- the most advanced architecture for mobile devices and embedded 64-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.

The ODROID-C2 also has a 40+7pin GPIO header to make a physical interface between the board and the outside world. The 40+7pin interface headers include PWM, I2C, I2S, UART, ADC and GPIO function

Warning: 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:

• Amlogic ARM® Cortex®-A53 ( ARMv8 64 bits) 1.5Ghz quad core CPUs
• GPU: Mali™-450 @ 700 MHz (3 Pixel-processors + 2 Vertex shader processors)
• RAM: 2Gbyte DDR3 SDRAM @ 912MHz
• Network: Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbit/s
• Video Output:
  
  • HDMI 2.0 - display 4K/60Hz
  • H.265 4K/60FPS and H.264 4K/30FPS capable VPU
• GPIO:
  
  • 40pin GPIOs (PWM, I2C, I2S, UART, ADC and GPIO function)
    Compatible WiringPi (as used with the Raspberry-Pi, cool for Python and C/C++ developer)
    Pins #37, #38 and #40 are not compatible with Raspberry Pi B+ 40pin header, Those pins are dedicated to ADC function.
  • GPIOs pins are 3.3V.
    ADC input pins are limited to 1.8V max
  • 7pin I2S
  • ADC 10bit SAR 2 channels
• Storage:
  
  • eMMC5.0 HS400 Flash Storage slot
  • UHS-1 SDR50 MicroSD Card slot
• USB:
  
  • 4x USB 2.0 Host,
  • 1x USB OTG (power + data capable). For Linux USB Gadget or USB Host
• Audio Output: via HDMI or via I2S (an optional audio shield is available)
• Camera Input: USB 720p (optional module)
• Real Time Clock: Supported with optional extension module
• Infrared(IR) Receiver : standard 37.9Khz carrier frequency based wireless data in NEC format.
• Supported OS: Ubuntu 16.04 or Android 5.1 Lollipop based on Kernel 3.14LTS
• Size: 85 x 56
• Weight: 40gr
• Power consumption: 2 to 4 W
• Power supply:
  
  • Via the 2.5mm barrel jack (0.8mm inner).
    The C2 consumes 0.5A in most cases, but it can climb to 2A if many passive USB devices are connected.
  • Can also been powered via the USB OTG port (5V 2A)
  • Power switch port: You can add a slide switch or rocker switch on this port if you want to implement a hardware on/off switch. Port closed = Off, Port opened = On.
• Heat sink: included
• LED Indicator:Red: Power on
  Blue: Solid light when u-boot is running, flashing when kernel is running (heartbeat)

ODroid C2 vs Raspberry-Pi

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

The ODroid-C2 has many advantages.
Having the same size of a Raspberry Pi 3, it offers processor is an S905 1.5GHz Quad-core from Amlogic with 2GByte DDR3 RAM, Gigabit-Ethernet and IR-receiver.

One powerful feature of the ODROID-C2 is an SD 3.01 standard compatible UHS-1 MicroSD card, as well as the faster eMMC module, can be ordered with the ODROID-C2, and arrives with the popular Ubuntu operating system already installed

Storage speed comparison

The C2 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-C2 has an on-board Gigabit Ethernet controller. Our bi-directional streaming speed was measured at ~900Mbps.
With Gigabit connexion, the C2 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