Pine64

Last updated

Pine Store Limited
Pine64
FormerlyPine Microsystems Inc.
Company type Private
Industry
FoundedOctober 2015;8 years ago (2015-10) in Fremont, California, United States
Founder
  • TL Lim
  • Johnson Jeng
Headquarters
Hong Kong
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
TL Lim (CEO)
Products
Website pine64.org

Pine Store Limited, known by its trade name Pine64 (styled as PINE64), is a Hong Kong-based organization that designs, manufactures, and sells single-board computers, notebook computers, as well as smartwatch/smartphones. Its name was inspired by the mathematical constants pi and e with a reference to 64-bit computing power. [1]

Contents

History

Pine64 initially operated as Pine Microsystems Inc. (Fremont, California), founded by TL Lim, the inventor of the PopBox and Popcorn Hour series of media players sold under the Syabas and Cloud Media brands. [2]

In 2015, Pine Microsystems offered its first product, the Pine A64, a single-board computer designed to compete with the popular Raspberry Pi in both power and price. The A64 was first funded through a Kickstarter crowdfunding drive in December 2015 which raised over US$1.7 million. [3] The Kickstarter project was overshadowed by delays and shipping problems. [4] The original Kickstarter page referred to Pine64 Inc. based in Delaware, [5] but all devices for the Kickstarter campaign were manufactured and sold by Pine Microsystems Inc. based in Fremont, California. [6]

In January 2020, Pine Microsystems Inc. was dissolved [7] while Pine Store Limited was incorporated on December 5, 2019, in Hong Kong. [8] As of late 2020, the standard form contract of pine64.com binds all orders to the laws of Malaysia, [9] while the products are shipped from warehouses in Shenzhen, China and Hong Kong. [9]

Devices

After the initial Kickstarter orders for the Pine A64 single-board computers, the company went on to make more devices.

Single-board computers

Pine A64+ Pine A64 top.jpg
Pine A64+

The original Pine A64 boards released in 2016 are powered by the Allwinner A64 system-on-chip. It features a 1.2 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A53 64-Bit Processor, an ARM Mali 400 MP2 graphics processor unit, one HDMI 1.4a port, one MicroSD slot, two USB 2.0 ports and a 100 Megabit Ethernet port. The A64 board has only 512 megabytes of RAM, the 1 GB and 2 GB versions are labeled "Pine A64+". [10] While the 512 MB model only works with Arch Linux and Debian GNU/Linux distributions, such as Armbian or DietPi, [11] the A64+ with more memory can also run other operating systems including Android, Remix OS, Windows 10, [12] FreeBSD, [13] and Ubuntu. [14] Optional eMMC storage modules can be plugged into special headers on the board.

A compute module called SOPINE A64 was introduced in January 2017. It features the same system-on-chip as the Pine A64, but mounted on a DDR3 SODIMM form factor board without the USB, HDMI, and Ethernet connectors. [15] It competes with the Raspberry Pi Compute Modules. Pine64 sells a "Clusterboard" with an inbuilt eight-port Gigabit Ethernet switch, which can be used to build a cluster system out of up to seven SOPINE modules. [16] A review by Hackaday noted problems with production quality, software, and user support. [17]

2017 also saw the addition of a "Long Term Supply" (LTS) version of the Pine A64/A64+ boards, called "Pine A64/A64(+)- LTS". The LTS versions are identical to the A64/A64+, but are guaranteed to be available until the year 2022 at a slightly higher cost. [18]

In July 2017, the company added a new line of single-board computers based on Rockchip SoCs. The ROCK64 features a Rockchip RK3328 quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 64-bit processor; a Mali-450MP2 GPU capable of playing 4K HDR videos; one, two, or four gigabytes of RAM; two USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 ports; one HDMI 2.0 port; a Gigabit Ethernet port; a microSD slot and several other peripheral ports. [19]

Its larger brother, the ROCKPro64, is based on a Rockchip RK3399 Hexa-Core (dual ARM Cortex-A72 and quad ARM Cortex A53) 64-Bit Processor instead. It features a Mali T-860 Quad-Core GPU and, in addition to the standard USB, Ethernet, HDMI, and MicroSD ports, also has an eDP interface and an open-ended PCI Express x4 slot. An optional PCI Express to Dual SATA-II adapter and an optional Wi-Fi module are offered by Pine64 [20]

In 2019, a new Allwinner-based board was added as a direct competitor to the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. The Pine H64 is based on the Allwinner H6 quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 64-bit processor. It features a Mali T-722 GPU, two or three gigabytes of RAM, two USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, onboard 802.11n Wi-Fi, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a microSD slot and several other peripheral ports. [21]

The Star64 is Pine64's first RISC-V SBC, based on the StarFive JH7110 SoC, launched in September 2022. [22]

Notebook computers

Pinebook Pro Pinebook Pro.jpg
Pinebook Pro

In November 2016, the Pinebook, a netbook built around an Allwinner A64 SoC with 2 GB of RAM and a 16 GB eMMC module, was announced. Pre-release comments in Make wrote that the A64's closest analog was two to three times the A64's price, [23] and that the A64 continued the Raspberry Pi's trend of breaking barriers for engineers. [24] Production started in April 2017. The Pinebook can only be obtained via a build-to-order system, potential buyers have to wait weeks or even months for an order code which then has to be redeemed within 72 hours. The hardware is priced at $99, but due to a $30 shipping fee and country-dependent import duties and taxes, the final price is higher.

The Pinebook was notably used by the KDE team to improve Plasma on ARM desktops. [25] In a review of the final hardware by Linux.com , the reviewer was surprised at his ability to have the full, albeit slow, Mate desktop environment at the A64's price. [14] Phoronix's benchmarks indicated similar CPU performance to a Raspberry Pi 3. [26]

In July 2019, the company announced the PineBook Pro, a netbook based around the Rockchip RK3399 SoC which is also used in the ROCKPro64. The preorder system went live on July 25, 2019. The device is priced at $199, though the final price after shipping and import duties and taxes is higher. [27] On March 15, 2020, it was announced that the PineBook Pro will ship with Arch Linux based Manjaro Linux as the default operating system. [28] [29]

Smartphone

As of 2019, Pine64 is working on a Linux smartphone, PinePhone, using a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 64-Bit System on a chip (SoC). The aim is for the phone to be compatible with any mainline Linux kernel and to "support existing and well established Linux-on-Phone projects", as a community-developed smartphone. [30] After an initial BraveHeart release for early adopters in February 2020, the company continued releasing Community Editions that incrementally improve the design. The community support has been excellent, with 17 different OSes released for the device. [31]

In October 2021, the company announced the PinePhone Pro based on a binned RK3399 SoC with additional RAM and MMC storage, as well as higher resolution cameras. [32]

Tablets

In May 2020, Pine64 announced the PineTab tablet, with an optional detachable backlit keyboard. [33] It is a 10" tablet based on the same technology as the PinePhone, but without the modem and kill switches of that model.

In August 2021, the company announced the PineNote. The PineNote is a 10" tablet with a Rockchip RK3566 and 4 GB RAM, the same configuration used for the new Quartz64 SBCs. The tablet features a 227 DPI touchscreen Eink display panel that also includes a Wacom digitizer layer for stylus support. [34]

In December 2022, Pine64 announced the PineTab 2, [35] intended to be a successor to the original PineTab, which was heavily impacted by shipping delays and component shortages. [36]

Wearables

In 2019, Pine64 announced that it was working on a smartwatch. Only being available for developers initially, Pine64 released the PineTime in 2021, aimed at the consumer market. [37] The PineTime display has a resolution of 240x240 with 65,000 colors. The device features 64 KB of RAM, 512 KB of flash storage, and 4 MB of additional flash storage with Bluetooth 5.0 Low Energy for connectivity. The watch is powered by the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832 SoC, with a 64 MHz ARM Cortex-M4F processor. [38] The device was well received for its low cost to feature ratio. [39]

In early 2022, the company announced that it was working on a set of wireless earbuds. [40] Pine64 later revealed the PineBuds, true wireless earbuds intended to run open-source firmware. [41]

Related Research Articles

Rockchip is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company based in Fuzhou, Fujian province. Rockchip has been providing SoC products for tablets & PCs, streaming media TV boxes, AI audio & vision, IoT hardware since founded in 2001. It has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Hong Kong. It designs system on a chip (SoC) products, using the ARM architecture licensed from ARM Holdings for the majority of its projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raspberry Pi</span> Series of low-cost single-board computers used for educational purposes and embedded systems

Raspberry Pi is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. Since 2013, Raspberry Pi devices have been developed and supported by a subsidiary of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, now named Raspberry Pi Ltd. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned toward the promotion of teaching basic computer science in schools. The original model became more popular than anticipated, selling outside its target market for diverse uses such as robotics, home and industrial automation, and by computer and electronic hobbyists, because of its low cost, modularity, open design, and its adoption of the HDMI and USB standards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allwinner A1X</span>

The Allwinner A1X is a family of single-core SoC devices designed by Allwinner Technology from Zhuhai, China. Currently the family consists of the A10, A13, A10s and A12. The SoCs incorporate the ARM Cortex-A8 as their main processor and the Mali 400 as the GPU.

The MK802 is a PC-on-a-stick produced by Rikomagic, a Chinese company using mostly two series of systems on a chip architectures:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stick PC</span>

A stick PC or PC on a stick is a single-board computer in a small elongated casing resembling a stick, that can usually be plugged directly into an HDMI video port. A stick PC is a device which has independent CPUs or processing chips and which does not rely on another computer. It should not be confused with passive storage devices such as thumb drives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cubieboard</span>

Cubieboard is a single-board computer, made in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China. The first short run of prototype boards were sold internationally in September 2012, and the production version started to be sold in October 2012. It can run Android 4 ICS, Ubuntu 12.04 desktop, Fedora 19 ARM Remix desktop, Armbian, Arch Linux ARM, a Debian-based Cubian distribution, FreeBSD, or OpenBSD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allwinner Technology</span> Fabless semiconductor company

Allwinner Technology Co., Ltd is a fabless semiconductor company that designs mixed-signal systems on a chip (SoC). The company is headquartered in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China. It has a sales and technical support office in Shenzhen, Guangdong, and logistics operations in Hong Kong.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OLinuXino</span>

OLinuXino is an open hardware single-board computer capable of running Android or Linux designed by OLIMEX Ltd in Bulgaria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ARM Cortex-A53</span> Microarchitecture implementing the ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings

The ARM Cortex-A53 is one of the first two central processing units implementing the ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Cambridge design centre, along with the Cortex-A57. The Cortex-A53 is a 2-wide decode superscalar processor, capable of dual-issuing some instructions. It was announced October 30, 2012 and is marketed by ARM as either a stand-alone, more energy-efficient alternative to the more powerful Cortex-A57 microarchitecture, or to be used alongside a more powerful microarchitecture in a big.LITTLE configuration. It is available as an IP core to licensees, like other ARM intellectual property and processor designs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banana Pi</span> Series of Chinese single-board computers

Banana Pi is a line of single-board computers produced by the Chinese company Shenzhen SINOVOIP Company, its spin-off Guangdong BiPai Technology Company, and supported by Hon Hai Technology (Foxconn). Its hardware design was influenced by the Raspberry Pi, and both lines use the same 40-pin I/O connector.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amlogic</span> American fabless semiconductor company

Amlogic Inc. is a Fabless semiconductor company that was founded on March 14, 1995, in Santa Clara, California and is predominantly focused on designing and selling system on a chip integrated circuits. Like most Fabless companies in the industry, the company outsources the actual manufacturing of its chips to third-party independent chip manufacturers such as TSMC. Its main target applications as of 2021 are entertainment devices such as Android TV-based devices and IPTV/OTT set-top boxes, media dongles, smart TVs and tablets. It has offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Hefei, Nanjing, Qingdao, Taipei, Hong Kong, Seoul, Mumbai, London, Munich, Indianapolis, Milan, Novi Sad and Santa Clara, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockchip RK3288</span>

The Rockchip RK3288 is an ARM architecture System on Chip (SoC) from Rockchip. It is the first SoC, in August 2014, that uses the 32-bit ARM Cortex-A17 processor. It is a quad-core processor with a NEON coprocessor and hardware acceleration for video and 3D graphics. It is used in a number of Chromebooks and other low-power, low-performance devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SolidRun</span> Israeli hardware developer

SolidRun is an Israeli company producing embedded systems components, mainly mini computers, Single-board computers and computer-on-module devices. It is specially known for the CuBox family of mini-computers, and for producing motherboards and processing components such as the HummingBoard motherboard.

CHIP was a single-board computer crowdfunded by now-defunct Next Thing Co. (NTC), released as open-source hardware running open-source software. It was advertised as "the world's first $9 computer". CHIP and related products are discontinued. NTC has since gone insolvent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinebook</span> Notebook intended for open-source software

The Pinebook is a low-cost notebook developed by Hong Kong-based computer manufacturer Pine64. The Pinebook was announced in November 2016 and production started in April 2017. It is based on the platform of Pine64's existing Pine A64 single board computer, costing US$89 or US$99 for the 11.6" and 14" model respectively. Its appearance resembles the MacBook Air. The Pinebook is sold "at-cost" by Pine64 as a community service.

The Libre Computer Project is an effort initiated by Shenzhen Libre Technology Co., Ltd., with the goal of producing standards-compliant single-board computers (SBC) and upstream software stack to power them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raspberry Pi 4</span> 4th generation of the mainline series of Raspberry Pi single-board computer

The Raspberry Pi 4 is the 4th generation of the mainline series of Raspberry Pi single-board computers. Developed by Raspberry Pi Trading and released on 24 June 2019, the Pi 4 came with many improvements over its predecessor; the SoC was upgraded to the Broadcom BCM2711, two of the Raspberry Pi's four USB ports were upgraded to USB 3.0, and options were added for RAM capacities larger than the 1 GB standard for the preceding Raspberry Pi 3 series. The Pi 4 also ends the trend of the $35 maximum MSRP that previous Raspberry Pis had adhered to, as the larger RAM capacities added extra cost to the board; however, the base 1 GB model is still sold for $35. On 28 September 2023, the Raspberry Pi 5 was announced as the successor to the Raspberry Pi 4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PinePhone</span> Smartphone with Linux-based mobile operating system

The PinePhone is a smartphone developed by Hong Kong-based computer manufacturer Pine64, intended to allow the user to have full control over the device. Measures to ensure this are: running mainline Linux-based mobile operating systems, assembling the phone with screws, and simplifying the disassembly for repairs and upgrades. LTE, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and both cameras can be physically switched off. The PinePhone ships with the Manjaro Linux operating system using the Plasma Mobile graphic interface, although other distributions can be installed by users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PineTab</span> Tablet intended for open-source software

The PineTab is a low-cost tablet developed by Hong Kong-based computer manufacturer Pine64. The PineTab was announced in May 2020, with shipping beginning in September 2020. It is based on the platform of the existing Pine A64 single board computer, with the platform being used in related devices, such as the Pinebook and PinePhone.

References

  1. ↑ Brian, M. (December 9, 2015). "PINE A64 is a $15, 'high-performance' take on the Raspberry Pi". Engadget. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
  2. ↑ "About Us – Cloud Media". Archived from the original on July 16, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  3. ↑ Matney, Lucas (January 21, 2016). "The Pine A64 Is A $15 PC With Endless Possibilities". TechCrunch . Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  4. ↑ Shah, Agam (March 15, 2016). "Meet the Raspberry Pi's new rival: The $15 Pine 64 finally ships with 4K video support". PCWorld . Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  5. ↑ "PINE 64 INC., file number 5854755" . Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  6. ↑ "Filing for Pine Microsystems, State of California" . Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Certificate of Dissolution" . Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Pine Store Limited, filing number 2899554" (PDF) (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  9. 1 2 Terms of Use
  10. ↑ "PINE A64 512MB BOARD – PINE Store". Archived from the original on November 15, 2019. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  11. ↑ "Supported Hardware - DietPi.com Docs" . Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  12. ↑ "Microsoft Azure IoT Device Catalog". Microsoft Azure. October 16, 2016. Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  13. ↑ Obuch, Milan (February 20, 2017). "FreeBSD on Pine64 experience" . Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  14. 1 2 Bhartiya, Swapnil (August 9, 2016). "Build a $20 Computer with PINE64". Linux.com . Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  15. ↑ "SOPINE A64 COMPUTE MODULE – PINE Store". Archived from the original on November 15, 2019. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  16. ↑ "CLUSTERBOARD with 7 SOPine compute module slots – PINE Store" . Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  17. ↑ Benchoff, Brian (April 21, 2016). "PINE64: THE UN-REVIEW". Hackaday. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  18. ↑ "PINE A64-LTS – PINE Store" . Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  19. ↑ "ROCK64 SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER – PINE Store". Archived from the original on July 23, 2019. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  20. ↑ "ROCKPro64 2GB Single Board Computer – PINE Store" . Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  21. ↑ "PINE H64 "Model B"-2GB Single Board Computer – PINE Store" . Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  22. ↑ "PINE64 Shows Off the First Star64 RISC-V Single-Board Computer Prototypes, Targets a Launch in Weeks". Hackster.io. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  23. ↑ Scheltema, David (December 9, 2015). "The $15 PINE64 Just Launched on Kickstarter, and it's Already Funded". Make . Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  24. ↑ Epstein, Zach (December 9, 2015). "Meet Pine A64, a 64-bit quad-core supercomputer that costs just $15". BGR . Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  25. ↑ Riddell, Jonathan (August 22, 2018). "KDE Plasma on ARM Laptop Pinebook". dot.kde.org.
  26. ↑ Larabel, Michael (December 26, 2016). "Benchmarking The Low-Cost PINE 64+ ARM Single Board Computer". Phoronix. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  27. ↑ "PINEBOOK Pro". Pine64. April 5, 2019. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  28. ↑ "Manjaro to be the Pinebook Pro's default OS". DistroWatch.com. March 16, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  29. ↑ "March Update: Manjaro on Pinebook Pro & PinePhone Software". Pine64. March 15, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  30. ↑ "An Open Source Smart Phone Supported by All Major Linux Phone Projects". Pine64. 2019. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
  31. ↑ "PinePhone_Software_Releases". Pine64 Wiki. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  32. ↑ "PinePhone Pro". PINE64. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  33. ↑ "May Update: PineTab pre-orders, PinePhone Qi charging & more". Pine64. May 15, 2020.
  34. ↑ "PineNote". PINE64. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  35. ↑ Nestor, Marius (December 15, 2022). "PINE64 Announces the PineTab2 Linux Tablet with Up to 8GB RAM and RK3566 SoC". 9to5Linux. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
  36. ↑ Proven, Liam. "Pine64 takes another shot at an open tablet after chip shortages killed first PineTab". www.theregister.com. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
  37. ↑ "Pine64's $30 Linux Smartwatch Launches". PCMAG. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
  38. ↑ By (October 7, 2019). "Ask Hackaday: What's The Perfect Hacker Smart Watch?". Hackaday. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
  39. ↑ published, Alex Wawro (October 14, 2023). "This smartwatch does everything I want from an Apple Watch for just $30". Tom's Guide. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  40. ↑ Sneddon, Joey (April 29, 2022). "PineBuds: Wireless Ear Buds Powered by Open Source". OMG! Ubuntu!. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
  41. ↑ "Upcoming PineSound Offers an Open Bluetooth Audio Dev Experience — Exemplified in the PineBuds". Hackster.io. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
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