ODROID-C1

Quad Core Linux computer is now $35.00.
Don’t put up with the slow single core computer anymore.
If you are considering a tiny computer for general purpose computing, software development or as a project platform,
the ODROID-C1 will give you a lot more satisfaction and fun with incredible performance for a very low price.
You can get more information from ODROID Magazine.

* Amlogic ARM® Cortex®-A5(ARMv7) 1.5Ghz quad core CPUs
* Mali™-450 MP2 GPU (OpenGL ES 2.0/1.1 enabled for Linux and Android)
* 1Gbyte DDR3 SDRAM
* Gigabit Ethernet
* 40pin GPIOs
* eMMC4.5 HS200 Flash Storage slot / UHS-1 SDR50 MicroSD Card slot
* USB 2.0 Host x 4, USB OTG x 1,
* Infrared(IR) Receiver
* Ubuntu 14.04 or Android KitKat

This is a discontinued product. It will not be available any more.

 

OS Image files and BSP source code are available in our WiKi.
http://odroid.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=en:odroid-c1

Getting Started & Trouble shooting
http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=111&t=7611

* You need additional MicroSD card or an eMMC module to install the OS. We recommend the eMMC module for much higher performance boosting.
* ODROID-C1 power must be supplied via DC-Jack. Micro-USB port is only for data communication. So you need a proper power supply.

 

INTRODUCTION

Hardware Specification

 

OpenGL ES and XBMC on Ubuntu

 

OpenGL ES2.0 with myAHRS+ on Ubuntu

 

C Tinkering Kit

 

16×2 LCD+IO Shield

 

Make Android Game Station

 

 

STORY ABOUT THE ODROID-C1

We had received tons of requests for the following model of ODROID-W. So, we started survey for components for ODROID-W2. Finding out the right CPU was the key of this project. Our original target was similar cost and similar performance as ODROID-W. But we realised that we cannot make ODROID-W2 once we reached to Amlogic S805 quad core processor. The performance of Amlogic S805 1.5Ghz quad core processor is outperforming Broadcom BCM2835.
We launched the ODROID-C1 in December 2014 and RPi2 was released in February 2015.

Here is the comparisons to give you better understanding of ODROID-C1.

ODROID-C1 vs Raspberry Pi2

Both are Linux-friendly, $35 ARM® single-board computers for various applications and purposes.

Hardware Comparison

The ODROID-C1 has many advantages over the Raspberry Pi. The processor is an S805 1.5GHz Quad-core from Amlogic with 1GByte DDR3 RAM, Gigabit Ethernet and IR-receiver. The size of this computer is still only 85 x 56 mm with a weight of 40g, and offers silent operation, 2~3W average power usage, and instant portability, since it fits in a shirt pocket.

One powerful feature of the ODROID-C1 is the row of GPIO (general purpose input/output) pins along the edge of the device. These pins are a physical interface between the board and the outside world. The 40pin interface header includes SPI, I2C, UART, ADC and GPIO function.

An SD 3.01 standard compatible UHS-1 Micro-SD card, as well as the faster eMMC module, can be ordered with the ODROID-C1, and arrives with the popular Ubuntu operating system already installed. Insert the SD 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-C1! Browse the web, play games, run office programs, edit photos, develop software, and watch videos right away.

The RTC, IR receiver and ADC features on the ODROID-C1 offer many options for building great DIY projects

	ODROID-C1	RPi 2 Model B
CPU	Amlogic S805 SoC 4 x ARM® Cortex®-A5 1.5GHz ARMv7 Architecture @28nm	Broadcom BCM2836 4 x ARM® Cortex®-A7 900Mhz ARMv7 Architecture @40nm
GPU	2 x ARM® Mali™-450MP 600MHz	1 x VideoCore IV 250MHz
RAM	1GB 32bit DDR3 792MHz	1GB 32bit LP-DDR2 400MHz
Flash Storage	Micro-SD UHS-1@100Mhz/SDR50 or eMMC storage option	Micro-SD @50Mhz/SDR25, No eMMC storage option
USB2.0 Host	4 Ports	4 Ports
USB2.0 Device / OTG	1 Port for Linux USB Gadget driver	No
Ethernet/LAN	10/100/1000 Mbit/s	10/100 Mbit/s
Video Output	HDMI	HDMI / Composite RCA
Audio Output	HDMI	HDMI / 3.5mm Jack
Camera Input	USB 720p	MIPI CSI 1080p
Real Time Clock	YES (On-board RTC)	No(unless using an add-on module)
IR Receiver	YES (On-board IR Sensor)	No(unless using an add-on module)
IO Expansion	40pin port (GPIO/UART/SPI/I2C/ADC)	40pin port (GPIO/UART/SPI/I2C/I2S)
ADC	10bit SAR 2 channels	No(unless using an add-on board)
Size	85 x 56mm (3.35” x 2.2”)	85 x 56mm (3.35” x 2.2”)
Weight	40g (1.41 oz)	42g (1.48 oz)
Price	$35	$35

 

 

Computing performance comparison

We ran a simple, popular benchmark called Unix-Bench, SysBench and N-Bench to compare the performance of the two boards. Tests were done using several manufacturer-provided images based on a clean install, and the “apt-get update && apt-get upgrade” commands were first run to ensure that both boards was up-to-date.

The RPi2 was clocked at 900Mhz using a Sandisk UHS-1 8GB SDCard running the Raspbian OS. The C1 was clocked at 1.5Ghz using an 16GB eMMC with Ubuntu 14.04 OS. Both units were powered by a 5V/2A power supply and connected to the 1920×1080 HDMI output.

Benchmarks(Index Score)	ODROID-C1	Raspberry Pi 2	Ratio
Dhrystone-2	1262.8	1006.6	1.25
Double-Precision Whetstone (x3)	1318.8	1076.1	1.23
Nbench2.2.3 Integer ( x40)	1208.0	840.0	1.44
Nbench2.2.3	1050.0	809.0	1.30
SysBench CPU ( 1/T * 50000)	863.6	669.3	1.29
SysBench RAM	998.3	574.7	1.74

 

 

The results show that the CPU computing benchmark is about 30% faster on the C1 and RAM memory access speed is about 75% faster on the C1.
Note that above benchmark scores were converted to make an easier comparison.

 

Storage I/O comparison 

To obtain the results in the storage I/O comparison graph, type the following lines at a command prompt. The first command tests the write speed, and the second command tests the read speed:

$ dd if=/dev/zero of=test.tmp oflag=direct bs=500K count=1024 

$ dd if=test.tmp of=/dev/null iflag=direct bs=500K count=1024

Media access performance	RPi2 Model B	ODROID – C1
eMMC Read (MB/s)	NA	62.2
eMMC Write (MB/s)	NA	25.1
MicroSD UHS-1 Read (MB/s)	19.2	32.5
MicroSD UHS-1 Write (MB/s)	13.1	14.2

 

 

 

 

 

If you use the eMMC storage, you can get about two to three times faster storage I/O read performance. However, an affordable microSD UHS-1 card can still achieve reasonably fast speeds thanks to the advanced SD 3.01 host controller in the S805 processor. The MicroSD card read performance on C1 is still about 1.7 times faster then RPi if you use the UHS-1 memory card.

 

Ethernet IO comparison

To replicate the results in the Ethernet comparison graph, type the following lines at a command prompt:
Server agent on the C1 and Client agent on the host PC
ruppi@ruppi-desktop:~$ iperf -s 192.168.2.10 -P 10
[SUM]  0.0-10.1 sec  1.10 GBytes   928 Mbits/sec

Server agent on the host PC and Client agent on the C1
odroid@odroid:~# iperf -c 192.168.2.2 -P 10
[SUM]  0.0-10.0 sec   467 MBytes   392 Mbits/sec

Server agent on the RPi and Client agent on the host PC
ruppi@ruppi-desktop:~$ iperf -c 192.168.2.11 -P 10
[SUM] 0.0-10.3 sec 121 MBytes 98.6 Mbits/sec 

Server agent on the host PC and Client agent on the RPi
pi@raspberrypi:~$ iperf -s 192.168.2.2 -P 10
[SUM] 0.0-10.3 sec 81.6 MBytes 66.6 Mbits/sec

Thanks to the Gigabit Ethernet available on the ODROID-C1, the network performance of C1 is an impressive six to nine times faster than Raspberry Pi.

 

As one can see from the testing results, the quad-core 1.5GHz ODROID-C1 can easily outperform the Raspberry Pi 2 board. Many test results show about 140% more performance from the ODROID-C1 platform. Even though both platforms are Linux-friendly computing devices, the performance to cost ratio is much higher with the ODROID-C1. If you are considering a tiny computer for general purpose computing, software development, or as a project platform, the ODROID-C1 will give you a lot more satisfaction and fun with incredible performance for a very low price.