The Allwinner A1X, known under Linux as sunxi, is a family of SoC devices designed by AllWinner Technology Co. Ltd. from Zhuhai, China. Currently the family consists of the A13 and the A10. The SoCs incorporate the ARM Cortex-A8 as its main processor and the Mali 400 as the GPU. The Allwinner A1X is referred to as a 'Many core' processor due to its use of multiple processors to perform different functions.
The Allwinner A1X is known for its ability to easily boot from an SD card GNU/Linux distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu, and other ARM architecture-capable GNU/Linux distributions. The ability is in addition to the Android OS usually installed on the Flash memory of the device.
ModelsCurrently the A1X family consists of two models. The A10 (sun4i) is the current full-featured SoC with all the features outlined below. The A13 (sun5i) is a lower power consumption and lower cost version of the A10 which is designed primarily for tablet computers. The A13 does not not have HDMI or SATA connections. A new more powerful A1X version[4] (sun6i - Allwinner A15?) is rumored to be forthcoming. This rumor has not been confirmed yet by Allwinner. But on July 9 cnbeta.com speculated the next SoC from AllWinner will be a quad-core Cortex-A7 Although the rumor has not yet been confirmed by Allwinner SoC semiconductor manufacturers frequently release new versions due to advances as a result of Moore's Law.
FeaturesVideo Processing Unit
HD Video Decoding (Super HD 2160P/3D Film)
Support all popular video formats, including VP8AVS,
h.264 MVC, VC-1, MPEG-1/2/4, ...
HD Video Encoding (H.264 High Profile)
Support encoding in H.264 format
Digital processing Unit
MULTI-CHANNEL HD displays
Built-in HDMI
YPbPr, CVBS, VGA
LCD interfaces: CPU, RGB, LVDS up to Full 1080P HDTV
Memory
DDR2, DDR3 SDRAM, 32-bit
SLC/MLC/TLC/DDR NAND
Connectivity
USB 2.0
CSI, TS
SD Card 3.0
10/100 Ethernet controller
CAN Bus, Built-in SATA 2.0 Interface
I²C, SPDIF and AC97 audio interfaces
PS2, SPI , TWI and UART
Storage and boot devices
NAND FLASH
SPI NOR FLASH
SD Card
USB
SATA
ImplementationsMany manufacturers have adopted the Allwinner A1X for use in devices running the Android operating system and the Linux operating System. The Allwinner A1X is used in tablet computers, set-top boxes, and mini-PC's.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AllWinner_A1X