Imagination has sent along word that the Creator CI20 we covered in some detail late last year is now shipping to North America and Europe. For those unfamiliar with this development board, I have reproduced the specification table below and included the Raspberry Pi 2 for comparison. Along with the shipping announcement, Imagination has bumped the on board storage from 4GB of NAND up to 8GB. I updated our original coverage with this welcome unexpected improvement. They have also revised the PCB to be purple, matching Imagination's color scheme.
| Imagination Creator CI20 | Raspberry Pi 2 Model B | Raspberry Pi Model B+ | |
| SoC | Ingenic JZ4780 | Broadcom BCM2836 | Broadcom BCM2835 |
| CPU | Dual 1.2GHz XBurst (MIPS32 instruction set) | 4x 900 MHz ARM Cortex-A7 (ARMv7 instruction set) | 700 MHz ARM1176JZF-S (ARM11 family, ARMv6 instruction set) |
| GPU | PowerVR SGX 540 @ Unknown MHz | Broadcom VideoCore IV @ 250 MHz | Broadcom VideoCore IV @ 250 MHz |
| Memory | 1GB DDR3 | 1GB DDR2 | 512MB DDR2 |
| USB | 1x USB OTG (A and Mini connectors) 1x USB Host | 4x USB 2.0 Host | 4 USB 2.0 Host |
| Camera Interface | 24-pin connector (ITU-R BT.645) | 15-pin MIPI (CSI) connector | 15-pin MIPI (CSI) connector |
| Video Output | HDMI 1.4a | HDMI 1.3a Composite video 3.5mm jack | HDMI 1.3a Composite video 3.5mm jack |
| Audio In | 3.5mm jack shared with output | via I²S interface | via I²S interface |
| Audio Output | HDMI 3.5mm jack shared with input | HDMI 3.5mm jack I²S interface | HDMI 3.5mm jack I²S interface |
| Storage | 8GB NAND 1x full SD slot 1x SD slot via expansion header | via MicroSD | via MicroSD |
| Network | 10/100 Ethernet 2.4GHz WiFi b/g/n + BT 4.0 (BCM4330) | 10/100 Ethernet | 10/100 Ethernet |
| IR | Input (IRM-2638A) | - | - |
| Max Power Consumption | 4 Watts | < 5 Watts | 3 Watts |
| Power Connector | 5V barrel connector | MicroUSB | MicroUSB |
| Size | Approx. 90mm x 95mm (3.54 in x 3.74 in) | 85.60 mm × 56.5 mm (3.37 in × 2.22 in) | 85.60 mm × 56.5 mm (3.37 in × 2.22 in) |
| Price | $65 or £50 | $35 without MPEG2 and VC1 codecs $40.60 with MPEG2 and VC1 codecs | $35 without MPEG2 and VC1 codecs $40.60 with MPEG2 and VC1 codecs |
The evaluation board provided to me by Imagination is green with 4GB of NAND and I should consider it a collectors' item now. I am working to get some power measurements directly on the VDDCORE line to characterize CPU performance/watt but that requires some delicate PCB modification. Stay tuned.
Also, for the media center users, great news came three days ago with MIPS32 support merged into the master branch of Kodi (XBMC). Therefore, users willing to compile binaries themselves can now run Kodi on the Creator CI20 or any other MIPS32 device. For those willing to wait, the next major release of Kodi should include this support in their provided binaries.
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