ODROID-M1 - Single Board Computer

ODROID-M1 4 GB/8 GB RAM

The ODROID-M1 is a single board computer that comes with a wide range of useful peripherals designed for various embedded system applications. At its core is the RK3568B2 processor, which is deemed suitable for embedded applications as the SoC manufacturer (Rockchip) guarantees supply for the next 15 years. The ODROID-M1 boards are expected to be supplied until 2036 or longer.

The RK3568B2 is a slightly modified version of the RK3568 to overcome the current IC supply chain issues. The lead time for the previous metal cased RK3568 version is significantly longer than for the more common plastic version RK3568B2.

Let’s take a look at the key features and peripherals of the ODROID-M1.

The CPU features four power-efficient ARM Cortex-A55 processors operating at 2 GHz, with CPU and GPU performance being fairly comparable to our ODROID-C4.

Petitboot is pre-installed on the integrated 16MiB SPI-Flash memory, enabling easy management of different OS versions and kernels, and supports booting from microSD, eMMC, NVMe, SATA, and USB storage devices. The ability to install the operating system online dramatically reduces the cumbersome process of downloading and flashing OS images.

A standard M.2 NVMe storage device measuring 22mm x 80mm can be directly installed onto the ODROID-M1 board. The M.2 connector is configured for PCIe 3.0 2-lane, providing lightning-fast sequential access speeds of up to 1600 MB/s. Please note that M.2 SATA storage devices cannot be used. The M.2 slot only supports PCIe interface (M-Key).

The single native (non-USB) SATA 3.0 port is available for use with 2.5-inch HDD or NAND SSD storage devices. This SATA interface provides nearly 500 MB/s sequential access speeds. The mount kit and SATA cable include a data SATA cable, a SATA power cable, and a mounting board with several supporting screws. However, since the SATA power port does not feature a 12V power rail, an additional external 12V SATA power supply is required for use with a 3.5-inch HDD.

The four-lane MIPI-DSI port can be directly connected to an LCD panel. The ODROID-Vu8M kit, which includes an 8-inch 800×1280 wide viewing angle LCD with capacitive multi-touch screen, is available. By assembling the ODROID-M1 single-board computer onto the back of the Vu8M kit, you can easily implement a Human-Machine-Interface (HMI) device.

The dual-lane MIPI-CSI port can be directly connected to a camera sensor module. Our M1 MIPI-CSI camera kit features an OV5647 sensor chip capable of capturing images up to 5 Mpix and streaming video at 720p/30fps. With an automatically switchable IR-Cut filter and two IR lights, it can provide fairly good images both day and night. Real-time image inputs from the MIPI-CSI port can be used for Machine-Learning applications.

As machine learning is a trend in this field, the device is equipped with a neural processing unit (NPU) that can provide up to 0.8 TOPS on the M1 single-board computer. Various TensorFlow Lite and ONNX models can be run on the Ubuntu Linux OS. Here is an example of object detection.

When measuring the performance of AI software, the yolov5s.onnx model using the traditional combination of CPU+FPU+NEON took ~1800 ms, while the NPU acceleration took only ~60 ms. Another example is the mobilenet_v1_1.0_224.tflite model, which showed ~286 ms vs. ~7 ms. Based on the test results, we can conclude that the internal hardware acceleration of the NPU delivers AI computation speeds that are 30 to 40 times faster in some cases. Development guidelines for the NPU are provided on the WiKi pages.

The elegant blue metal case for the M1 is an affordable option for protecting your ODROID-M1 board. The metal casing is made of aluminum extrusion with a sandblasted surface texture and anodized blue finish. It can be securely anchored to the ODROID-M1 cooler frame using a sliding slot. The front and rear side panels are crafted from gold-plated PCBs.

Power consumption and thermal characteristics: Without connected external peripherals, the power consumption of the M1 is about 4.5 W under heavy computing loads. In idle state, it may be as low as 1.3 watts.

Full booting from the Ubuntu Gnome desktop can take about 30–35 seconds (including a few seconds delay for Petitboot) if the boot media is the eMMC module. After the booting process is completed, average idle power consumption is around 1.3 W. In shut-down mode, power consumption hovers around 0.05 W, which can be considered negligible.

Thanks to the massive cooler frame, the thermal characteristics remain favorable even under very high CPU computational loads. The CPU core temperature approached 50 °C during heavy computational stress at a relatively high ambient temperature of 35 °C. This is well below the thermal throttling trigger point, allowing the ODROID-M1 to operate in various embedded application environments without noisy active cooling.

Sound quality of the analog audio output: The M1 board features a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, providing a built-in high-quality 384kHz/32bit stereo audio output. The dynamic range and SNR approach 100 dB, with total harmonic distortion + noise below 0.006%. You can enjoy Hi-Fi sound quality without the need for an expensive external audio DAC. The sound quality was measured using Audio-Precision equipment as usual.

Software Support

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and 22.04 LTS

• Kernel 4.19.219
• GNOME desktop based on Wayland
• Mali GPU EGL driver on Wayland
• MIPI DSI and CSI drivers
• GPIO drivers and WiringPi library
• The main kernel will be available a few months later with Panfrost driver
• NPU drivers and neural network API

Android 11 Red Velvet Cake

• Kernel 4.19.193
• Dual display feature: HDMI and MIPI-DSI simultaneously

Specifications: