Amlogic s905
The Amlogic s905 is a series of Arm CPUs designed for use in media players.
Key Features
They typically run quad Arm Cortex-A53 cores that runs from 1-2GHz, although some use A55 or A35. The variation in the s905... chips are usually down to what resolutions, frame rate, and built-in video codecs they support. They all seem to use one of the Mali GPUs.
As far as interfaces, they tend to have;
- Ethernet
- UART (proprietary)
- SPI
- SDIO
- I²C
- PWM
- USB host & OTG
- Video out
While many devices sold with an s905 SoC have WiFi, the WiFi is an add-on.
They can be found in a variety of devices. Libre Computers sells, several, with the Le Potato being a popular Raspberry Pi clone. It is also found in a variety of video streaming devices, such as Walmart's onn Google TV Full HD Streaming Device.
Docs
9front
It is possible to boot 9front on an Amlogic s905. Currently a UART driver needs to be writen, because unlike most other companies that just recycle an 8250/16550 UART, Amlogic decided to roll their own. Example drivers can be found in Linux and NetBSD, usually under the "Meson" name, which is Amlogic's codename for this stuff.
They also seem to use some other method to bring up other cores, as the 9front method of using the affinity register did not seem to work.