Avaota F2 SBC Features Allwinner V861 RISC-V SoC and 1 TOPS AI

AvaotaF2 V861 Core RISC-V SBC

Avaota has introduced the Avaota F2, an open-source Allwinner RISC-V SBC designed for AI camera applications, embedded vision, and smart surveillance systems. The board features the Allwinner V861M2 SoC with dual-core 64-bit RISC-V processing, 128MB of integrated DDR3 memory, and a 1 TOPS AI accelerator. It also supports 4K camera sensors, H.264/H.265 video encoding, and multiple audio interfaces.

The Avaota F2 builds on the earlier Avaota F1 camera board, which uses the Allwinner V821 SoC. The newer model adds support for Full HD and 4K MIPI CSI cameras, dual microphone connections, and a speaker interface. It also provides dedicated motor-control connections for PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) camera applications. Unlike the previous F1, however, the F2 does not include onboard Wi-Fi connectivity.

We previously covered the Avaota C1 SBC, powered by the Allwinner H618 processor. It features a 40-pin GPIO header in a Raspberry Pi A form factor and runs Tina Linux 5.0. Feel free to check out our coverage for more details.

Avaota F2 front and back side

Avaota F2 Specifications:

• Processor: Allwinner V861M2-XXX SoC featuring dual-core 64-bit XuanTie C907 RISC-V cores running at up to 1.4GHz and a single-core XuanTie E907 RISC-V core running at up to 800MHz.
• AI Acceleration: Integrated 1 TOPS (INT8) AI accelerator, marketed as AI-ISP 2.0, for AI-based image processing applications.
• Memory: 128MB onboard DDR3 memory.
• Storage: 16MB SPI NOR flash and a microSD card slot for additional storage.
• Video Processing: H.264/H.265 video encoding up to 4K at 25fps and MJPEG encoding up to 8192 × 8192 resolution. The decoder supports MJPEG up to 1080p at 60fps.
• Camera Interfaces: One 4-lane and one 2-lane MIPI CSI connector, supporting GC2083 Full HD cameras at 30fps and GC8613 4K cameras at 15fps.
• Audio: One speaker connector and two microphone connectors for audio input and output.
• Display Support: SPI display connections for compatible 3.5-inch 320 × 480 and 1.54-inch 240 × 240 screens.
• Expansion: Two 17-pin headers with up to 28 GPIOs, along with eight castellated holes for motor control and PTZ applications.
• Connectivity and Debugging: One USB Type-C port for power, data transfer, and serial output, with support for UART and ADB USB debugging.
• Power Management: 5V USB-C power input and an integrated AXP333 power management chip.
• Design: Compact 40 × 22mm, 6-layer PCB with power and FEL buttons and a user LED.

Avaota F2 connected to a camera, two microphones, and a speaker

On the software side, the Avaota F2 supports Allwinner’s Tina Linux SDK. The developer has demonstrated the board running a fork of OpenWrt 21.04 with Linux kernel 6.6. The development kit also advertises support for Tina Linux 5.0. Allwinner provides documentation and tutorials for using the V861 features, although the available documentation currently focuses on Chinese-speaking developers. The board also comes with open-source hardware files, including schematics, EasyEDA Pro PCB files, Gerber files, a 3D STEP model, and a bill of materials, under the CC0 license. More details available on the GitHub.

The Avaota F2 Allwinner RISC-V SBC is available from AliExpress for approximately $54.46 through the Chip Board House Store.

Images used courtesy of Avaota.