Banana Pi BPI M1 A20 Dual Core 1GB RAM Open-source development board single board computer raspberry pi compatible

Quick Learning Wiki for Banana Pi BPI-M1

Overview

The Banana Pi BPI-M1 is the first open-source hardware single-board computer (SBC) produced by the Banana Pi team. It is built on the Allwinner A20 dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor running at 1.0GHz, paired with 1GB of DDR3 SDRAM. Designed as a low-power, high-performance development platform, the BPI-M1 features gigabit Ethernet, a SATA 2.0 port, dual USB 2.0 ports plus USB OTG, HDMI and CVBS video output, a CSI camera interface, and a 26-pin GPIO header. It supports over 15 operating systems including Android, Ubuntu, Debian, Armbian, OpenWRT, and more. The board is powered via 5V DC through a Micro USB connector or GPIO pins, making it suitable for a wide range of embedded, IoT, education, and NAS applications. It has passed CE, FCC, and RoHS certifications.

Core Hardware

• CPU: Allwinner A20, ARM Cortex-A7 dual-core @ 1.0GHz
• GPU: ARM Mali-400 MP2, supports OpenGL ES 2.0 / 1.1
• Memory: 1GB DDR3 SDRAM
• Onboard Flash: None

Network

• Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Mbps (8P8C connector, 1000BASE-T)
• WiFi: None
• Bluetooth: None

USB

• USB 2.0: 2 ports
• USB OTG: 1 port

Storage

• SATA: 1x SATA 2.0
• Onboard Flash: None

GPIO

• GPIO Header: 26-pin GPIO connector
• Supported Functions: GPIO, UART, I2C, SPI (dual chip select), CAN bus, ADC, PWM, +3.3V, +5V, GND
• Note: 5V1 and 5V2 support output only, not input

Video Input

• CSI Camera Interface: 40-pin FPC connector (labeled CON1 on board)

Video Output

• HDMI: Supported
• CVBS (AV Video): Supported
• LVDS / RGB: Supported
• DSI: Supported

Audio

• Audio Output: 3.5mm headphone jack + HDMI
• Microphone Input: 1x MIC

Power

• Power Supply: 5V DC via Micro USB or GPIO

Other Interfaces & Features

• Infrared (IR): Supported
• LED Indicators: Power LED + Ethernet port LEDs

UART Debug Interface

J11 (UART0 Debug Console)

• Pin1 - TXD: UART0-TX, GPIO PB22
• Pin2 - RXD: UART0-RX, GPIO PB23

J12 (Power + UART7)

• Pin1 - 5V: Power output
• Pin2 - 3.3V: Power output
• Pin3 - NC: IO-7, GPIO PH5
• Pin4 - RXD: UART7_RX, GPIO PI21
• Pin5 - NC: IO-8, GPIO PH3
• Pin6 - TXD: UART7_TX, GPIO PI20
• Pin7 - GND: Ground
• Pin8 - GND: Ground

Supported Operating Systems

• Android 4.4 (LCD version) / 4.2.2 (HDMI version)
• Ubuntu / Lubuntu - Ubuntu 16.04 Server (HDMI version), kernel 3.4
• Debian 10 Buster (MATE desktop, kernel 5.1.1)
• Raspbian - Supported
• Armbian 23.02.0 / 23.08.0 (jammy / bullseye), kernel 5.15.93 / 6.1.11 / 6.0.9
• OpenWRT Chaos Calmer 15.05
• FreeBSD - Supports Allwinner A20 (sun7i)
• NetBSD - Supports evbarm/allwinner
• OpenSUSE - Officially supported
• OpenMediaVault - Supported
• Arch Linux - Supported
• Gentoo Linux - Officially supported
• RaspBSD - Supported
• CentOS 7
• DietPi - Supported
• Lakka TV - Supported (A20 SoC)
• SimpleNAS - Supported

Certifications

• CE / FCC / RoHS - Passed

Source Code & Development Resources

• Linux kernel 3.4 source: https://github.com/BPI-SINOVOIP/BPI-M1-bsp
• Android 4.4 source (LCD7 version): https://github.com/BPI-SINOVOIP/BPI-A20-Android-4.4
• Android 4.2.2 source (HDMI version): https://github.com/BPI-SINOVOIP/BPI-A20-Android