Before Allwinner launched their popular A10 Cortex A8 processor earlier this decade, the company had Allwinner F-series ARM9 processors found in E-ink readers, vehicle multimedia systems, audio products and so on.

I would not expect a new board based on of those processors in 2018, but LicheePi Nano looks to be exactly that with an Allwinner F1C100s processor, a form factor roughly the size of an SD card, and support for RGB LED displays.

LicheePi Nano board specifications:

SoC- Allwinner F1C100s ARM926EJS processor clocked at up to 900MHz

System Memory – 32MB DDR integrated into SoC

Storage – Micro SD card, and optional 8M SPI flash (unpopulated in the photo above)

Display I/F – 40-pin RGB LCD FPC connector supporting 272×480, 480×800, 1024×600 and other resolutions resistive and capacitive displays

Video Decoding – H.264 / MPEG up to 720p

I/Os via 2.54mm pitch through holes and 1.27mmm pitch castellated holes SDIO for WiFi module 2x SPI, 3x TWI (I2C),3x UART 1x TV out, 2x TV in 2x PWM 1x LRADC 2x speaker output, 1x mic input

USB – 1x micro USB OTG port

Power Supply Input 5V via micro USB port, 3.3 to 5V via pin Output – 3.3V, selectable input RTC voltage

Power Consumption – 54mA (idle) with Linux, 250mA with display

Temperature Range – Storage:: -40~125°C; operating: -20 to 70°C

The board works with 3 different operating systems: Linux, RT-Thread (RTT), and Xboot. With the amount of RAM in the board don’t expect to run a desktop environment though. There’s what appears to be good documentation in a dedicated website, with the main downside that it is currently only in Chinese language. The company however offers support via Telegram, and they can speak very good English there.

I first found the board in Banggood where it is sold for $8.46 shipped without SPI flash, and $9.59 with 8MP SPI flash. A 5″ capacitive display with 800×480 resolution is also available for $27.43 including shipping.But the board is also listed in Taobao for 9.99 RMB and up. So that’s under $2. The only problem is that it looks to be out of stock. We can also see other versions of the board with WiFi, and kits with a 5″ display. Banggood includes a USB to OTG adapter and worldwide shipping, but still I’d expect the “oversea” price to eventually drop closer to $5 or $6 with shipping.