Allwinner SoC Family

= "A"-Series = Based on ARMv7 Cortex-A cores (Cortex-A7, A8 and A15) targeted for hi-end devices like digital media player, tablets, and netbooks:

64-bit

= "H"-Series = Based on ARMv7 Cortex-A cores (Cortex-A7) targeted for video OTT (over-the-top) boxes and high-end gaming consoles:

= 2013 naming scheme change =

Initially, Allwinner named their SoCs chronologically:
 * sun4i = A10
 * sun5i = A13/A10s
 * sun6i = A31
 * sun7i = A20

But, somewhere in 2013, Allwinner decided to update their naming scheme to be based on the ARM core used instead: (taken from the A80 SDK kernel code) sunxi `-- sun9i `-- sun9iw1 |-- sun9iw1p1 - a80 `-- sun9iw1p2 - a80t
 * -- sun4i - : cortex-a8
 * |-- sun4iw1  --- wafer1
 * |  `-- sun4iw1p1  - a10
 * `-- sun4iw2  --- wafer2
 * |-- sun4iw2p1 - a13
 * |-- sun4iw2p2 - a12
 * `-- sun4iw2p3 - a10s
 * -- sun8i - : cortex-a7 smp
 * |-- sun8iw1 --- wafer1
 * |  |-- sun8iw1p1  - a31
 * |  `-- sun8iw1p2  - a31s
 * |-- sun8iw2 --- wafer2
 * |  |-- sun8iw2p1  - a20
 * |  `-- sun8iw2p2
 * |-- sun8iw3 --- wafer3
 * |  |-- sun8iw3p1  - a23
 * |  `-- sun8iw3p2
 * |-- sun8iw5
 * |  `-- sun8iw5p1  - a33
 * `-- sun8iw6
 * `-- sun8iw6p1 - a83t
 * `-- sun8iw7
 * `-- sun8iw7p1 - h3

This new naming scheme is of absolutely no value with respect to the rest of the SoC. The actual ARM core(s) used are usually the least important piece of information for SoC support. This table completely ignores the fact that A20 is an updated A10 and is pin compatible. It also ignores the fact that A31 introduced a lot of changes which were carried on to the A23/A33 and possibly A80 parts. It therefore is quite likely that this naming scheme was purely a marketing decision, and that Allwinner marketing will change its mind again.

= Features =
 * CPU: ARMv7-A Cortex-A7, Cortex-A15 or Cortex-A8 Central Processor Unit which have NEON, VFP, TrustZone, and Thumb-2 co-processor extensions:
 * Advanced SIMD: NEON (ARM's extended general-purpose advanced SIMD vector processing extension engine)
 * Vector FPU: Vector Floating Point Unit - ARM VFPv3 lite (Cortex-A8) / VFPv4 (Cortex-A7) VFPU (Vector Floating Point Unit)
 * Security Extensions:
 * TrustZone secure world
 * Security accelerator supporting AES, DES, 3DES, SHA-1, MD5 and pseudo-random number generation
 * Thumb2 intruction set extension for optimized code to reduce memory footprint and improve performance
 * GPU: Mali400, Mali400P2 or SGX544, PowerVR G6230 Graphics Procesor Unit, supporting OpenGL ES2.
 * VPU: CedarX (Video Processor Unit for audio and video hardware decoding or encoding)
 * HDMI-transmitter with HDMI CEC (Consumer Electronics Control), (with exception of A13 which lacks HDMI-transmitter and SATA-controller )
 * Hardware virtualization capabilities (Cortex-A7 only).
 * Up to 4GB memory (Cortex-A8), Up to 1TB memory with LPAE (Cortex-A7 only).

Comparison table
= "F"-Series =

Based on ARMv6 ARM926-EJS core and currenty targeted for low market devices such as cheap ebook readers, etc.

= "R"-Series =

The Allwinner R8 seems to be a low-cost (and probably trimmed-down) version of the A13. This SoC is intented to power the minicomputer presented in Next Thing Co.'s C.H.I.P. kickstarter project.

= References =