H3 - Linux

H3
Manufacturer	Allwinner
Process	40nm
CPU	Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1.296GHz
Memory	LPDDR2/DDR2-LPDDR3/DDR3
GPU	Mali400 MP2 @ 600Mhz
Connectivity
Video	HDMI 1.4 with HDCP 1.2, TV CVBS
Audio	I2S, PCM, AC97
Network	GBit MAC, integrated 10/100M PHY
Storage	MMC, NAND
USB	1x OTG, 3x Host, all with integrated PHY
Release Date	October 2014
Website	Product Page

Allwinner H3 (sun8iw7p1) SoC features a Quad-Core Cortex-A7 ARM CPU, and a Mali400 MP2 GPU from ARM. The Allwinner H3 is a highly cost-efficient quad-core OTT box processor, primarily marketed as being for "home entertainment" systems.

It has a nearly-compatible variant known now, H2+.

It's rated to run at 1.296GHz, anything higher is overclocking (and usually overvolting). If you run it without heatsink, fan and proper dvfs settings, you risk overheating.

Contents

• 1 Overview
• 2 H3 SoC Features
• 3 Variants
• 4 Documentation
• 5 Software
  • 5.1 Original SDK
• 6 Devices
• 7 See also
• 8 Software
  • 8.1 U-Boot
    • 8.1.1 Allwinner
    • 8.1.2 Mainline U-Boot
  • 8.2 Kernel code
    • 8.2.1 Allwinner
    • 8.2.2 Sunxi Community
• 9 Pictures
• 10 External links
• 11 References

Overview

See Mainlining Effort and Mainline U-Boot for support status.

H3 SoC Features

• CPU
  • ARM Cortex-A7 Quad-Core
  • 512KB L2-Cache (shared between four cores)
  • 32 KB (Instruction) / 32KiB (Data) L1-Cache per core
  • SIMD NEON, VFP4
  • Virtualization
  • Large Physical Address Extensions (LPAE) 1TB
• GPU
  • ARM Mali400 MP2
  • Featuring 1 vertex shader (GP) and 2 fragment shaders (PP).
  • Complies with OpenGL ES 2.0
• Memory
  • DDR2/DDR2L-DDR3/DDR3L controller
  • NAND Flash controller and 64-bit ECC
• Video
  • Ultra HD 4k and Full HD 1080p video decoding of MPEG-2, MPEG-4 SP/ASP GMC, H.263, H.264, H.265, WMV9/VC-1, and VP8
  • BD Directory, BD ISO and BD m2ts video decoding
  • H.264 High Profile 1080P@30fps encoding
  • 3840×1080,1920x2160 3D decoding
  • Complies with RTSP, HTTP,HLS,RTMP,MMS streaming media protocol
• Display
  • Integrated HDMI V1.4 with HDCP1.2 4K@30fps
  • TV CVBS output
• Camera
  • Integrated parallel 8-bit I/F YUV422 sensor
  • Support CCIR656 protocol fot NTSC and PAL
  • 5M CMOS sensor support
  • Support video capture resolution up to 1080p@30fps
• Audio
  • Two audio digital-to-analog(DAC) channels 92dB SNR
  • Two differential microphone inputs (one low-noise)
  • Stereo Linein input
• Embedded Controller:
  • AR100, an OpenRISC controller. Manages deep powersave modes.
• Thermal Sensor Controller (TSC) providing over-temperature protection interrupt and over-temperature alarm interrupt
• no PMU (According to arisc_dvfs.c pmuic_type defines 0~2, 0:none, 1:gpio, 2:i2c)
• package: FBGA347, 14 mm x 14 mm, 0.65 mm Pitch

Variants

H2+ is a variant of H3, targeted at low-end OTT boxes, which lacks Gigabit MAC and 4K HDMI output support.

H3 images are proven to run on H2+.

According to the source code of BSP[1], variants differ by the last byte of the first word of SID. 0x42 and 0x83 indicates H2+, 0x00 and 0x81 indicates H3, and 0x58 indicates H3D (a still unknown variant).

Documentation

• File:Allwinner H3 Datasheet V1.2.pdf - 614 pages, 7MB, 2015-04-23
• Allwinner_H3_Datasheet_V1.1.pdf - 616 pages, 7MB, 2015-01-26
• Allwinner_H3_Datasheet_V1.0.pdf - 618 pages, 7MB, 2014-11-18
• Some 'confidental' documentation in Chinese
• File:Allwinner DE2.0 Spec V1.0.pdf - 147 pages, 2.9MB, 18-01-2018
• Display Engine 2.0 Register Guide
• Allwinner H3 Development Kit (Original name: 全志H3开发资料包)

Software

Original SDK

• SDK (External link, 3.3GB zip)
• H2+ SDK (External link, 4.9GB tar.bz2)

Devices ► H3 Boards► H3 HTPC  8BCraft Retrostone ► H2+ Boards See also

• H2+
• H5
• Mali-400

Software

U-Boot

Allwinner

Mainline U-Boot

Starting with version 2016.01, the official mainline U-Boot has supported the H3 SoC and various boards with it. This is the recommended way of booting boards when not using BSP kernels.

U-Boot defconfigs still missing for these H3 boards:

* Orange Pi Mini 2 (as a workaround, please use orangepi_2 defconfig) * Orange Pi Plus 2 (as a workaround, please use orangepi_plus defconfig) * pcDuino4 Nano (as a workaround, please use orangepi_one defconfig)

Kernel code

Allwinner

Sunxi Community

The mainline Linux kernel supports the H3 SoC quite well. For a more comprehensive list of supported features, see the status matrix for mainline kernels.

Device tree configs still missing for these H3 boards:

* Orange Pi Mini 2 (as a workaround, please use sun8i-h3-orangepi-2.dtb) * Orange Pi Plus 2 (as a workaround, please use sun8i-h3-orangepi-plus.dtb) * pcDuino4 Nano (as a workaround, please use sun8i-h3-orangepi-one.dtb) Pictures

• Allwinner H3 Datasheet V1.2 page 614 pin dimensons

External links

• Allwinner Product Page H3

References

1. ↑ http://filez.zoobab.com/allwinner/h2/201609022/lichee/linux-3.4/arch/arm/mach-sunxi/sun8i.c