A $1, Linux-Capable, Hand-Solderable Processor
Found on Hackaday on Tuesday, 18 September 2018
This is an ARM processor capable of running Linux. It’s hand-solderable in a TQFP package, has a built-in Mali GPU, support for a touch panel, and has support for 512MB of DDR3.
There is no HDMI support, you’ll need to add some more chips (that are probably in a BGA package), but, hey, it’s only a dollar.
While the Allwinner A13 beats all the other options on price and solderability, it should be noted that like all of these random Linux-capable SoCs, the software is a mess. There is a reason those ‘Raspberry Pi killers’ haven’t yet killed the Raspberry Pi, and it’s because the Allwinner chips don’t have documentation and let’s repeat that for emphasis: the software is a mess.
So the price is good, but the software is a mess. That effectively turns it into a "thanks but no thanks" product, which is too bad. Not to mention that it's a bad idea to offer the core in a TQFP package which you can solder manually, while the missing graphic option would require BGA chips which cut down to target audience to a minority.