ODROID-C5 is an affordable, power-efficient, high-performance Single Board Computer that supports Android and Linux platforms.

ODROID-C5 is powered by the Amlogic S905X5M application processor, manufactured in an advanced low-power semiconductor fab, featuring a quad-core Cortex-A55 CPU running at 2.5GHz and a modern Mali G310 GPU running at 0.85GHz.

Compare with the ODROID-C4 which had the previous generation processor S905X3, the computing performance of the ODROID-C5 is about 20-25% faster, the 4GB DRAM interface is significantly improved, the memory bandwidth increases by about 30%, and the new GPU 3D rendering performance is more than doubled.

The eMMC host interface specification also has been changed from HS200 to HS400, resulting in file system access speeds that are more than 50% faster.

Let’s take a look at the power and performance differences between ODROID-C4 and ODROID-C5 at a glance. Although these are somewhat synthetic benchmarks, it should help you estimate the performance differences.

Power consumption in milliwatt (while running “stress-ng –cpu 4 –cpu-method matrixprod”)
Drystone-2 (Integer performance)
Double-Precision Whetstone (Floating-point performance)
mbw (memory bandwidth)
7-Zip (Integer performance + memory bandwidth)
iozone (eMMC storage performance)
glmark2 (3D GPU performance)

Despite the noticeable performance increase, power consumption was reduced by over 25%, making it possible to build a very energy-friendly single board computer that consumes less than 2.5 watts even when the computing tasks are fully loaded.

A.CPU (Amlogic S905X5M)

B. DDR4 memory (4GiB)

C. 4 x USB 2.0 host ports

D. 1 x RJ45 Ethernet port (10/100/1000)

E. 1 x HDMI 2.0

F. 1 x Micro USB 2.0 port (OTG)

G. 1 x DC power jack (Outer diameter : 5.5mm, inner diameter : 2.1mm)

H. 2 x System LED indicators

I. 1 x UART for system console

J. 1 x IR receiver

K. 40 x GPIO pins

L, O : Stereo audio output 2 pins, Alternative power input 2 pins

M: 1 x eMMC module socket

N: 1 x Micro SD slot

These outstanding low-power and low-heat characteristics make it the first SBC in our product line to be heatsink-free.

This reduces not only BOM costs but also operating electricity costs and carbon emissions.

As shown in the graph below, we performed a stress test for over two hours with the ODROID-C5 board mounted inside the case, and no thermal throttling issues occurred

The ODROID-C5 board dimensions and the locations of the connectors are identical to the ODROID-C4. Therefore, cases and most add-on boards for the C4 can be used as is.

The reason why the area around the CPU looks messy is because of the BGA underfill process.

BGA (Ball Grid Array) underfill is a post-assembly process where a low-viscosity, thermoset epoxy resin is dispensed under the BGA component to fill the gap between the BGA and the PCB. This process enhances the reliability and performance of the BGA solder joints by protecting them from stress and improving heat transfer.

Hardware specifications:

Form Factor: Board Dimensions: 85mm x 56mm x 22mm

Processor: Amlogic S905X5M

Quad-Core Cortex-A55 (2.5GHz)

ARM G310 V2 GPU (0.85GHz)

Memory: DDR4 4GB with 32-bit bus width

Data rate: 3200 MT/s

Storage: 1x Micro SD slot (DS/HS mode up to UHS-I SDR104)

1x eMMC socket (HS400)

Networking: 1 x GbE port (RJ45, supports 10/100/1000 Mbps)

– LED indicators
Green LED: Flashing by data traffics at 100Mbps connection
Amber LED: Flashing by data traffics at 1000Mbps connection

Video output: 1 x HDMI 2.0 (up to 4K@60Hz with HDR, CEC, EDID)

Audio: 1 x HDMI digital output

1 x Analog stereo line out

External I/O: 4 x USB 2.0 host port

1 x Micro USB port (OTG)

1 x Debug serial console (UART : 921600bps)

1 x 40 pin GPIO header

GPIO input/output nominal voltage is 3.1V. The maximum input tolerance is 3.4V.

Other features: System LED Indicators:

– Red (POWER) Solid light when DC power is connected
– Blue (ALIVE) Flashing like a heartbeat while Kernel runs. Solid on the u-boot stage.
1 x DC jack: outer (negative) diameter 5.5mm inner (positive) diameter 2.1mm
1 x Alternative(aux) power input from a 2-pin header

Power: DC input voltage range: 7.5V ~ 15.5V (12V/2A power adapter is recommended)

IDLE : ≃ 1W without any kind of peripherals
CPU Stress : ≃ 2.5W (Performance governor) without any kind of peripherals
Power Off : ≃ 0.22W

Due to SoC design constraints, there’s no USB 3.0 Super-Speed or PCIe bus built into the chip. As a result, all USB ports on the ODROID-C5 only support up to USB 2.0 High-speed devices.

Software demo videos

Ubuntu OS

AV1 4K HDR10 video playback using GStreamer on Ubuntu OS with a native SPI connected RGB-LED string for Ambilight on a UHD TV.

Vulkan 3D GPU rendering on Wayland Gnome desktop

Yocto OS

GPU accelerated Chromium browser operation with lightning-fast boot speed.

The complex process of powering on, bootloader, kernel booting, internet connection, web browser launch, WebGL demo download, and 3D rendering is completed in less than 10 seconds.

Android OS

Thanks to GPU driver that supports the Vulkan API, GoW can run in HD quality at 2x the resolution of the original PSP on Android 14

The C5 model is nearly 30% cheaper than the C4, making it ideal for building a wide range of high-performance, low-power, and affordable embedded systems.

Note:

The supplier of the product has no replacement and/or refund policy as part of their product warranty/guarantee. Furthermore, the repair cost and the cost of shipping to and fro from South Korea has to be borne. As Fab.to.Lab is merely an intermediary we extend the exact same warranty terms to all customers of Harkernel.

Please find more details here: Supplier warranty terms and conditions: https://www.hardkernel.com/agreement/

Documentations: