Upcoming Product: More PineTab Details from TL Lim

Upcoming Product: More PineTab Details from TL Lim

From the PinePhone Telegram group:

Paraphrased comments from TL Lim, PINE64's founder, edited for clarity.








  • PineTab's M.2 expansion board is ready - photos will be sent to Lukasz for the PINE64 August 5th update
  • The M.2 expansion slot will have a switch to allow it to be selected as a slot for an LTE/5G modem or key B SATA SSD
  • The battery capacity will be 6000mAH, which is the maximum capacity for a single-slab battery
  • The M.2 expansion slot runs off a USB2.0 interface on the A64 SoC
  • Because of the USB2.0 spec, M.2 devices should consume 500mA or less - 2.5W is a guideline, but TL Lim thinks 3.3W could possibly work on the high side
  • If you wish to use an SSD, please use a low-power M.2 key B SATA SSD drive
  • There is a USB to SATA bridge using a JMicron JMS578 USB to SATA chip which will be active if the M.2 selector switch is set to SSD
  • Another concern of using a high power SSD is heat dissipation as the PineTab case is fully enclosed and doesn't have good airflow
  • Although the SSD will be limited to USB2.0 speeds, the SoC supports UAS, so this will give a 10-20% speed boost over standard USB2.0 peripherals
  • The A64 SoC supports USB boot, which was implemented by Andre from Sunxi
  • The follow-up SoC for the planned next version of the PineTab supports USB3.0, dual A76 + quad A55, and Mali 652 GPU - However, this will not be until toward the end of 2020

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