LicheeRV Nano – Low cost SG2002 RISC-V and Arm camera and display board with optional WiFi 6 and/or Ethernet

Yesterday, when I wrote about SOPHGO SG2002 (and SG2000) RISC-V, Arm, and 8051 AIoT processors, I noticed that several boards are in development, but the Sipeed LicheeRV Nano (beta) is already on sale. I didn’t realize it was there. Let’s take a closer look.

It’s a cheap, small camera and display board that runs Linux, supports optional WiFi 6 and 10/100M Ethernet connectivity, and is somewhat reminiscent of the Breadbee SBC, which is based on the MStar MSC313E camera SoC. Sipeed also offers accessories such as camera modules and touchscreen displays to get you started quickly.

LicheeRV Nano specifications:

• SoC – SOPHGO SG2002
  • Main Core – 1GHz 64-bit RISC-V C906 or Arm Cortex-A53 core (selectable)
  • Minor Core – 700MHz 64-bit RISC-V C906 Core
  • Low Power Core – 25-300MHz 8051 MCU Core
  • NPU – Supports 1 TOPS INT8, BF16
  • Integrated 256MB DDR3 (SiP)
• Storage – MicroSD card slot and SD NAND pad (both bootable)
• Display Interface – 31-pin connector for 2-lane MIPI DSI output + 6-pin capacitive touchscreen connector
• Camera Interface – 22-pin connector for 4-lane MIPI CSI input
• audio
  • Output – Onboard PA amplifier for up to 1W speakers
  • Input – Onboard analog microphone
• networking
  • Boards with E suffix – 100Mbps Ethernet RJ45 jack
  • Boards with W suffix – dual-band WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4
• USB – 1 x USB 2.0 OTG Type-C port
• Expansion – 2x 14 pin 2.54 pitch header with GPIO
  others
  • RST button, BOOT button
  • Power LED, User LED
• Power – 5V via USB-C port
• Dimensions – 35.56 x 22.86 mm

Sipeed claims to offer Buildroot Linux and Debian operating systems, but I can only find code and instructions for creating Alpline Linux images using Buildroot on GitHub. The Wiki links to many more resources, including datasheets, schematics, mechanical drawings, SOPHGO SG2002/SG2000 toolchains, Linux SDKs, AI accelerator SDKs, and more.

We also learned about some of the limitations of the beta version of the LicheeRV Nano currently available for sale.

• Beta hardware (70405) NPU only supports operation at 0.5T, operation at 1.0T does not guarantee board stability.
• WiFi on Beta hardware (70405) is not yet fully optimized and will be slow. Thank you for your understanding.

There are currently four models available: LicheeRV Nano B (no wired or wireless connectivity), LicheeRV Nano E (Ethernet), LicheeRV Nano W (WiFi 6), and LicheeRV Nano WE (Ethernet+WiFi 6).

The selling price of LicheRV Nano board is Just $8.90 – $13.90 + Shipping Depending on the model you choose, you can also get a GC4653 camera sensor ($8.90) or a 7-inch touchscreen display ($29.90) if needed.

Jean-Luc started CNX Software as a part-time job in 2010, then quit his job as a software engineering manager and began writing daily news and reviews full-time in late 2011.