i still have to write it up but i've discovered that it's possible to obtain PCB CAD files on taobao for the RK3288. with mike's help (and around $20) i've been working for the past 4 days on an EOMA68-RK3288 board. the RK3288 apparently supports up to 4GB of RAM, which is the primary reason why i'm looking at it at the same time as the nexell S5P6818 (which is 8-core but only does up to 2GB RAM).
the RK3288 was apparently designed for chromebooks, hence the increased RAM. what's nice is that i have the assistance of an engineer who works for rockchip, thanks to an introduction. i'll be arranging to go visit their HQ in a few weeks, to say hello.
l.
--- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
Sounds promising. Just curious, how does the power consumption of the RK3288 compare to the A20?
Thanks, Matt
On 11/14/2016 12:26 PM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
i still have to write it up but i've discovered that it's possible to obtain PCB CAD files on taobao for the RK3288. with mike's help (and around $20) i've been working for the past 4 days on an EOMA68-RK3288 board. the RK3288 apparently supports up to 4GB of RAM, which is the primary reason why i'm looking at it at the same time as the nexell S5P6818 (which is 8-core but only does up to 2GB RAM).
the RK3288 was apparently designed for chromebooks, hence the increased RAM. what's nice is that i have the assistance of an engineer who works for rockchip, thanks to an introduction. i'll be arranging to go visit their HQ in a few weeks, to say hello.
l.
crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
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On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 6:31 PM, Matt Campbell mattcampbell@pobox.com wrote:
Sounds promising. Just curious, how does the power consumption of the RK3288 compare to the A20?
don't know yet, but the PMIC does 3A @ 1V (!!) for the CPU and the same amount for the GPU (!).
it'll almost certainly have to be down-clocked to 1ghz, or a special cpufreq arrangement to be made where 2 cores are allowed to run up to the maximum 1.8ghz and the other two are capped at say 400mhz or less, something like that.
it's a 4-core 28nm where the A20 was a 2-core 40nm, so that's a 1/2 power-saving factor... running at 1ghz should be a roughly equal power consumption.... but the RK3288 is an A17, the A20 is an A7.
just have to see how it goes, basically.
l.
El 14 de noviembre de 2016 a las 19:27:40, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton (lkcl@lkcl.net) escribió:
i still have to write it up but i've discovered that it's possible to obtain PCB CAD files on taobao for the RK3288. with mike's help (and around $20) i've been working for the past 4 days on an EOMA68-RK3288 board. the RK3288 apparently supports up to 4GB of RAM, which is the primary reason why i'm looking at it at the same time as the nexell S5P6818 (which is 8-core but only does up to 2GB RAM).
the RK3288 was apparently designed for chromebooks, hence the increased RAM. what's nice is that i have the assistance of an engineer who works for rockchip, thanks to an introduction. i'll be arranging to go visit their HQ in a few weeks, to say hello.
The GPU seems very interesting. Supports OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan 1.0.
Are all components supported under GNU/Linux (with proprietary drivers)?
Thanks.
--- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
On Tue, Nov 15, 2016 at 4:25 PM, GaCuest gacuest@gmail.com wrote:
El 14 de noviembre de 2016 a las 19:27:40, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton (lkcl@lkcl.net) escribió:
i still have to write it up but i've discovered that it's possible to obtain PCB CAD files on taobao for the RK3288. with mike's help (and around $20) i've been working for the past 4 days on an EOMA68-RK3288 board. the RK3288 apparently supports up to 4GB of RAM, which is the primary reason why i'm looking at it at the same time as the nexell S5P6818 (which is 8-core but only does up to 2GB RAM).
the RK3288 was apparently designed for chromebooks, hence the increased RAM. what's nice is that i have the assistance of an engineer who works for rockchip, thanks to an introduction. i'll be arranging to go visit their HQ in a few weeks, to say hello.
The GPU seems very interesting. Supports OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan 1.0.
Are all components supported under GNU/Linux (with proprietary drivers)?
honestly that's something i'm going to have to leave for someone else to investigate / answer, i've been non-stop for about 6 days on the PCB layout, it's one of the trickiest i've ever done as the 4 DDR3x16 RAM ICs are all on the TOP layer, leaving an absolutely ridiculously small amount of space left for routing, and i'm having to make some rather creative decisions on where to place some of the discrete components.
it's extremely taxing, very intensive, so i'm trusting that other people will answer software-related questions.
l.
El 15 de noviembre de 2016 a las 17:33:27, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton (lkcl@lkcl.net) escribió:
honestly that's something i'm going to have to leave for someone else to investigate / answer, i've been non-stop for about 6 days on the PCB layout, it's one of the trickiest i've ever done as the 4 DDR3x16 RAM ICs are all on the TOP layer, leaving an absolutely ridiculously small amount of space left for routing, and i'm having to make some rather creative decisions on where to place some of the discrete components.
it's extremely taxing, very intensive, so i'm trusting that other people will answer software-related questions.
Ok, thanks, and good luck!
The RK3288 seems very interesting if all the components if supported under GNU/Linux (at least with proprietary drivers).
On the other hand, have you calculated the approximate price of an EOMA68 based on RK3288?
Thanks.
--- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
On Tue, Nov 15, 2016 at 4:56 PM, GaCuest gacuest@gmail.com wrote:
El 15 de noviembre de 2016 a las 17:33:27, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton (lkcl@lkcl.net) escribió:
honestly that's something i'm going to have to leave for someone else to investigate / answer, i've been non-stop for about 6 days on the PCB layout, it's one of the trickiest i've ever done as the 4 DDR3x16 RAM ICs are all on the TOP layer, leaving an absolutely ridiculously small amount of space left for routing, and i'm having to make some rather creative decisions on where to place some of the discrete components.
it's extremely taxing, very intensive, so i'm trusting that other people will answer software-related questions.
Ok, thanks, and good luck!
The RK3288 seems very interesting if all the components if supported under GNU/Linux (at least with proprietary drivers).
On the other hand, have you calculated the approximate price of an EOMA68 based on RK3288?
not at all: i've literally gone straight from learning of the existence of the RK3288 to starting the PCB layout in under 24 hours. i'm working on the assumption that a higher-end processor, larger amount of RAM and larger amount of NAND (eMMC) will be desirable regardless of cost. the required RAM ICs to reach 4 GB RAM are going to be the $9 *PER RAM IC* variants. that's $36 just in RAM ICs - more than the entire BOM for the EOMA68-A20. 32gb eMMC is also going to be equally costly, and likewise the processor.
l.
On Tuesday 15. November 2016 17.56.00 GaCuest wrote:
El 15 de noviembre de 2016 a las 17:33:27, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
(lkcl@lkcl.net) escribió:
it's extremely taxing, very intensive, so i'm trusting that other people will answer software-related questions.
I'm not expecting you to field these questions while you're in the zone doing the hardware, that's for sure!
Ok, thanks, and good luck!
The RK3288 seems very interesting if all the components if supported under GNU/Linux (at least with proprietary drivers).
One worrying thing I read recently was that Lima driver development for the Mali technologies bundled by ARM and appearing in various SoCs, which might include this one, has stalled mostly because the developer has found it difficult to remain motivated:
http://libv.livejournal.com/27461.html
Given the way he has been treated over the years, particularly by ARM and various partner organisations, I find that understandable.
There do appear to be "open source" components for Mali developed by ARM, albeit not supporting things like OpenGL:
http://malideveloper.arm.com/resources/drivers/open-source-mali-gpus-linux- exadri2-and-x11-display-drivers/
Maybe someone here can provide us with an explanation of the situation, what amongst the stuff being offered on the wider Internet is actually "libre" or complete, and whether the "open source" stuff still requires proprietary firmware, anyway.
Paul
--- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
On Tue, Nov 15, 2016 at 8:18 PM, Paul Boddie paul@boddie.org.uk wrote:
On Tuesday 15. November 2016 17.56.00 GaCuest wrote:
El 15 de noviembre de 2016 a las 17:33:27, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
(lkcl@lkcl.net) escribió:
it's extremely taxing, very intensive, so i'm trusting that other people will answer software-related questions.
I'm not expecting you to field these questions while you're in the zone doing the hardware, that's for sure!
Ok, thanks, and good luck!
The RK3288 seems very interesting if all the components if supported under GNU/Linux (at least with proprietary drivers).
One worrying thing I read recently was that Lima driver development for the Mali technologies bundled by ARM and appearing in various SoCs, which might include this one, has stalled mostly because the developer has found it difficult to remain motivated:
that's an understatement.
http://libv.livejournal.com/27461.html
Given the way he has been treated over the years, particularly by ARM and various partner organisations, I find that understandable.
a $40 billion dollar company threatening a single individual, by blackmailing the company that funded him? that kind of completely inappropriate and completely unethical behaviour doesn't end well.
There do appear to be "open source" components for Mali developed by ARM, albeit not supporting things like OpenGL:
http://malideveloper.arm.com/resources/drivers/open-source-mali-gpus-linux- exadri2-and-x11-display-drivers/
Maybe someone here can provide us with an explanation of the situation, what amongst the stuff being offered on the wider Internet is actually "libre" or complete, and whether the "open source" stuff still requires proprietary firmware, anyway.
"Note that these components are not a complete driver stack. To build a functional OpenGL ES or OpenVG driver you need access to the full source code of the Mali GPU DDK, which is provided under the standard ARM commercial licence to all Mali GPU customers. For a complete integration of the Mali GPU DDK with the X11 environment refer to the Integration Guide supplied with the Mali GPU DDK.
The open source code provided on this page is designed to run with a version-compatible release of the Mali GPU DDK (currently r2p1). They also require the MaliDRM component also available from this page. By releasing this software under the MIT licence we hope to make it easier to include Mali GPU drivers in any Linux platform."
answer: no.
On Nov 15, 2016 11:26 AM, "GaCuest" gacuest@gmail.com wrote:
Are all components supported under GNU/Linux (with proprietary drivers)?
Most if not all, using ChromeOS kernel source: https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Asus/C201 https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn//Asus/C201 (Some issues noted with mainline kernel.)
But there is one possible trouble point: "Unknown if OpenGL ES will work, though it will probably require armsoc server and several files from Chrome OS..." Sounds like it _should_ work... I think?
Benson
arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk
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Benson Mitchell -
GaCuest -
Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton -
Matt Campbell -
Paul Boddie