Kobol Team is taking a short Break !

[gprovost]

It’s been 3 months since we posted on our blog. While we have been pretty active on Armbian/Kobol forum for support and still working at improving the software support and stability, we have been developing in parallel the new iteration of Helios64 around the latest Rockchip SoC RK3568.

 

However things haven’t been progressing as fast as we would have wished. Looking back, 2020 has been a very challenging year to deliver a new product and it took quite a toll on the small team we are. Our energy level is a bit low and we still haven’t really recovered. Now with electronic part prices surge and crazy lead time, it’s even harder to have business visibility in an already challenging market.

 

In light of the above, we decided to go on a full break for the next 2 months, to recharge our battery away from Kobol and come back with a refocused strategy and pumped up energy.

 

Until we are back, we hope you will understand that communication on the different channels (blog, wiki, forum, support email) will be kept to a minimum for the next 2 months.

 

Thanks again all for your support.

[barnumbirr]

I've already asked the question on Twitter but I'll ask here as Twitter might not be everyone's cup of tea:

 

Quote

I wonder what the rationale is for going with the 4-core RK3568 and still limited to 4GB of RAM instead of the 8-core RK3588 that can support up to 32GB of RAM.

 

[Igor]

20 minutes ago, barnumbirr said:

instead of the 8-core RK3588 that can support up to 32GB of RAM.

... because hardware wants to provide a working solution instead of piloting brand new SoC that might have unusable software support for years to come. We all will be frustrated, tensted, sales will go down ... WHY? 

 

It is hard to predict more without deep investigation, but users / buyers expect top notch SW support and are willing to pay nothing for that. But someone has to pay that bill. Costs of software support is enormous, much bigger than HW design and that fact doesn't allow such products to happen. That is certainly not fault of a few people that tries to create a wonderful new hardware or folks that supports users on a voluntary basis.

Even with reasonable well supported many years old RK3399 problems are still present in greater way we all would like.

 

2 hours ago, gprovost said:

2020 has been a very challenging year to deliver a new product and it took quite a toll on the small team we are. Our energy level is a bit low and we still haven’t really recovered.

 

Wish you fast recovery. I also need that 

[gprovost]

34 minutes ago, barnumbirr said:

I wonder what the rationale is for going with the 4-core RK3568 and still limited to 4GB of RAM instead of the 8-core RK3588 that can support up to 32GB of RAM.

The main rational is that we wanted to offer ECC as soon as possible and don't want to wait for RK3588 that has been delayed for quite a while. BTW RK3568 supports 8GB RAM.  Since it's not the best time currently to manufacture electronic consumer product, we thought it was an opportunity to already do a refresh of the design which would already answer most of the feature requests listed in the other thread. Doesn't mean we will ignore RK3588 in a later stage.

 

 

22 minutes ago, Igor said:

It is hard to predict more without deep investigation, but users / buyers expect top notch SW support and are willing to pay nothing for that. But someone has to pay that bill. Costs of software support is enormous, much bigger than HW design and that fact doesn't allow such products to happen. That is certainly not fault of a few people that tries to create a wonderful new hardware or folks that supports users on a voluntary basis.

Even with reasonable well supported many years old RK3399 problems are still present in greater way we all would like.

I think Rockchip is making an effort at each new SoC to get better and better at software support. There is sill a long way to go compared to NXP, Marvell, etc... but I think Chinese SoC manufacturer has finally understood that for a wider adoption (beside TV set-up box) they will need to put more emphasis on documentation and SDK.

 

16 minutes ago, Igor said:

Wish you fast recovery. I also need that 

Thanks. Yes I'm sure we are unfortunately all wear down by the previous year and 2021 is not really giving us a break either.

[SIGSEGV]

Enjoy your time off - looking forward to new products from you guys.

[wurmfood]

Enjoy your well deserved break. It's been a rough year for all of us, but I will saying that getting my Helios64 set up and running has been a welcome diversion and bright spot during this time.

Thanks all and I can't wait to see what comes next.

[tionebrr]

Good move guys. Have a good one.

[pierre]

Hello,

 

well deserved break.

 

Quote

The helios64 is really awesome, beautiful (amazing design), and super practical!

 

(In comparison, the helios4 is not that great. The plastic breaks easily and the disposition of the elements is not practical)

 

A great job.

 

Have a good break!!

[Victor B.]

Wanted to extend another gesture of support for taking a break. Hopefully the market will be more flexible to enable you guys to push a new product in the coming months.