This is the try to play through some sort of an approval process contuining discussion from here and there -- maybe move @hmartin's last post to the latter thread? IMO we need a transparent process to decide whether to support new devices or not weighing pros/cons for both developers and users and estimate efforts especially if it's a new platform. Even if hardware vendors send out free dev samples we should not automatically start with new boards but discuss and evaluate first since we already deal with way too much boards with a crew just too small. I would believe @Igorhas now every new Olimex device and TL Lim said he sent out 3 ROCK64 boards to various Armbian devs me being amongst... I think that's an opportunity to start to establish such a process now?
Since I've thought about this issue for a few days and came to no conclusion (Github issue or not or discussion in forum and so on) I'm now just naively start with a new thread regarding this RK3328 device and maybe we find out collectively how to define a process based on this?
ROCK64 schematic (preliminary since vendor promised to accept last minute changes/suggestions within the 2 next weeks)
Board layout picture (same form factor as Raspberries, pre-production samples do not fit exactly in RPi enclosures, final design should fit)
1GB, 2GB or 4GB PC-18666 LPDDR3
eMMC has higher boot priority than SD card (but eMMC can be disabled via jumper)
socketed eMMC modules are the same as on Pinebook and SoPine (and compatible to older ODROIDs and their SD card adapter)
128Mb SPI NOR flash (16MB) on future board revisions (to directly boot from USB[3] storage, network or whatever)
RK3328 should be interesting for media center purposes (4K support, video codedcs, somewhat decent GPU, high memory bandwidth)
Due to USB3, GbE and additional Fast Ethernet also interesting for NAS/server use cases (TBC, both USB3 and GbE performance needs to be checked)
I2S exposed and compatible to some early RPi DACs, a lot more GPIOs exposed as usual (see picture above and this)
Pricing will be competitive (can't share details yet but it's based on amount of DRAM and tries to match Pine64 costs but since DRAM prices increased a lot the last months it might be slightly more. Prices will be announced publicly within the next 2 weeks)
Pros:
board vendor actively participates (listens to community, provides information including schematic and cares about correctness, tries to bridge developer community and chip vendor)
board vendor provides dev samples and documents problems devs might run into (see below)
chip vendor actively supports mainline Linux and u-boot
chip vendor is said to focus on ROCK64 as currently best supported RK3328 device to spread market adoption (TBC)
SDK/BSP not horribly outdated (RK relies currently on 4.4)
almost all Armbian target audiences might benefit from RK3328 support (desktop replacement, NAS/server, audiophiles + IoT use cases due to exposed GPIOs/interfaces)
No unreliable shitty Micro USB for DC-IN but sane 3.5/1.35mm barrel plug to be combined with 5V/3A PSU Pine Inc already sells together with Pinebook
new platform (Rockchip 64-bit) needing more initial work
Did anyone of you received shipping confirmation with tracking number already? @jernej? Unfortunately I get a dev sample with unusable USB3 (some components need to be desoldered which is a pity since I'm not good in soldering at all)
My next steps planned:
Boot the board with what's provided within one week (TL Lim mentioned a 'Debian based 4.4 BSP, later Yocto' and said RK would be ready with a mainline variant within the next weeks)
Test GbE speeds, memory throughput and the usual Armbian tunables (IRQ distribution)
ask @Xaliusfor USB3 numbers (his dev sample was shipped out later and doesn't need soldering)
Question
tkaiser
[Disclaimer on]
This is the try to play through some sort of an approval process contuining discussion from here and there -- maybe move @hmartin's last post to the latter thread? IMO we need a transparent process to decide whether to support new devices or not weighing pros/cons for both developers and users and estimate efforts especially if it's a new platform. Even if hardware vendors send out free dev samples we should not automatically start with new boards but discuss and evaluate first since we already deal with way too much boards with a crew just too small. I would believe @Igorhas now every new Olimex device and TL Lim said he sent out 3 ROCK64 boards to various Armbian devs me being amongst... I think that's an opportunity to start to establish such a process now?
Since I've thought about this issue for a few days and came to no conclusion (Github issue or not or discussion in forum and so on) I'm now just naively start with a new thread regarding this RK3328 device and maybe we find out collectively how to define a process based on this?
[Disclaimer off]
Let me introduce ROCK64:
Pros:
Cons:
Did anyone of you received shipping confirmation with tracking number already? @jernej? Unfortunately I get a dev sample with unusable USB3 (some components need to be desoldered which is a pity since I'm not good in soldering at all)
My next steps planned:
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