Info: Rockchip are phasing out sales of the RK3288

[guidol]

https://www.cnx-software.com/2017/12/07/rockchip-rk3288-to-be-phased-out-soon-gpd-xd-android-console-to-get-mediatek-mt8176-soc-4gb-ram-upgrade/

 

Rockchip RK3288 32-bit Arm processor was first spotted in a company presentation in the summer of 2013, before being announced – with some confusion (Cortex A12 vs A17) – at CES 2014 in January. The quad core Cortex A17 processor had then its moments of glory with inclusion in products such as Chromebooks (2015) 

and ASUS Tinker board SBC earlier this year.

 

“Rockchip are phasing out sales of the RK3288”, meaning most products based on the chip will soon be phased out or upgraded to another solution.

How long each product will keep selling will depend on the stocks held by the manufacturer.

[TonyMac32]

Hmmm, considering this is at least second-hand info from the maker of a game console I'm not sure anyone has heard of (personal biases there), I'd take it with a grain of salt. 

 

I'd also caution that "phasing out" is not typically the same as "EOL".  Phasing out involves "not for new design" but continuing to sell to existing customers on a per-customer basis.

 

I'd be surprised if there aren't a lot of other reasons for changing processor, or if these guys don't have enough volume to negotiate to keep the older chip in a new design and want more power, for instance the people making the claim are going to an entirely different manufacturer and performance and cost tier on their processors.

[botfap]

You sure about this?

 

One of our clients ordered 85K rk3288 boards to be designed and manufactured to rk-miniarm spec in August and they have contractual availability to buy upto 500K per year through till July 2021. Their OEM would have to hold a lot of rk3288 SoC stock to meet those obligations for a discontinued chip over 5 years.

[TonyMac32]

40 minutes ago, botfap said:

One of our clients ordered 85K rk3288 boards to be designed and manufactured to rk-miniarm spec

Oh my, have they fixed all the reboot hackery?  Also see:  Giant Heatsink.  

 

And no, even in automotive where last time buys are common, no one is stocking to support "up to" 2 million pieces without guarantees that the parts will be used.  I wonder if that vendor had a falling out with Rockchip.

[botfap]

Spoke to our client yesterday and they went with a 4GB/RK3399 based design in the end and it was that board that was promised till July 2021. Clients OEM withdrew the offer for RK3288 board availability.

[TonyMac32]

Interesting, but the RK3399 is $$$$ by comparison, or did that change?

[jock]

The are a couple of updates to the original article page; the 2nd update in particular says that the rk3288 won't be phased out (source: rockchip itself)

[botfap]

Doesnt matter in this case as the devices are being sold at €1299+services, so an extra €25 on the BOM isn't significant. Their client is local government, taxpayer money

[TonyMac32]

11 hours ago, botfap said:

taxpayer money

 

That makes me feel so much better... 

 

It just seemed a rather extreme jump, given the usual context of this board ("I bought an $8 thingy and it's not as powerful as my laptop... WHY?!?!?!")

[TonyMac32]

14 hours ago, jock said:

2nd update in particular says that the rk3288 won't be phased out (source: rockchip itself)

Better hope a certain world leader doesn't get wind of this:  "CNX is fake news!! SAD!!"