Pine64 SoPine Cluster Board Takes up to Seven SOPINE A64 Systems-on-Module

Pine64 launched SOPINE A64 system-on-module based on Allwinner A64 processor back in January, with such module normally being found in low volume products where companies do not want to spent too many resources developing complex multiple layers boards with CPU and RAM, and instead focus on developing a simpler baseboard and custom software for their product. Pine64 made something else with SOPINE A64 modules:  a cluster board.

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I don’t have the full details yet, but “PINE64 SoPine Cluster Board” comes with 7 SO-DIMM slot designed to take SOPINE64 modules with the board providing a micro USB OTG port, a USB host port, and Ethernet transceiver for each SoM, which are connected to a Gigabit Ethernet switch (initially Marvell 88E6185, but they appear to have now switched to a Realtek part), and accessible via a single Gigabit Ethernet port.

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Power can be provided by a 5V/10A power supply connected to a power barrel, or via the ATX connector.I also understand the board is based on mini-ITX form factor (170×170 mm), so you’d be able easily find a case for it.

The board and software are still being developed, and it’s unclear when/if it will launch publicly.

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18 Comments
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morning
6 years ago

They still haven’t shipped Rock64 board, have been waiting for 3 weeks

Nick
Nick
6 years ago

I got mine 4 days ago. Ordered June 5th.

Morning
6 years ago

Thanks. I will keep waiting

TLS
TLS
6 years ago

@morning
Not true, they’ve shipped, they just had a very limited amount of boards and only 1 and 2GB boards. They’re supposed to get the 4GB ones by the end of the month.

Morning
6 years ago

Glad to know that, it is not long to the end of this month. Thanks

willy
willy
6 years ago

Oh! My future build farm! Well, not exactly but in the spirit it’s the closest to what I’ve been looking for for a while and that I tried to do myself by assembling stuff manually. Some of the good points I’m seeing : – integrated ethernet switch, just one cable needed – single power supply connector – per-board USB connections easing debugging Some of the not so good points : – quite low frequency CPU (1.2 GHz for an A53 is dog slow, but the concept is here and can be improved) – power supply coming in 5V. Passing 10A… Read more »

fire219
fire219
6 years ago

@morning
You probably just barely missed the first cutoff. All of the first wave of orders shipped a few weeks ago and many people have already received them. Second wave ships August 30th.

Morning
6 years ago

My order is 4G RAM plus a few emmc chips. Maybe this is the reason.

willmore
willmore
6 years ago

Adding to what willy said, I like this board, but there are some concerns:
– What’s the cooling needed for this board? Do you need to and even can you mount heat sinks on these modules?
– Power. Oh, my, how do we keep getting this wrong? Take 12V (or more likley 8-16V) in via a locking connector and drop that to the voltages you need for the modules right next to the modules. Please stop expecting power to the board to be highly regulated.

tkaiser
tkaiser
6 years ago

@willy The RTL8370N does only support 8 ports (they started with RTL8370M that features 2 additional RGMII ports so at least the ‘master’ SoPine might have been attached without an additional PHY in between — no idea about software/settings to support this — and 9useable ports in total would’ve been possible. But RealTek advised against, most probably for a reason). But I fully agree: a 2nd GbE port for daisy chaining would be great, 3 ports even better for workloads that do not require high bandwidth between cluster nodes since then you could interconnect a bunch of clusterboards without any… Read more »

tkaiser
tkaiser
6 years ago

@willmore
Active cooling is IMO mandatory for this use case (A64 being a 40nm SoC) and your only option are adhesive heatsinks combined with fan(s). But I hope TL Lim will comment too since I remember he mentioned graphite ‘heatsinks’ already last year.

Jon Smirl
6 years ago

Doesn’t the AXP on the module reregulate the power? So whatever you feed it should be ok?

willmore
willmore
6 years ago

@tkaiser
Thanks for your reply!

@Jon Smirl
Does the AXP803 supply the Vusb? I.E., does it boost the input voltage the the USB voltage? If so, then that’s great!

theguyuk
theguyuk
6 years ago

You could discuss up your ideal spec between each other and write it up, then it is up to chance. You could try emailing the spec you seek to the sales directors of board makers. A realistic opinion of the market for the board and or crowdfund it.

Or you can just be negative and hope by chance someone makes what you all desire.

INMO

Gaetano
Gaetano
6 years ago

I think that a shared storage would be a nice to have. It’s a pity that no ARM consumer SoC we natively supports SAS; in this case, a shared storage makes possible to implement a cluster.
The “PC” form factor is really nice.

tkaiser
tkaiser
6 years ago

Gaetano : I think that a shared storage would be a nice to have. It’s a pity that no ARM consumer SoC we natively supports SAS Shared storage and SAS? SAS on cheap consumer SoCs? Pine folks in the meantime do a great job interacting with community, picking up ideas, improving it and sometimes lift it to the next level by interconnecting SoC vendors and community. With SoPine they started to add bootable SPI NOR flash to every of their devices that lacks eMMC. So every SoPine is equipped with 128 Mb SPI NOR flash ready to be flashed with… Read more »

James
James
6 years ago

This would be great for my uses, I hope it comes to market successfully.

Khadas VIM4 SBC