[Update: I have now seen an email exchange with ASUS replying that Rockchip RK3288 will still be in production for 5 years, so GPD claims that manufacturing will stop for RK3288 may be incorrect, or misunderstood
Update 2: Rockchip has now confirmed RK3288 will not be phased out. So I’m guessing there may have been info lost in translation with GPD simply not manufacturing their own RK3288 board anymore]
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.
Another product based on the processor is GPD XD Android game console, but according to a report on reddit, GPD will soon launch an upgraded version call XD+ powered by Mediatek MT8176 Hexa-core Cortex A72/A53 processor with 4GB RAM, mainly because “Rockchip are phasing out sales of the RK3288”. If true, it means 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.
GPD XD+ console preliminary specifications:
- SoC – Mediatek MT8176 hexa-core processor with 2x Cortex A72 cores @ 2.1 GHz, 4x Cortex A53 cores @ 1.7 GHz, and Imagination PowerVR GX6250 GPU (as used in Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 tablet)
- System Memory – 4GB RAM
- Storage – 32GB and up internal storage, micro SD slot
- Display – 5″ 720p capacitive touch display
- Video Output – 1x mini HDMI
- Audio – Dual speaker, via HDMI output, 1x 3.5mm audio jack
- Connectivity – Dual band WiFi, Bluetooth
- USB – 1x micro USB port
- Buttons – Power button, cross button, dual-character button（A/B/X/Y；△/○/×/□）, L1/L2/L3/R1/R2/R3, joysticks, Start/Select button, Volume +/-, Back，Android function, Home, Keymapper button
- Sensor – 3-axis gravity sensor
- Battery – TBD
- Power Supply – TBD
- Dimensions – 155 x 89 x 24 mm
- Weight – ~300 grams
The device will run Android 7.x, and as you’ll see from the video below some people already got prototypes, with the device achieving 74,500 points in Antutu 6, and a the following Geekbench scores: Single core: 1375; multi core 3529.
The physical aspect of XD+ looks exactly the same as XD, but performance should be quite better with the Cortex A72 cores and PowerVR GPU in the Mediatek SoC, and some games did run better on the new model in the video above. Some games also only work with 64-bit Arm, so more games will be supported.
GPD XD+ is expected to start selling in Q1 2018 with some resellers mentioning January, while other telling the February-March timeframe is more likely. It will all depend on results of testing of the beta units, and other potential production delays.
I contacted Rockchip to try to get more information about the timeline of RK3288 end-of-life status, but I did not get an answer in time for this article. I’ll update it if I get an answer.
Via Liliputing
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not true
What’s not true?
Actually, Rockchip there was a new revision RK3288W and will be in long term lifetime.
@Gouwa
Good to know. Because RK3288 EOL was mentioned twice, once in Reddit, and the second time in the video.
So maybe RK3288 will be phased out, but RK3288W will be sold instead? Any differences between RK3288 and RK3288W, or are they the same?
@alevan
vamrs and gouwa are good sources, because both make Rockchip boards (Rock960 and Khadas VIM).
RK3288w is the new revision of RK3288, W stands for Windows? The improvement includes Direct X support.
@vamrs
Good. Now i can see RK3288W was demoed in Windows 10 tablets in January 2016. But not much info since then.
But based on your comments, that mean the effort is still going on, and we may see Rockchip Windows tablets/laptops soon?
@cnxsoft
another thing, rk3288 is one of the 3 chips that Rockchip officially supports in their opensource / mainlining efforts.
It would have been such a waste if it was already phased out.
RK3288W is also used in chromeOS(chromebooks) and Windows Tablets
@Demetris
Do you mean it’s already in devices?
@cnxsoft
Pipo U8T for example 🙂
And I just spotted some commits referencing RK3288W as ‘rk3288v2’ with own DVFS/thermal settings.
@tkaiser
Yes, that’s the one I saw demonstrated in 2016, but I can’t find it anywhere for sale, and a search for RK3288W in Aliexpress or Alibaba returns nothing at all.
” For the moment the SoC designated is the Rockchip RK3288W which, according to what the Chinese company tells us, will not have substantial novelties compared to the RK3288 chip mounted on tablets and TV-Box with Android and the suffix “W” should only serve to distinguish the destination for a different software platform. We do not exclude, however, as already happened for the Rockchip RK3288C specific for Chromebook , there may be small differences in terms of maximum frequency achievable “”
Source forced translate , Sun, 10 Jan. 16 Crystal Palm article
http://notebookitalia.it/tablet-windows-10-mobile-rockchip-rk3288w-pipo-u8t-e-best-buy-22935
@theguyuk
Info published in January 2016 is OK for historical purpose, but what we need is recent info, since what was written in 2016 may not be relevant today.
@cnxsoft
Yep, you’re right. The only somewhat useful reference I found is from May this year and then these pretty recent commits which should at least indicate that there will be products (soon)?
@cnxsoft
I thought it made sense of the letter after the Soc number
Suffix
W = Windows
C= Chromebook
Plain RK3288 = Linux / Android
You yourself recent!y covered the Aaeon RICO-3288 board
@cnxsoft Yeah is already in devices like Asus chromebooks and MiQi dev board
@Demetris
I thought Chromebooks used RK3288C, and MiQi (I have one) uses RK3288.
The info of rk3288 not selling it anymore was provided by gpd. Maybe they mean tablet boards , and not stb or chromebooks. Maybe that rk3288w is for that kind of products (stb, develpment boards etc but not current Android tablets i guess)
@cnxsoft i have seen no C revision, i suspect was a marketing trick. Flash any Chromebook image on your MiQi and will boot but will be recognized as veyron-xxx.
Also flash test https://forum.mqmaker.com/t/lakka-libreelec-images/740
If Lakka boots on your MiQi then is definitely an RK3288W
ASUS replied Rockchip will supply them with RK3288 for 5 more years.
Rockchip confirmed RK3288 will not be phased out. So I’m guessing there’s been miscommunication with GPD trying to say they won’t manufacture the RK3288 board anymore, but this ended sounding like “RK3288 will not be manufactured anymore” to the beta testers.
Am I the only bothered by the color switching between “A” and “Y” from the classic xbox controller? Literally unplayable.
It looks like there may be more to it than meet the eyes, as I got more info from a trusted source:
ARM and Rockchip allegedly had a 3-year deal for RK3288, but this has ended a few months ago, so price may increase.
RK3288W deal with Microsoft did not work out, but they manufactured wafers for it (under the old), so now it’s getting into Linux devices, as RK3288W will not run Windows.
RK3288 and RK3288W are electrically compatible but not software compatible, that’s why we have commits in the Linux kernel. The latest SDKs from Rockchip support both, but if you use older software on RK3288W, this will not work. Android 7.0 SDK support both by default, Android 4.4/5.1/6.0 SDK all require patchsets.
Differences require new software for USB, HDMI (HDCP 2.2), and others. You can check if you have a W part by checking the die lot# until the chip name (RK3288). ABCDXXXXW DEFG. If W is shown at the end of the code, you have RK3288W, DEFG is the date code. I got the last info from a Rockchip document.