rockchip

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 27 Comments on What is PVTM? Or why your Rockchip RK3588 CPU may not reach 2.4 GHz

What is PVTM? Or why your Rockchip RK3588 CPU may not reach 2.4 GHz

Rockchip PVTM

While the Rockchip RK3588 processor is advertised as reaching 2.4 GHz, not all RK3588 chips may achieve this frequency. The keyword is PVTM (Process-Voltage-Temperature Monitor), and we’ll try to explain why it does, and why some of the RK3588 processors may only be clocked at about 2.3 GHz, while others will run fine at 2.4 GHz. This all started with Rock 5B SBC debug party, where we noticed our boards did not reach the same frequency. Willy Tarreau noted the “pvtm” value was different between our boards: Willy’s board: (Cortex-A76 cluster 1 @ 2,304 MHz, cluster 2 @ 2,352 MHz)

CNXSoft board (Cortex-A76 cluster 1 @ 2,304 MHz, cluster 2 @ 2,304 MHz) :

Thomas Kaiser (tkaiser) board: (Cortex-A76 cluster 1 @ 2,400 MHz, cluster 2 @ 2,400 MHz)

For reference, CPU 0 to 3 are Cortex-A55 cores, CPU 4-5 are two Cortex-A76 cores (cluster 1), and […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Linux 5.18 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.18 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.18 release arm risc-v mips

Linux 5.18 is out! Linus Torvalds has just announced the release on lkml: No unexpected nasty surprises this last week, so here we go with the 5.18 release right on schedule. That obviously means that the merge window for 5.19 will open tomorrow, and I already have a few pull requests pending. Thank you everybody. I’d still like people to run boring old plain 5.18 just to check, before we start with the excitement of all the new features for the merge window. The full shortlog for the last week is below, and nothing really odd stands out. The diffstat looks a bit funny – unusually we have parsic architecture patches being a big part of it due to some last-minute cache flushing fixes, but that is probably more indicative of everything else being pretty small. So outside of the parisc fixes, there’s random driver updates (mellanox mlx5 stands out, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Linux 5.17 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.17 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.17 changelog

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 5.17: So we had an extra week of at the end of this release cycle, and I’m happy to report that it was very calm indeed. We could probably have skipped it with not a lot of downside, but we did get a few last-minute reverts and fixes in and avoid some brown-paper bugs that would otherwise have been stable fodder, so it’s all good. And that calm last week can very much be seen from the appended shortlog – there really aren’t a lot of commits in here, and it’s all pretty small. Most of it is in drivers (net, usb, drm), with some core networking, and some tooling updates too. It really is small enough that you can just scroll through the details below, and the one-liner summaries will give a good flavor of what happened last week. Of course, this means […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Rockchip RK3588 TRM, Android 12 firmware & SDK released

Rockchip RK3588 TRM, Android 12 firmware & SDK released

Firefly RK3588 Android 12 SDK

Firefly ITX-3588J mini-ITX motherboard powered by Rockchip RK3588 processor was introduced at the beginning of the month, and now the company has started selling samples for the Core-3588J system-on-module and taken the opportunity to release the Rockchip RK3588 TRM (technical reference manual), Android 12 firmware, and the SDK. Firefly Core-3588J module Before we check out the new documentation and Android software development kit, let’s have a quick look at Firefly Core-3588J module specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with  four Arm Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, four Arm Cortex-A55 cores, ArmMali-G610 MP4 quad-core GPU with support for OpenGL ES3.2, OpenCL 2.2, Vulkan1.1, 6 TOPS NPU, 48MP ISP, 8Kp60 video decoding, 8Kp30 video encoding System Memory – 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB LPDDR4/LPDDR4x/LPDDR5 memory Storage – 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB eMMC flash 314-pin MXM 3.0 edge connector for peripherals interfaces including HDMI 2.1 outputs, HDMI 2.0 input, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on Banana Pi teases BPI-RK3588 Rockchip RK3588 SoM and development kit

Banana Pi teases BPI-RK3588 Rockchip RK3588 SoM and development kit

RK3588_MB carrier board devkit

Banana Pi has showcased its first engineering samples of a Rockchip RK3588 SoM (system-on-module) with up to 8GB RAM and 128GB flash, as well as a development kit with dual Ethernet, three HDMI ports, SATA interfaces, PCIe interface, and more. Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor is the most powerful from the company, both in terms of CPU and GPU power, but also with a wide range of high-speed interfaces, and will be found in the upcoming Radxa ROCK5 single board computer, and a yet-to-be-announced board from Pine64. Banana Pi RK3588_CV1 “Core” (BPI-RK3588) board specifications: SoC- Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with four Cortex-A76 cores @ 2.4 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz, an Arm Mali G610MC4 GPU, a 6 TOPS NPU, 8K 10-bit decoder, 8K encoder System Memory – 2GB, 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB eMMC flash 313-pin edge connector for I/Os including PCIe 3.0, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments on Rockchip RK3588S cost-optimized Cortex-A76/A55 processor adds CAN bus, drops PCIe 3.0, other peripherals

Rockchip RK3588S cost-optimized Cortex-A76/A55 processor adds CAN bus, drops PCIe 3.0, other peripherals

RK3588S

Rockchip RK3588S is a cost-optimized version of the RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor with fewer peripherals, and I’ve been told it’s been designed for tablets, but as we’ll see below, the processor will probably find its way into many other applications. We first saw RK3588S during the Rockchip Developer Event last December, but at the time we did not have any information, except it would be a lower-cost version. I’ve now received an RK3588S datasheet, so let’s have a look at the block diagram and specifications to find out what’s different. Rockchip RK3588S specifications with highlights in bold showing the differences against RK3588: CPU – 4x Cortex-A76 and 4x Cortex-A55 cores in dynamIQ configuration GPU Arm Mali-G610 MP4 “Odin” GPU with support for OpenGLES 1.1, 2.0, and 3.2, OpenCL up to 2.2 and Vulkan1.2 2D graphics engine up to 8192×8192 source, 4096×4096 destination AI Accelerator – 6 TOPS NPU 3.0 (Neural […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments on Year 2021 in review – Top 10 posts and statistics

Year 2021 in review – Top 10 posts and statistics

cnx software happy new year 2022

As per tradition, we’ll look back at what happened during the year in the last post, and see what 2022 may have in store, plus the usual statistics from CNX Software website. The biggest story of 2021 has to be the worsening of semiconductors shortages with extremely long lead times, prices of some components going up multiple folds, constant complaints on Twitter about availability and prices. I think I even saw a website, hopefully misconfigured, showing an estimated availability of a specific STM32 MCU in 2037. This also gave rise to opportunities and board redesigns, with MotorComm Ethernet chips replacing some Realtek chips in SBCs such as NanoPi R2C and  Orange Pi R1S Plus LTS, and CH9102F showing up as a replacement for CP2104 in some IoT boards. We also got some interesting Arm processors, but sadly the high-expected Rockchip RK3588 got delayed by another year, although it’s getting really […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 60 Comments on Rockchip RK3588 datasheet available, SBC’s coming soon

Rockchip RK3588 datasheet available, SBC’s coming soon

RK3588 Block Diagram

We had most Rockchip RK3588 specifications so far for the long-awaited Cortex-A76/Cortex-A55 processor, but at today’s Rockchip Developer Conference 2021, more information surfaces with impressive CPU and GPU benchmarks, and the Rockchip RK3588 datasheet has just dropped from the sky directly into my laptop, as such document usually does. At least two single board computers are expected to soon follow from Radxa and Pine64. Rockchip RK3588 datasheet Since we have the datasheet, we can confirm some of the specifications of RK3588, and get additional details: CPU – 4x Cortex-A76 @ up to 2.4/2.6 GHz and 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz in dynamIQ configuration GPU Arm Mali-G610 MP4 “Odin” GPU with support for OpenGLES 1.1, 2.0, and 3.2, OpenCL up to 2.2 and Vulkan1.2 2D graphics engine up to 8192×8192 source, 4096×4096 destination AI Accelerator – 6 TOPS NPU 3.0 (Neural Processing Unit) VPU Video decoding 8Kp60 H.265, VP9, AVS2, […]