Author Topic: Which cheap quad core ARM? (A53 or similar, 64 bit), MIPI DSI  (Read 7970 times)

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Offline loki42Topic starter

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM?
« Reply #25 on: February 12, 2019, 09:56:03 pm »
Yeah, and it's great they have a KiCad layout for the A64. They also have Rockchip RK3188 based SOMs as well. I'm not sure how the RK3188 and the A64 compare in performance / features though.
 

Offline nctnico

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM?
« Reply #26 on: February 12, 2019, 10:08:55 pm »
The  allwinner data sheets look pretty decent and are easy to find for the A64. GPU is in main line too.
Be sure to find the errata sheets as well. Every SoC has bugs and you'll need to at least go through them to check if they can affect your application. Usually 95% is benign and easy to work around but there can be some show stoppers hidden between them.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Offline MT

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM?
« Reply #27 on: February 13, 2019, 12:28:47 am »
Mmmkay! So datasheets seams available now days! Downloaded the A64 datasheet and manual and it looks at first glance reasonable decent yet a bit old 2015 and no erratas. Still bare metal coding seams to be pain in rear end, all Linux OS coding, and zero chip dev support from Allwinner.
 

Offline loki42Topic starter

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM?
« Reply #28 on: February 13, 2019, 12:31:31 am »
I think it's down to Rockchip vs Allwinner for me. Rockchip seems to be more friendly to the Linux community. Others seem a bit to difficult to find info about.
 

Offline Doctorandus_P

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM?
« Reply #29 on: February 15, 2019, 01:02:15 am »
I never looked too deep into these small linux boards (though I have a Cubieboard in use and some mostly unused Beaglebone's)
From what I know the sellers of those boards are usually capable of delivering a working Linux distro with the hardware they sell.

Having a quick peek at the loose IC's from Olimex:
https://www.olimex.com/Products/Components/IC/
It does not seem to be very usefull to use older chips than the A64 unless they need significantly less hardware to support them.

Have you considered one of the Odroid boards from Hardkernel?
They also hav AMlogic and Samsung Exynos and others, but some are above your budget.

If you want the soure for the graphics engine ... good luck with that.
If you're in for an adventure, just maybe it's worth to look into the new Risc-V stuff. It seems that samples are becoming available and it seems that it's mostly sold out because everybody is jumping on it.
 

Offline brucehoult

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM?
« Reply #30 on: February 15, 2019, 02:32:32 am »
Have you considered one of the Odroid boards from Hardkernel?
They also hav AMlogic and Samsung Exynos and others, but some are above your budget.

The Odroid boards are mighty if you want processing power. The XU4/XU3 have the same SoC as the international version of the Galaxy S5 are only about 2.5 times slower than an Ivy Bridge i7-3770. The XU4 is only 32 bit, but is 1.7x faster than the 64 bit C2. The C2 is 1.55x faster (on my tests) than a Pi 3 which is also quad-A53s. And Hardkernel supply a 64 bit Linux for the C2, whereas the official OSes for the Pi 3 only use its 32-bit compatibility mode.

So the overall difference between a Pi 3 and i7-3770 is just over a factor of 6. Oh, and I make the Pi 3 1.6x faster than the Pi 2 on my usual test, for almost exactly 10x slower than the old i7. New top end i7s are 2x faster than the 3770.

Quote
If you're in for an adventure, just maybe it's worth to look into the new Risc-V stuff. It seems that samples are becoming available and it seems that it's mostly sold out because everybody is jumping on it.

I think almost everyone is still just making Multi-Project Wafers (aka shuttle runs) in which you only have to pay the costs of a small fraction of the mask, but you only get 100 chips from each mask so the setup costs are relatively small ($30k maybe) but the individual chips are very expensive.

I expect multiple companies will be moving to volume production on various devices this year.
 

Offline loki42Topic starter

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM?
« Reply #31 on: February 15, 2019, 03:40:41 am »
The Exynos chips look good but I'm looking for a SOM if possible, not a single board computer, as none of the Odroid stuff seems to have a MIPI-DSI or parallel LCD output, which I need.

I'd like eMMC and no additional ports in a SODIMM or solder down form factor if possible.

These H6 boards:
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=2013.1.20141002.5.46cd2b99xe2aKq&scm=1007.10009.70205.100200300000001&id=569157333974&pvid=667c7a94-e486-4e30-adbc-584aaca3365f

Or the SOPINE still look good. I've found a few good Rockchip boards but most don't have TDM / multichannel I2S. Amlogic S905 has support for that but I can't find a cheap SOM, though the chips are cheap.
 

Offline loki42Topic starter

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM?
« Reply #32 on: February 15, 2019, 05:07:49 am »
A53 or similar 64 bit ARM. Sorry it should say that in the title.

I gave a list of requirements at the start but most important are MIPI-DSI with working OpenGL ES and I2S TDM / more than 2 channel in / out.
 

Offline JPortici

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM? (A53 or similar, 64 bit), MIPI DSI
« Reply #33 on: February 15, 2019, 08:30:59 am »
Next week on the 20th ST is releasing a chip that appears to be an ARM A-Something, capable of running linux. No idea on peripherals or pricing but it may be worth to wait?
 

Offline MT

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM?
« Reply #34 on: February 15, 2019, 02:14:21 pm »
The Exynos chips look good but I'm looking for a SOM if possible, not a single board computer, as none of the Odroid stuff seems to have a MIPI-DSI or parallel LCD output, which I need.

I'd like eMMC and no additional ports in a SODIMM or solder down form factor if possible.

These H6 boards:
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=2013.1.20141002.5.46cd2b99xe2aKq&scm=1007.10009.70205.100200300000001&id=569157333974&pvid=667c7a94-e486-4e30-adbc-584aaca3365f

Or the SOPINE still look good. I've found a few good Rockchip boards but most don't have TDM / multichannel I2S. Amlogic S905 has support for that but I can't find a cheap SOM, though the chips are cheap.

How do you know if the linux distro you chose have drivers for multi ch TDM and the distro that do have supports the board you want to use? It seams like endless chase to figuring out since Linux distros seams based on code blob tech!
(i know nutthing about linux, im to old)
 

Offline krho

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM? (A53 or similar, 64 bit), MIPI DSI
« Reply #35 on: February 15, 2019, 06:53:30 pm »
Next week on the 20th ST is releasing a chip that appears to be an ARM A-Something, capable of running linux. No idea on peripherals or pricing but it may be worth to wait?
It's not going to be next week but on embedded world so in 10days or so. It's going to be something like IMX7
Dual core A7 + m4. That's all they told us last week on "hands on" seminar for one of their other chips.
 

Offline rsjsouza

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM? (A53 or similar, 64 bit), MIPI DSI
« Reply #36 on: February 15, 2019, 08:36:26 pm »
I know the OP is shy of more costly options from TI/NXP, but IME whatever nctnico talked is very true. The cost of the devices is offset by the long term availability, thorough documentation, SDKs, support, etc.

I didn't see the AM654x family of devices mentioned here (Quad A53 plus a bunch of other stuff), but it seems their SDK supports Qt, OpenGL, etc.
http://software-dl.ti.com/processor-sdk-linux/esd/docs/05_02_00_10/linux/Foundational_Components_Graphics.html
Vbe - vídeo blog eletrônico http://videos.vbeletronico.com

Oh, the "whys" of the datasheets... The information is there not to be an axiomatic truth, but instead each speck of data must be slowly inhaled while carefully performing a deep search inside oneself to find the true metaphysical sense...
 

Offline loki42Topic starter

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM?
« Reply #37 on: February 16, 2019, 02:36:33 am »
The Exynos chips look good but I'm looking for a SOM if possible, not a single board computer, as none of the Odroid stuff seems to have a MIPI-DSI or parallel LCD output, which I need.

I'd like eMMC and no additional ports in a SODIMM or solder down form factor if possible.

These H6 boards:
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=2013.1.20141002.5.46cd2b99xe2aKq&scm=1007.10009.70205.100200300000001&id=569157333974&pvid=667c7a94-e486-4e30-adbc-584aaca3365f

Or the SOPINE still look good. I've found a few good Rockchip boards but most don't have TDM / multichannel I2S. Amlogic S905 has support for that but I can't find a cheap SOM, though the chips are cheap.

How do you know if the linux distro you chose have drivers for multi ch TDM and the distro that do have supports the board you want to use? It seams like endless chase to figuring out since Linux distros seams based on code blob tech!
(i know nutthing about linux, im to old)

Distro doesn't really matter at all for that as I'll just be using mainline kernel.
 

Offline loki42Topic starter

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM? (A53 or similar, 64 bit), MIPI DSI
« Reply #38 on: February 16, 2019, 02:39:13 am »
I know the OP is shy of more costly options from TI/NXP, but IME whatever nctnico talked is very true. The cost of the devices is offset by the long term availability, thorough documentation, SDKs, support, etc.

I didn't see the AM654x family of devices mentioned here (Quad A53 plus a bunch of other stuff), but it seems their SDK supports Qt, OpenGL, etc.
http://software-dl.ti.com/processor-sdk-linux/esd/docs/05_02_00_10/linux/Foundational_Components_Graphics.html

These looks like great chips apart from the abysmal GPU. Still no where near the performance of the Exynos or the price/performance of the Allwinner/Rockchip/Amlogic/Actions/etc

Has anyone seen an Amlogic S905 SOM?
 

Offline krho

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM? (A53 or similar, 64 bit), MIPI DSI
« Reply #39 on: February 20, 2019, 09:08:38 pm »
Next week on the 20th ST is releasing a chip that appears to be an ARM A-Something, capable of running linux. No idea on peripherals or pricing but it may be worth to wait?
It's not going to be next week but on embedded world so in 10days or so. It's going to be something like IMX7
Dual core A7 + m4. That's all they told us last week on "hands on" seminar for one of their other chips.
It seems that you were right and I was wrong. STM32MP1
 

Online tom66

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM? (A53 or similar, 64 bit), MIPI DSI
« Reply #40 on: February 20, 2019, 09:28:39 pm »
Is there a reason you haven't considered Pi 3 CM3+?

It has MIPI DSI 4-lane and 2-lane.

For I2S you could use an external USB DAC/ADC/codec chipset -- TI make a few?
 

Offline loki42Topic starter

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM? (A53 or similar, 64 bit), MIPI DSI
« Reply #41 on: February 20, 2019, 09:36:57 pm »
Is there a reason you haven't considered Pi 3 CM3+?

It has MIPI DSI 4-lane and 2-lane.

For I2S you could use an external USB DAC/ADC/codec chipset -- TI make a few?

I'd love to use it apart from the I2S issue. I was looking for TDM because I need 4 channels in/out. Are you suggesting an internal USB bus? I didn't think of that. 
 

Offline loki42Topic starter

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM? (A53 or similar, 64 bit), MIPI DSI
« Reply #42 on: February 20, 2019, 11:53:41 pm »
If there is an alternative to needing TDM I2S for multichannel (8in/out if possible, 4/4 min) I'd love to know about it. All the USB codecs that TI make appear to be stereo only.
 

Online tom66

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM? (A53 or similar, 64 bit), MIPI DSI
« Reply #43 on: February 22, 2019, 07:52:51 am »
If there is an alternative to needing TDM I2S for multichannel (8in/out if possible, 4/4 min) I'd love to know about it. All the USB codecs that TI make appear to be stereo only.

I'm not specifically familiar with I2S chipsets.  But the Pi 3 has an onboard USB 2.0 port.  If you're prepared to get "down and dirty" you may even be able to do I2S at the software level.  The processor does run at 1.2GHz and writing an interrupt driven kernel driver wouldn't be impossible for a ~2MHz bus.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2019, 08:28:59 am by tom66 »
 

Offline loki42Topic starter

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Re: Which cheap quad core ARM? (A53 or similar, 64 bit), MIPI DSI
« Reply #44 on: February 22, 2019, 11:07:02 pm »
I haven't found any USB multi channel codecs and I'm a bit scared regarding jitter bit banging banging i2s.
 


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