ROCK5 Model B RK3588 single board computer for 79$ is over 2x faster ODROID-N2 | Hacker News Reader

ROCK5 Model B RK3588 single board computer for 79$ is over 2x faster ODROID-N2

cnx-software.com

42 pointsdiimdeep9 comments

With few exceptions, ARM-based SBCs of this kind run vendor-specific patched Linux kernels (usually older ones). As one would expect, the quality of these patches varies from bad to absolutely terrible. Additionally, these patches typically never make it to mainline. If you visit the hardkernel forums [odroid vendor], you'll see people casually swapping patches to get functionality like USB to "work". When the devices are EOLed, they become paperweights since one is stuck with the soon-to-be-completely-obsolete frozen vendor-specific kernels.

These are all good reasons for people to stay away.

I disagree, the exceptions are not "few" and by making smart purchase decisions you can pretty much expect mainline support. You have to look at the trajectory of things and ongoing efforts.

For example my $15 Orange Pi PC (Allwinner H5 SoC) that I bought many years ago from AliExpress went from no mainline at all to excellent with only minor parts like the Crypto engine still requiring kernel patches.

This is thanks to the linux-sunxi, lima, and other efforts. For AMLogic there is linux-meson. For RockChip this is more spotty, but you can look at what Pine64 did in the past and their track record is actually pretty good.

Is there an enthusiast website/community database of boards with clear documentation of Linux support, 3rd-party dependencies (patches needed, binary blobs), etc.?

Support for boards (once the SoC is supported) is normally a low-hanging fruit, this only depends on getting the proper device trees merged.

Various projects keep status pages of their mainlining efforts. Example for Allwinner hardware from the linux-sunxi project:

https://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort

Generally, SoCs that have lots of things marked "WIP" have community attention and are probably going to work at some point without kernel patches.

I don't follow Odroid's SBCs. Does the N2 use a RockChip SoC as well? I'd like a comparison to the RockPro64/Pinebook Pro since they use the RK3399 and I'm more familiar with them.

edit: >Rockchip RK3588 should be over twice as fast as Amlogic S922X as found in ODROID-N2+ for many tasks

I'm not familiar with Amlogic chips, but that at least answers that it's not RockChip.

From a previous CNX Software article:

> In the single-core benchmark, the Rockchip RK3588 Cortex-A76/A55 processor is 2.28 times faster than RK3399, and 2.8 times faster in the multi-core benchmark.

https://www.cnx-software.com/2021/12/16/rockchip-rk3588-benc...

The Rockchip RK3588 should be close in CPU performance to the Snapdragon 855 (used in flagship Android phones from 2019 like the Pixel 4, Galaxy S10, and OnePlus 7).

I like that there is hdmi input, but can ffmpeg or the storage system keep up with it on that little board? Is there enough driver support to even get the data in? The bit rage at 4Kp60 must be a heck of a lot.

All excellent questions, and add in hdcp to the mix as a further unknown too.

2x HDMI 2.1 up to 8Kp60

That's a lot of pixels! What's the catch?

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