ROC-RK3328-CC: A Raspberry Pi Competitor With Gigabit Ethernet, USB3, DDR4

[phoronix]

Phoronix: ROC-RK3328-CC: A Raspberry Pi Competitor With Gigabit Ethernet, USB3, DDR4

The folks from LoverPi.com have sent out some of their newest ARM SBCs. What we're taking a look and benchmarking first is the Libre Computer Board ROC-RK3328-CC. Pricing on this board, which was developed between the Libre Computer Project and Firefly, starts at $35 USD with 1GB of DDR4 but at $80 USD a 4GB version can be acquired. This quad-core 64-bit ARM board has modern features like Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, and other interfaces over what is found with current generation Raspberry Pi hardware.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=26818

[Grawp]

With non-upstream moreover so utterly archaic kernel it absolutely does not matter whether it has Gbit Ethernet and GBs of RAM, it's unusable bs.

[GunpowaderGuy]

Does anybody know of a reasonably priced micro computer with good , prefereably open source Vulkan support ?

[simburde]

Does anybody know of a reasonably priced micro computer with good , prefereably open source Vulkan support ?

Does it even exist? The most close to your requirements would be some Intel-based mini PC.

[M@GOid]

So lets get this out of the way right now: If you want desktop capabilities on a compact form factor, just go buy a God damn X86 Atom or AM1 (Athlon) board already. You can find Mini-ITX motherboards with passive cooled CPU installed for less than 100 bucks. You can even use a laptop charger as a PSU.

Too big? Intel even sells a Atom on a stick. Those ARM micro boards are not desktop replacements, and will not be for a long time. They do not have the connections you want, they do not have the software you want. They are niche hardware and should be utilized as such.

Just save yourself off frustration and go back crawling to X86/X64 hardware.

[c117152]

With non-upstream moreover so utterly archaic kernel it absolutely does not matter whether it has Gbit Ethernet and GBs of RAM, it's unusable bs.

They're upstreaming everything they can as fast as the mainlining process lets them:

http://opensource.rock-chips.com/wiki_Upstream_Kernel

http://opensource.rock-chips.com/wiki_Status_Matrix

They pretty much rank the same or above* AMD and Intel when it comes to their mainlining efforts.

Targeting 4.4 is perfectly reasonable for a fabless and their SBC OEMs seeing how 4.4 will remain LTS for a few more years. Besides, both Rockchips's and Firefly's development patches targeting mainline are available on the github where they stage for mainlining.

*above since both many Intel Atoms weren't linux compatible while AMD is still working on some of their mobile SoCs getting basic linux support.

[DrYak]

moreover so utterly archaic kernel

Luckily, 4.4 is one of the required LTS kernels for Android 8 Oreo.

i.e.: this kernel is going to see a lot of bugfix backports for quite some time.

It's not optimal, but better than nothing.

With non-upstream {...} kernel

Sadly yes, for now it's a manufacturer-provided kernel.
Perhaps, we could eventually see upstream kernel support, like other chips.

But indeed for now, we miss an upstream kernel.

[chithanh]

reasonably priced

Please express in some ISO 4217 currency.

open source Vulkan support ?

There are currently three open source vulkan drivers:

• ANV driver for Intel Gen7 or newer,
• RADV driver for Radeon GCN,
• AMDVLK driver fro Radeon GCN.

In the future there might be open source Vulkan support from freedreno or panfrost drivers, but not at this time.

Some boards that might fit:
UP Core
UDOO Bolt
Gizmo 2

[FireBurn]

Does anybody know of a reasonably priced micro computer with good , prefereably open source Vulkan support ?

I believe the developer behind VC4/VC5/V3D is looking at forking ANV (like RADV) to make a vulkan driver - but that's probably a while off - unless it's being developed behind closed doors

There was also some talk of forking ANV for Nouveau which I guess would allow Tigra chips to do Open Source vulkan - again take with a pinch of salt and don't hold your breath

[Michael]

I believe the developer behind VC4/VC5/V3D is looking at forking ANV (like RADV) to make a vulkan driver - but that's probably a while off - unless it's being developed behind closed doors

It was already forked: BCMV - https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=search&q=BCMV but doesn't see much activity.