The Allwinner "Cedrus" Video Decoder Supports H.265 On Linux 5.5

[Guest]

Sure it makes sense, there are better boards available. Besides leveraging hardware is always a good idea.

Well, on these low power ARM boards, leveraging hardware is the only sane approach. Those CPUs aren't really as powerful as ARM wants you to think they are.

[starshipeleven]

I know that x86 SoCs have all those power management features. But they are nothing if the CPU starts frying when under any meaningful load.

Prime95 is NOT "any meaningful load". It pushes the CPU to limits no normal applications will ever reach. I'm not running heavy compute tasks like Prime95 on baby monitors.

In fact x86 fanless configurations are a black art ( think about Compulab ).

I'm not using i7 or xeons with a NVIDIA dedicated GPU in an embedded device.
Making a device that has enough heatsink to deal with a laptop CPU or an embedded one isn't particularly hard.

[pabloski]

Prime95 is NOT "any meaningful load". It pushes the CPU to limits no normal applications will ever reach. I'm not running heavy compute tasks like Prime95 on baby monitors.

But there are loads which can push the CPU to 70%+ and approach the terminal limits. In a small envelope, the limit is no more than 10-15W. Also how low can you go with power consumption? Can you build a x86 doorbell which streams h264 video 24/24 in less than 500mW?

I'm not using i7 or xeons with a NVIDIA dedicated GPU in an embedded device.
Making a device that has enough heatsink to deal with a laptop CPU or an embedded one isn't particularly hard.

But you need a heatsink. A RPi Zero doesn't need it. They are built to be energy efficient. Intel has tried with Galileo and the Quark SoC, but without success. The project is dead.

So, less heat, no heatsink needed, lower power consumption, very small physical dimension. And we are talking about SoCs which are built on very old chip process technology ( while the x86 ones use more advanced ones ).

[starshipeleven]

But there are loads which can push the CPU to 70%+ and approach the terminal limits.

Yes, as I said those loads don't heat up the system as hard as Prime95 does. The "100%" load indicator isn't a truly accurate way of measuring CPU power consumption, some functionality generates more heat than other.

For example on Intel hardware the use of AVX extensions will heat up the system very hard even if the CPU isn't really under a heavy load otherwise. Again that's not something you would use on an embedded system, but it's only an example to explain why I say Prime95 is not the same as any other 100% CPU load.

In a small envelope, the limit is no more than 10-15W

That's enough.

Also how low can you go with power consumption? Can you build a x86 doorbell which streams h264 video 24/24 in less than 500mW?

More like less than 1W

If I had to use battery power for stuff I would not have much choice but use ARM.

But you need a heatsink. A RPi Zero doesn't need it.

You need a case anyway, and if the case itself can be a decent enough heatsink why not use it as such.

[danboid]

My Banana Pi has proved to be very reliable as low power, headless server. Now, 3 years on, it gets a new lease of life with full speed SATA 2 support, an improved X driver and hardware decoding of h265 and 4K h264! If I can get all that working under Linux 5.5 it might overtake my Jetson Nano as my best SBC, despite having 1/4 of the RAM.

Has anyone here tried 4K h264 playback on a BPi or any other A20 SoC?

[tuxd3v]

My Banana Pi has proved to be very reliable as low power, headless server. Now, 3 years on, it gets a new lease of life with full speed SATA 2 support, an improved X driver and hardware decoding of h265 and 4K h264! If I can get all that working under Linux 5.5 it might overtake my Jetson Nano as my best SBC, despite having 1/4 of the RAM.

Has anyone here tried 4K h264 playback on a BPi or any other A20 SoC?

From All boards that I have experienced with( more than 10, maybe less than 20.. )
The Olimex Olinuxino Lime 2, is what satisfies me the most, it even has UPS support.

I have it running here, and its what provides me with ldap,ntp,dhcp,dns,cups,sane, and so on..
6600 mha/h battery( as UPS ), runs for 24 hours approx..until shutdown..

You don't even need to crack your head into procedures to build.. its build and run!
The best Board I found til now, this Lime2!

I hope that Olimex launch a Allwiner H6 Boad( Lime 3 )?... would be awesome!!
Also a Teres II laptop with Allwiner H6 would be awesome!