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takyon (881)
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10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org] Jango Raid [soylentnews.org]
The king SoC of ARM single board computers approaches.
Rockchip RK3588 datasheet available, SBCs coming soon
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.
[...] I’m quite surprised they could use a Mali-G610 “sub-premium premium” GPU as it was announced together with Cortex-A510, Cortex-A710, Cortex-X2 Armv9 cores, but it also works in SoCs with older Armv8 cores so that’s good, and that’s why GPU performance is truly a big step, up to over 10 times faster, compared to Rockchip RK3399.
Pine64 December update: a year in review
Lastly, Rockchip will finally be introducing the RK3588 on December 16th (which means I can’t write about it on the day the update goes live – sorry), which will most certainly be of interest to us. What I will say is that it will bring entry-level desktop-class Arm CPU performance and plenty of IO options; keep a lookout for press coverage of Rockchip’s event.
While the prospect of a high-end computational device is certainly exciting, it also isn’t at the top of our to-do list.
It's sad that this thing can be delayed by a couple of years and still look good in comparison to everything else on the market.
The only competitor (limiting "competition" to ARM SBCs) might be the Amlogic S908X, which has also been scarce.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @12:55AM
everything has to be written in assembly, it's like having direct access to the brain stem. All the high level stuff in the cortex just gets in the way, like driving through a thick fog
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @10:33AM (6 children)
Hopefully the chip shortage comes to an end soon and Pine64 can do a model refresh.
My local whitebox bricks-and-mortar retailer still charges hundreds for 4GB Celerons with 768 WXGA screens, in freaking 2021 with nary a spec bump since 2011. Inflation or price gouging, I wouldn't buy that overpriced garbage.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday December 17 2021, @11:23AM (5 children)
Too bad it doesn't appear to support DDR4/DDR5 SO-DIMM, since it supports up to 32 GiB of memory.
What's your budget? Because if you live in the U.S. and "hundreds" means $400 to $500, you can find decent options. Or even $250 to $400 if you're paying attention:
HP 15z-ef2000 Laptop: 15.6" FHD IPS, Ryzen 5 5500U, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD $365 + Free Shipping (expired) [slickdeals.net]
HP 14-dq2031tg 14" Laptop: i3-1125G4, 1080p, 4GB DDR4, 128GB SSD $270 + Free Store Pickup [slickdeals.net]
Both of those ones have expandable memory. I wouldn't care as much about laptops having 4 GiB if you could easily replace it with 16-64 GiB.
Now at the lower end, $100 to $200, you see a lot more soldered 4 GiB memory, more 768p screens, and crappier processors like the N4020 and A6-9220C. They sip power though, so even if they have similar performance to chips from 2011, they could be using 1/6th the energy in systems 1/3rd the price.
Low-end x86 could use some disruption. 1+4 Alder Lake mobile would be nice, but Intel might opt to keep that more expensive than 0+4 Jasper Lake. On the AMD side, there's a need for something cheaper than the usual 8-core dies that isn't crap. The quad-core ones (5300U/5400U) are overpriced and don't make sense as most of the chips don't need half of the cores disabled. If they put the Van Gogh quad-core from Steam Deck into laptops, or make "Monet" on GlobalFoundries 12LP+ [videocardz.com], those could be good budget options.
Back to screens and RAM. 1080p sometimes dips to around $150 to $200, so hopefully we will see 768p die sooner than 2025. Low-end Chromebooks, tablets, and Windows S laptops are still springing for 4 GiB soldered, and in some cases that's all they really need. The default will become 8 GiB eventually, but it could take a long time.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @12:36PM (4 children)
If it were for my day job, I wouldn't hesitate to spend a grand on a quality machine,
But for home, something around the $250-300 range is more realistic. RK3588 could fill that niche, particularly if it doesn't foist Windows 11 or Chrome OS on me.
A friend complained recently about an out of warranty 2 year old laptop that had seen its hinge broken through falling on the floor during a doze and mistreatment by small children and pets. We toured said retailer and I suggested he get a second hand Thinkpad.
Maybe a 4GB Chromebook is all he needs but I remote into a work desktop - Teams + Remote Desktop + a local web browser uses more than 4 gig on my old laptop.
I agree about the DIMM slots. Soldered RAM on a Celeron is just factory obsolescence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @12:56PM
I buy used/broken laptops on craiglist or discountelectronics (4/$100 scraptops? my kind of deal). Hardware has been good enough for ~15 years, no reason to buy new unless you need the big dev machine (or to run modern bloatware as in your remote desktop example). Plus, tearing apart the ones that can't be trivially fixed for components is a lot of fun. Now I just need to figure out how to turn all these spare LCD panels into a movie wall.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday December 17 2021, @02:36PM (1 child)
I forego the buy me every two / 3 years Laptop. #1 Pretty much any laptop that's a daily driver will be having serious troubles by then. #2 Any Desktop should still be viable and might just need a GPU upgrade to keep it ticking for another 3 or 4 years without trouble. I have 10+ year old desktops that are perfectly usable. Especially, once you slap a SSD in that bad boy.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Friday December 17 2021, @09:52PM
My server was about 15 years old when it died last summer.
Its replacement is slightly newer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @04:49PM
Acer C720 running linux, forth power brick, second SSD. The case is cracked, distorted and coming apart with a 1/4" gap at the front. Purchased new for under $200 in 2014 as a toy laptop, I've used it more than my other machines but EOL is approaching. OP still has a valid point. A MediaTek MT8173C based machine wouldn't be an upgrade in 2022, the RK3588 would.