Next-gen Odroid announcement

[ewmayer]

We made the cover of Odroid Magazine.

[preda]

Wow, nice! congrats!

Originally Posted by ewmayer

We made the cover of Odroid Magazine.

[ET_]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

We made the cover of Odroid Magazine.

Nice! I backed up the article on a post on LinkedIn, I hope you won't complain.
In case I will take it out.

Luigi

[ewmayer]

Another article on the Odroid N1:

Hardkernel Unveils ODROID-N1 Board with Rockchip RK3399 Processor, 4GB RAM, Dual SATA, and More | Embedded Systems News

Price should be around $110, with the final price depending on the DRAM market price. If the board is popular, an ODROID-N1 Lite version with 2GB RAM and no SATA port may be launched later on for $75.

Not a PC-hardware (except for the CPUs themselves) wonk ... would someone like me, who crunches primes, care about the lack of a SATA port? If not, the modest $75 free-gear credit I got as a gratuity for my Odroid-Mag primes article would nicely cover the cost of a SATA-less N1.

[ET_]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Another article on the Odroid N1:

Hardkernel Unveils ODROID-N1 Board with Rockchip RK3399 Processor, 4GB RAM, Dual SATA, and More | Embedded Systems News



Not a PC-hardware (except for the CPUs themselves) wonk ... would someone like me, who crunches primes, care about the lack of a SATA port? If not, the modest $75 free-gear credit I got as a gratuity for my Odroid-Mag primes article would nicely cover the cost of a SATA-less N1.

Who in the world would ever need a SATA port on a number crunching Odroid? :-)

[ewmayer]

Just had a gander at the Odroid-forums for the time in months ... this June thread by "odroid" (a.k.a. Hardkernel engineering officialdom) indicates that due to a 1GB mem-chip phase-out-by-supplier they have had to do major redesign, as a result of which the next-gen Odroid will be called N2, not N1. On the good-news front that likely means more memory and they also are doing the redesign around a new SoC, which hopefully will mean better performance and/or lower power draw. They say they are targeting a September rollout. No word on how long after that a less-expensive SATA-port-less iterate of the kind they mentioned for the N1 might roll out.

[ewmayer]

The Odroid N2, the successor to the earlier-planned but since abandoned N1, is finally available. The N1 was a BIG.little with a72x2.a53x4 CPU, whereas the N2 is a73x4.a53x2 which is faster due to it putting 4 cores in the BIG a73 part of the die.

Going to the hardkernel.com site and clicking on the N2 product link brings up only the 4GB model - I have a $75 credit from HK as thanks for the Odroid-magazine article I wrote a year ago, and am hoping I can get an N2 plus all the needed add-ons for no more than that. 2GB is plenty for LL testing, so I'm looking at the 2GB model, which one can access by simply fiddling 4 to 2 in the foregoing URL. Looks like I'll need to also buy a 12V/2A DC power plug an a cheapie $4 plastic case for easier handling and to keep the dust out.

Looks like there is also an optional WiFi module, which might be a nice-to-have add-on.

It's not clear to me whether one needs a Linux-preflashed eMMC card to boot - I bought an 8GB such for my C2, but for the N2, the above links state:

SPI Flash memory boot
ODROID-N2 can boot from on-board SPI memory instead of uSD memory or eMMC cards.
The on-board SPI memory is 8MB in size and can include the bootstrap binaries, U-boot, bare minimum Linux kernel, and a ramdisk that includes “Petitboot”. The “Petitboot” software provides a user friendly interface and allows users to select a boot media.
Unfortunately, since the SPI bus on S922X shares the hardware interface with eMMC, the SPI flash memory on ODROID-N2 is only accessible at boot until the eMMC hardware block is activated. So you have to remove eMMC module and boot from a SD card to update firmware in the SPI flash easily.

If I can avoid shelling out extra for an eMMC (the smallest available of which is 16GB @$14.90) my total including shipping will be just a smidge over my target of $75.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

It's not clear to me whether one needs a Linux-preflashed eMMC card to boot - I bought an 8GB such for my C2, but for the N2, the above links state:

If I can avoid shelling out extra for an eMMC (the smallest available of which is 16GB @$14.90) my total including shipping will be just a smidge over my target of $75.

Kinda weird.

You own this kit, but you're not sure about how much it is going to cost you to use. Am I understanding you correctly?

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by chalsall

Am I understanding you correctly?

No - I am planning to put my $75 honorarium toward one of these, trying to figuring out precisely which 'add-ons' are needed. For C2 I needed case/charger/eMMC, for N2 one again needs the first 2 but the description doesn't make it completely clear whether one needs to shell out for an extra eMMC or not.

[M344587487]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

No - I am planning to put my $75 honorarium toward one of these, trying to figuring out precisely which 'add-ons' are needed. For C2 I needed case/charger/eMMC, for N2 one again needs the first 2 but the description doesn't make it completely clear whether one needs to shell out for an extra eMMC or not.

At only 8MB for the SPI memory you're going to want a micro SD card or emmc. Sounds like it can boot from either but it can also boot from SPI for some very niche applications. SD card would be cheaper.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by M344587487

At only 8MB for the SPI memory you're going to want a micro SD card or emmc. Sounds like it can boot from either but it can also boot from SPI for some very niche applications. SD card would be cheaper.

Thanks - so basically the same deal as for my C2. Just placed order for 2GB N2, 12V/2A PS, 8GB Linux-preflashed eMMC and clear case. Total $85, and turns out my honorarium was only $65 rather than $75, but OTOH they said shipping is free for any stuff I order with that. So a $20 cash outlay, not bad for something I reckon will provide 2.5-3x the Mlucas throughput of my C2. (FYI, each of my Galaxy S7 phones is about equal to the abortive Odroid N1 at ~2.2x the C2).