Next-gen Odroid announcement

[ewmayer]

BTW, should Paul L. opt to pass (not sure how much hassle a small eMMC and US plug would cause for him), any of our US-side readers is welcome to make me a $1 bid, with the remaining $74 to be paypalled separately. As long as the little guy finds a loving home! :)

[One might ask "but as there are no customs forms involved in US shipping, why involve eBay at all?" Turns out it's actually easier to create a shipping label via eBay sale than via the USPS site, and eBay gives me a better shipping discount for such online label creation, to boot. Silly, but true.]

[Xyzzy]

Is this worth considering?


https://www.pine64.org/rockpro64/

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

Is this worth considering?

https://www.pine64.org/rockpro64/

Yes, RocPro was mentioned on the Odroid forums as a serious competitior in the space. Looks similarly priced to the N2, however the Rockpro64 hex-core SOC is more or less the same as the abandoned Odroid N1: "dual ARM Cortex A72 and quad ARM Cortex A53". Based on my timings on both N1 and N2, each a72/a73 core is ~equal to 2 a53 cores, so the N1 and Rockpro64 represent ~8x a53 worth of crunching power, whereas the N2 represents ~10x. So you need to net out your total system cost including power supply, case (if you want one), shipping and any taxes. Might be useful to get Mlucas timings on the Rockpro64 just to see how the overall system throughput (not just the theoretical based solely on CPU) compares.

[ewmayer]

Paul has claimed the N2 for his Canary Islands superhero lair mountaintop observatory and promised to name the next supernova he discovers in my honor, or something. As he won't be there for another month I get that much more crunching in, that should get me ~25% of the way through a first-time LL test on the big quadcore as well as a DC on the little dualcore.

Oh, my fiendishly clever scheme to get eBay to do all the annoying USPS customs paperwork proved a bust - eBay's global shipping program only goes to a modest number of 'popular' high-volume shipping destinations. That includes the UK, but Paul said if I shipped it there he would face a 20% VAT usury fee versus the much lower 6% one in Las Canarias.

[Mark Rose]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Ebay has a global shipping program

I loathe that program. It's the biggest reason why I stopped buying from US sellers on eBay. The brokerage fees, taxation of items that are tax exempt, and hefty shipping fees (on top of whatever the seller is paying), often double the price of items under $50.

[paulunderwood]

As a follow up, did you guys install Debian on your N2s?

[paulunderwood]

Anyway, I have just ordered one (4GB) and will be using a 64GB micro SD -- there is a link on Odroid's forum for a Debian image. I will be trying to run it as my main desktop with the proviso I can get Skype working on it

[xilman]

Originally Posted by paulunderwood

As a follow up, did you guys install Debian on your N2s?

Not yet. Ernst will (I hope) mail it to me in a week or so.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Paul has claimed the N2 for his Canary Islands superhero lair mountaintop observatory and promised to name the next supernova he discovers in my honor, or something. As he won't be there for another month I get that much more crunching in, that should get me ~25% of the way through a first-time LL test on the big quadcore as well as a DC on the little dualcore.

Oh, my fiendishly clever scheme to get eBay to do all the annoying USPS customs paperwork proved a bust - eBay's global shipping program only goes to a modest number of 'popular' high-volume shipping destinations. That includes the UK, but Paul said if I shipped it there he would face a 20% VAT usury fee versus the much lower 6% one in Las Canarias.

Plateau-top, actually. I'm almost 2km below the mountain top.


If I discover a SN, extremely unlikely because the big boys have that sewn up, you will be mentioned in dispatches.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by xilman

Not yet. Ernst will (I hope) mail it to me in a week or so.

Based on the dates you sent me I am planning to ship it on Monday the 10th ... no idea what transit time to expect, but it sounded like your main concern was that it not arrive earlier than yourself. Until then, it's continuing to crunch a first-time LL test on the 4xa73 core and a DC on the 2xa53 ... there have been no signs of throttling, the big passive heatsink appears to suffice for all reasonable ambient temperatures.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Based on the dates you sent me I am planning to ship it on Monday the 10th ... no idea what transit time to expect, but it sounded like your main concern was that it not arrive earlier than yourself. Until then, it's continuing to crunch a first-time LL test on the 4xa73 core and a DC on the 2xa53 ... there have been no signs of throttling, the big passive heatsink appears to suffice for all reasonable ambient temperatures.

Excellent.

It's intended for use as a telescope controller and so is likely to be used mostly at night, where the ambient temperature is almost always between 8C and 18C.