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> ARM boards are hard right now because we’re not quite to the point of powerful, high-RAM systems being affordable I get the feeling that most ARM SoC vendors
by rjsw 5y ago
> ARM boards are hard right now because we’re not quite to the point of powerful, high-RAM systems being affordable
I get the feeling that most ARM SoC vendors had made their first 64-bit products by just pasteing a 64-bit CPU into their previous 32-bit SoC design. It is only recently that reasonably cheap 8GB boards have become available.
- CameronNemo 5y agoThis reminds of an exchange I read between a Rockchip dev and a kernel maintainer. The Rockchip dev wrote the following as justification for special handling of their board: There are many legacy IPs which only support 32bit bus, we have to use them as is in the new 64bit SoCs, I think the 32bit GIC can be considered the same as those case, can we add CONFIG_ZONE_DMA32 support in GIC driver? https://lore.kernel.org/linux-rockchip/874kg0q6lc.wl-maz@kernel.org/ https://lore.kernel.org/linux-rockchip/874kg0q6lc.wl-maz@ker... Note that this is in regards to their new rk356x platform, which supports up to 8 GB of RAM.
- gumby 5y agoThe business model of Mediatek, Rockchip etc is not to sell chips on a traditional merchant basis. They don't even produce data sheets. So there isn't much value for them in working on reference boards. Their model is to qualify a customer by volume and then provide a "solution": IC with a custom linux or android on it, including undocumented drivers etc.