Allwinner

[kikimonster]

http://linux-sunxi.org/GPL_Violations

I'm in no way an expert, but on paper they're good, however due to open source practices their GPUs never perform as well as their specs imply. How is this being taken into account? How will this impact my experience with your device?

[psypro]

Pine64 corps seems slow to answer your question. I guess they dont know.
Because it is up to "Open communtity" to make linux support. And soc manufacture Allwinner.
If you use Android, you will be fine. Pine64 corp, will make android work with 3d.
I am somewhat happy to buy pine64 just for android. 29$ for android board + shipping is ok.
I will buy more boards if I also get linux / freebsd support.
Pine64 will make no effort, and pay nobody to make GPU work with linux. I guess no 3d Gpu support for linux.
Please clarify if I am wrong devs!

[taros]

They licence the GPU designs from other companies. In the A64, the GPU is a Mali-400 MP2 from ARM Holdings.
There are more information and drivers at the official page at http://www.arm.com/products/multimedia/m...li-400.php

[Faye]

They licence the GPU designs from other companies. In the A64, the GPU is a Mali-400 MP2 from ARM Holdings.
There are more information and drivers at the official page at http://www.arm.com/products/multimedia/m...li-400.php

I would like to see a future board with SATA interface and USB3.  I'm expecting this really just to be a toy to investigate Arm v8.

[tkaiser]

I would like to see a future board with SATA interface and USB3.

Here you go: http://www.marvell.com/multimedia-soluti...500-ultra/. But don't be surprised that the SoC might be more expensive than the whole Pine64 board. You always get what you pay for

[KevinA]

What I need to know is if you have support for video encoding from Android or Linux ?

It says you do but can you? H.264 1080@60fps ENCODING

The reason I ask is I have a pile of 'Chinese ARM based boards' but NONE can encode. What the Mali400MP2 says it can do and what the supporting 'blob' from the IC vendor does appears to be different.

[tkaiser]

What the Mali400MP2 says it can do and what the supporting 'blob' from the IC vendor does appears to be different.

You should start to become familiar with the basics. Mali400 has nothing to do with video encoding/decoding.

http://linux-sunxi.org/Mali400
http://linux-sunxi.org/CedarX

Therefore the situation with a new Allwinner SoC regarding video encoding/decoding is the same as with every other Allwinner SoC: Don't expect that it will work (in Linux). Especially since documentation regarding A64 is still lacking.

[nomadewolf]

I believe the Allwinner point to of significant importance and influence for the success of this project.
Allwinner seems to want to get market share in this boards, but they need to take the drivers issue more seriously or even consider opensourcing them.
If people don't get 3D acceleration with linux no Allwinner board will take off.

[tkaiser]

Allwinner seems to want to get market share in this boards

Why should they? They sell millions of SoCs for Android gadgets where nobody cares about quality of drivers or this disturbing 'open source' thing.

[nomadewolf]

Allwinner seems to want to get market share in this boards

Why should they? They sell millions of SoCs for Android gadgets where nobody cares about quality of drivers or this disturbing 'open source' thing.

Just look at all the new boards that came and are comming out.
All based on Allwinner SoCs... Why is that? I suppose it's because Allwinner is practically giving them away, and reason to do that is gaining market share. If i'm not mistaken, Allwinner is a recent competitor so it makes sense.
Also "this disturbing 'open source' thing" that nobody cares means that we could have a better chance of accelerated graphics in linux, wich is something that really makes a difference to me.