Pinebook Pro 'xtreme'

[PakoSt]

That RK3588 may see a nice bump in CPU performance but I have some serious doubts about the GPU.

Panfrost is picking up speed on the T860 (already tasting the possibilities) but I have no idea what will happen with that Mali G52. If the RK3588 will be the future SoC option, then it might be a good idea to toss at least a few dev boards to the GPU driver devs well in advance.

To the og poster - not a big fan of Pro + whatever extra word A targeted naming would be better. In either case the software and hardware has to get there for video and image processing. And as soon as we toss the idea of using full fledged Adobe alternatives, the better. The arm world needs specialized software to take advantage of what the hardware provides, not just plastering gles/arm glue at a mountain of x86 codebase and complain about performance And we finally have the perfect device to get cracking on those- Pinebook Pro

A Pinebook Artist with larger screen, stowable passive stylus and 360 hinge would be an interesting halo device - the panel itself could cost more than the current Pinebook Pro however.

[inkslinger]

large laptops are usually mobile workstations - and the PBP simply doesn't have the power to be a mobile workstation for video/photo-editing, 3D design/ processing, etc.

Agreed. The PBP is great as a hobby/hacking device and a FOSS alternative to a Chromebook for light web browsing, writing and watching videos; it's not a capable workstation and it's not really meant to be. It's in a different niche and the current form factor seems ideal for that.

[Arwen]

Let us be clear about the RK3588. It's not released yet, expected to be released first quarter next year. Any PBP main board replacement is likely to be a minimum of 6 months beyond that. And only if there is enough interest to make it happen. So don't look for this for about 1 year.

All that said, I've worked in computer hardware and software development long enough, that setting rough future goals allows for some ideas to start floating around. Like if the RK3588 supports 6GB or 8GB of memory, a memory increase might be on the update wish list. We can't say, YET. But, if people make a reasonable wish list, we can see what IS doable.

For the volume that PBP targets, a 19" monster, or laptop with 360 degree hinge, just is outside of the target for PBPs. So not on a reasonable wish list.

My desired hardware changes, (as of today):
- RK3588
- 6GB or 8GB of memory
- Depending on what is possible, another eMMC slot or internal MicroSD card slot, (still researching this one). Makes mirroring, bakups or boot recovery easier.
- Easier access to the hardware switches. Either through hole in chassis. Or tiny removably panel.

The last is desired since "bricking" by messing up the eMMC is possible and the only way around is the full opening of the back. Just to access a switch.
Gee, makes me wish we had a eMMC software kill switch :-) F9 anyone?.

[bcnaz]

My idea of a larger screen was NOT meant to turn it into a $10,000.00 (US) machine,  
**simply something that was easier for us with 'ageing vision'.....
The idea of a 360 degree hinge for a large laptop is absurd (in my opinion).   (That was Not the contention of the starting post.)
 A Larger screen on an 'economy machine'  does not have to be driven by a super GPU.  

Though I DO appreciate seeing so many suggestions that COULD be incorporated into an updated PBP.....

Having the access doors built into the base would be great for access without removing the whole bottom case,
and should not increase production cost much.

Updating the motherboard over time is kind of a 'Given',   but how much ?  Depends on How Much you upgrade.?  ("Speed Costs Money"is a fact)

[Paraplegic Racehorse]

A Pinebook Artist with larger screen, stowable passive stylus and 360 hinge would be an interesting halo device - the panel itself could cost more than the current Pinebook Pro however.

Now, that's just drool-worthy.

If Google keeps it's promise of pushing their Android kernel customizations to Mainline, I wonder if we'll see good Adreno drivers? That would open up access to recent Snapdragon and other CPUs.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

[brent.thierens]

Let us be clear about the RK3588. It's not released yet, expected to be released first quarter next year. Any PBP main board replacement is likely to be a minimum of 6 months beyond that. And only if there is enough interest to make it happen. So don't look for this for about 1 year.

All that said, I've worked in computer hardware and software development long enough, that setting rough future goals allows for some ideas to start floating around. Like if the RK3588 supports 6GB or 8GB of memory, a memory increase might be on the update wish list. We can't say, YET. But, if people make a reasonable wish list, we can see what IS doable.

For the volume that PBP targets, a 19" monster, or laptop with 360 degree hinge, just is outside of the target for PBPs. So not on a reasonable wish list.

My desired hardware changes, (as of today):
- RK3588
- 6GB or 8GB of memory
- Depending on what is possible, another eMMC slot or internal MicroSD card slot, (still researching this one). Makes mirroring, bakups or boot recovery easier.
- Easier access to the hardware switches. Either through hole in chassis. Or tiny removably panel.

The last is desired since "bricking" by messing up the eMMC is possible and the only way around is the full opening of the back. Just to access a switch.
Gee, makes me wish we had a eMMC software kill switch :-) F9 anyone?.

Pretty much agree with this one

[PakoSt]

Didn't mean to stir the pot with 360 hinge- I was imagining a more targeted halo device for drawing where that sort of hinge fits the use case. Not a Pinebook Pro by a long shot

I like all of @Arwen 's suggestions. I wonder if dual-SPI would be realistic (for normal use and recovery). Or slotted SPI?
But let's see how uboot will progress

[Kochise]

I do repeat *my* request : not more power or memory, but a "geek port" that allows to plug "hats" and do experimentation or command/control directly from the PBP. Maybe a USB-C extension would fit the job but it would be great to control electronic stuff. So I²C, SPI, UART, CAN, Modbus, ...

[pfeerick]

I do repeat *my* request : not more power or memory, but a "geek port" that allows to plug "hats" and do experimentation or command/control directly from the PBP. Maybe a USB-C extension would fit the job but it would be great to control electronic stuff. So I²C, SPI, UART, CAN, Modbus, ...

I second that motion!  

One of the ideas I raised with the original Pinebook was that since the USB, headphones socket and microSD socket were on a daughterboard on the left side of the Pinebook, that it could be swapped out for another module, which would expose a 5x2 female header (why? Because that conveniently perfectly fits in the hole in the side for the USB socket!) which would then allow access to a bunch of GPIOs...

But having said that, it's probably better (better in this case meaning easier, more flexible, safer) to have an Arduino Nano plugged into the USB... allowing reliable I²C, SPI, etc with a dedicated processor.

[Arwen]

...
I wonder if dual-SPI would be realistic (for normal use and recovery). Or slotted SPI?
But let's see how uboot will progress

I too want a second SPI flash memory slot on future PBPs. Or just the solder pads that would allow hardware mods to add one.

The RK3399 reference I just looked at, has 6 x SPI interfaces. Only SPI1 can be used for boot flash memory. So, we can't use the SPI interfaces for alternante boot flash images directly.

However, I was looking for a way to recover a failed SPI u-boot. This is what I came up with;
- Stage 1 code to select u-boot image, that has recovery by looking at a special SD card
- data to select image 1 or 2
- u-boot image 1
- u-boot image 2

So, under normal conditions, we have an old, working u-boot, (maybe lacking a feature like NVMe boot), installed in one SPI u-boot slot. And we want to install a new, less tested image into the second slot. We then run a program to install new u-boot image and change the boot image selection to newest.

If the new u-boot image fails in such a way we can't work around the problems easily, we install a SD card that has a special signature our stage 1 code recognizes. If stage 1 sees this, it changes the u-boot image selection to the other one, (aka old u-boot image), and proceeds to boot.

We can also have stage 1 look for a second signature on the SD card. If found, boot off the SD card. that way, we have a choice.

Since this is all open source, the exact location and data of these signatures would be well known and documented.

So, that's my solution to the SPI issue where we could "brick" our Pinebook Pros.