Any updates on HardROCK64?
#1
Hello,

I will be putting together a couple of SBC clusters using a whole bunch of SOPine, Clusterboard and Rock64 boards, and having HardROCK64 4GB boards as the control nodes would be perfect.

Is there any news about the availability of HardROCK64 boards, especially the 4GB variant?  Could there be a few available from the preproduction run, for a cool project like this? Smile

Any help would be appreciated.
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#2
(12-06-2020, 08:14 AM)dsimic Wrote: Hello,

I will be putting together a couple of SBC clusters using a whole bunch of SOPine, Clusterboard and Rock64 boards, and having HardROCK64 4GB boards as the control nodes would be perfect.

Is there any news about the availability of HardROCK64 boards, especially the 4GB variant?  Could there be a few available from the preproduction run, for a cool project like this? Smile

Any help would be appreciated.

The Hardrock64 SBC project already cancel due to pandemic situation.
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#3
Good to finally have some official word on it Smile

What about the SoRock (or similar) compute module? I mean one other than the SoEdge and SoPine with a faster CPU and more RAM.
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#4
(12-14-2020, 03:24 PM)poVoq Wrote: Good to finally have some official word on it Smile

What about the SoRock (or similar) compute module? I mean one other than the SoEdge and SoPine with a faster CPU and more RAM.

There is never a plan for SORock compute module. However there is a thought of creating RK3566 type of compute module on next year if the RK3566 based SBC development progressing well.
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#5
Well there was a rumor. Anyways great to hear that there might be a RK3566 board. Even if the CPU isn't much faster, it should at least give us more RAM to play with compared to the Sopine Smile
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#6
(12-08-2020, 12:56 AM)tllim Wrote: The Hardrock64 SBC project already cancel due to pandemic situation.

That's really sad but completely understandable.  Is there a plan to resume the HardROCK64 project once the pandemic is over?  

Please, could there be a few HardROCK64 boards available as leftovers from the preproduction run?  The clusters I'm building would, among other things, be used to run distcc compilation, so having control nodes faster than Rock64 would be highly beneficial.

Those two clusters will be very cool and profesionally made, using off-the-shelf components as much as possible.  Of course, I'll provide detailed descriptions, drawings, etc. for anyone willing to build their own.  Hint: I'll be using modified SilverStone SG13 cube cases to house the clusters.

In fact, I've never seen an SBC cluster made that well by an individual, and having HardROCK64 as the control nodes would be like a cherry on top. Smile
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#7
Why not just use the RockPro SBC? Is the form factor that important? Otherwise there are now some SBCs like the new Asus Tinkerboard that are basically the exact same hardware as the HardRock was supposed to be.
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#8
The space inside the SG13 case I have available for the control node is large enough for a Rock64 board, for example.  Anything larger simply cannot fit, unfortunately.  Also, the board has to use 5 V power supply, through a barrel jack, because I have no space available for an additional 12 V power supply or a USB PD charger.  Obviously, a RockPro64 cannot satisfy any of these two major requirements.

I wasn't aware of the Asus Tinker Board 2, thank you very much for pointing that out.  However, I see that it has no removable eMMC and uses 12-19 V as the power input, which renders it unusable for my application.  As far as I can see, it also has no support in the Linux kernel mainline, and I really want mature, stable boards with such support.

Furthermore, I'd prefer my two SBC clusters to consist of Pine64 boards only. Smile  I've already bought pretty much all of the required boards, power supplies and other components, and I'll use Rock64 4 GB boards as the control nodes, if it turns out there are no preproduction HardROCK64 boards available.
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#9
Per yesterdays Community update post in the blog, we can expect to see A and B type boards for newer SoCs. I think the next one will be the RK3566
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#10
Actually, the new SoC roadmap was already briefly described in the November update.  Sadly, it is now official that the HardROCK64 project is terminated. Sad

In a few words, RK3566 SoC looks good.  However, new RK3566-based SBCs will not quickly reach the software maturity of the, for example, Rock64.
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