eMMC with Pine64 512K

[burningkrome]

I'm posting this is Noobs since I am one to the Pine64 boards - although I've worked a bit with RaspPi. 

I'm curious about the usage and benefits of eMMC memory. My current task involves installing Android on a Pine64 512k board. This device will run a single app (voice to text), and my goal is to run this single app with as much performance as possible.

Questions:
- Can eMMC BE USED with the Pine64 512K - or is it only for the new MM boards?

- If so, I know eMMC is generally for storing video data with high speed. Can eMMC be used for...
  - The OS? (eg. as a replacement for the SDCard)?
  - As general data storage (eg. for app and app-database storage...but at a higher access speed)? 
  - As a replacement for RAM?

- Since one of the bennies of eMMC is the controller is integrated, and takes the load off the CPU. Would using it as OS or app data storage significantly improve the apps performance?

Thanks!

[Luke]

I assume you're asking about the 512mb PineA64 board. For starters, that will not run Android. Secondly, it does not have an eMMC socket.

As for your other questions, eMMC is used as a replacement for a SD card (for boot and rootfs); you could theoretically boot from SD and mount it as storage too - but I cannot see a usecase scenario for that.

Using eMMC instead of SD results in much better performance in android.

[burningkrome]

Hi Luke,

Thanks for the quick reply.

If I wanted to run Android, what board would I need?

As an aside, why won't the 512mb PineA64 run Android? Too little memory I assume?

[Luke]

You can either go for the Pine64-LTS (2GB of RAM and eMMC) or the Rock64 (2-4Gb RAM and eMMC).

[tllim]

Hi Luke,

Thanks for the quick reply.

If I wanted to run Android, what board would I need?

As an aside, why won't the 512mb PineA64 run Android? Too little memory I assume?

512MB has no enough memory to run Android.