Notebook-workstation for power users?
#1
Hello pine64 community!

I am really happy to finally see great laptops such as the pinebook pro, stating to emerge with RISC - ARM architecture.

I have been following the developments for years and although in the smartphone, iphone, ipad product lines there are super fast RISC SoCs since many years, there is a long delay for this technology to pass to the laptop sector.

Pinebook Pro is the best available laptop right now in the market for an amazing price and I wish to congratulate the Pine64 designers for this effort.

Unfortunatelly, my personal computer needs are a bit more demanding, using my laptop for mathematic-scientific simulations and although I wish to ditch my x86 laptop for years now I still can't do it.

Fortunately, the last crop of arm chips (ie cortex A76, A77 not custom samsung or Apple chips) seems that they have caught up with the x86 ones and they demonstrate HUGE improvements on single thread and multithread performance!

Presently, the successor of Rockchip RK3399, the RK3588 based on Cortex A76 is being manufactured and according to Rockchip "mass production is planned for Q1 2020"! That is so soon! Considering that cortex-A76 provides more than 100% performance improvement over the RK3399's cortex-A72 in single thread, it is amazing news! Also Mediatek has announced that they are preparing their next Cortex-A77 Soc for 2020! These are amazingly fast chips!

Please PINE64 designers, for power users like myself consider creating a beefed up version of Pinebook Pro with a SoC like RK3588 and a little bit more RAM, or even better, socketed RAM not soldered so people can upgrade them according to their needs?

Congratulations again for your great products!
#2
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...7#pid48337
ANT - my hobby OS for x86 and ARM.
#3
(07-28-2019, 10:47 AM)z4v4l Wrote: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...7#pid48337


Thank you z4v4l, I understand that it is not released yet but it is only few months away!

How about other powewrusers, are there other people like me out there in the PINE64 community that will like to see a "Pine64 notebook" with a fast Cortex A76 or A77 and more or upgradeable RAM?

Let me know your opinion!
#4
(07-28-2019, 05:14 PM)Konstantinos Wrote:
(07-28-2019, 10:47 AM)z4v4l Wrote: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...7#pid48337


Thank you z4v4l, I understand that it is not released yet but it is only few months away!

How about other powewrusers, are there other people like me out there in the PINE64 community that will like to see a "Pine64 notebook" with a fast Cortex A76 or A77 and more or upgradeable RAM?

Let me know your opinion!

Its a cool idea, as always when a powerful and promising SOC comes to market, but it takes time to get Linux ship-shape for such ARM devices. Starting with a board is usually a good idea, as it allows more people to get in on development, since boards are cheap(er). Perhaps 2 years down the line ...
You can find me on IRC, Discord and Twitter


#5
(07-28-2019, 05:24 PM)Luke Wrote:
(07-28-2019, 05:14 PM)Konstantinos Wrote:
(07-28-2019, 10:47 AM)z4v4l Wrote: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...7#pid48337


Thank you z4v4l, I understand that it is not released yet but it is only few months away!

How about other powewrusers, are there other people like me out there in the PINE64 community that will like to see a "Pine64 notebook" with a fast Cortex A76 or A77 and more or upgradeable RAM?

Let me know your opinion!

Its a cool idea, as always when a powerful and promising SOC comes to market, but it takes time to get Linux ship-shape for such ARM devices. Starting with a board is usually a good idea, as it allows more people to get in on development, since boards are cheap(er). Perhaps 2 years down the line ...

Thank you Luke,

Of course, It takes time. I guess I'll have to wait for the next reincarnation of the PINE64 laptop with a SoC like RK3588. Cheers
#6
That would be awesome if this happened, I'll probably wait for it before I bought a new one Smile
#7
While we're asking for stuff, why not a miniITX form factor ThunderX (Cavium) or eMag (Ampere)? After all, more cores are better, right?


... Actually, I really believe there's a market for small form-factor server-CPU systems. I've been searching for a microATX-or-smaller XEON or EPYC board for months. Gig-ethernet, several SATA ports, a bunch of PCIe lanes (all of which are already set for a riser-type system, similar to that Asus mining motherboard, else you won't physically fit them on the board). A ThunderX or eMAG with similar p peripheral options would suit as well.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
#8
(07-29-2019, 12:31 PM)Paraplegic Racehorse Wrote: While we're asking for stuff, why not a miniITX form factor ThunderX (Cavium) or eMag (Ampere)? After all, more cores are better, right?


... Actually, I really believe there's a market for small form-factor server-CPU systems. I've been searching for a microATX-or-smaller XEON or EPYC board for months. Gig-ethernet, several SATA ports, a bunch of PCIe lanes (all of which are already set for a riser-type system, similar to that Asus mining motherboard, else you won't physically fit them on the board). A ThunderX or eMAG with similar p peripheral options would suit as well.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

It is definitely an interesting idea. Actually, I am also planning to built a miniITX tiny beast the coming days based on the new Ryzen 3900X 12-core or wait for the Ryzen 3950X 16-core next month. It should be so small that I can carry it in my backpack to serve me for the calculations I mentioned on my original post.

Have ThunderX or eMag produced new cores recently based on Cortex-A76 or Cortex-A77? Because these new designs demonstrate HUGE gains in IPC (instructions per clock).

If there was such a small form factor miniITX for server grade multi-core SoCs, and if those SoCs utilize new Cortex-A76 or newer designs I would consider changing my plans for my mini beast, instead of Ryzen 3900X-3950X to ARM chips :-)
#9
(07-29-2019, 07:21 PM)Konstantinos Wrote: It is definitely an interesting idea. Actually, I am also planning to built a miniITX tiny beast the coming days ...

Where have you sourced a tiny motherboard?

Quote:Have ThunderX or eMag produced new cores recently based on Cortex-A76 or Cortex-A77? Because these new designs demonstrate HUGE gains in IPC (instructions per clock).

The ad-copy for both days "ARMv8" and I haven't really dig into the specs. They are last-year new chips, so probably A55 cores, but 32 (eMAG) or 48 (ThunderX) of them is still a lot of power.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
#10
(07-29-2019, 10:53 PM)Paraplegic Racehorse Wrote:
(07-29-2019, 07:21 PM)Konstantinos Wrote: It is definitely an interesting idea. Actually, I am also planning to built a miniITX tiny beast the coming days ...

Where have you sourced a tiny motherboard?

Quote:Have ThunderX or eMag produced new cores recently based on Cortex-A76 or Cortex-A77? Because these new designs demonstrate HUGE gains in IPC (instructions per clock).

The ad-copy for both days "ARMv8" and I haven't really dig into the specs. They are last-year new chips, so probably A55 cores, but 32 (eMAG) or 48 (ThunderX) of them is still a lot of power.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

There are plenty of miniITX motherboards for ryzen (AM4 socket) that are strong enough for 12 to 16 cores (normal clocks) since they support overclocking of 8-cores. Example:

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-Performance-M...WAX5P4P7N9




They are just 6.7 x 6.7 inches, perfect for my build.

Yes, definitely last year's "ARMv8" server chips will not be Cortex-A76 or above. If I was going to build an ARM server SoC mini PC I would wait few months to get the new generation chips...


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