Odroid hacker board jumps to faster octacore SoC

ODROID-XU3 is a new generation of computing device with more powerful, more energy-efficient hardware and smaller form factor.

Offering open source support, the board can run various flavours of Linux, including the latest Ubuntu 14.04 and the Android 4.4. By adopting the e-MMC 5.0 and USB 3.0 interface, the ODROID-XU3 boasts fast data transfer speed, a feature that is increasingly required to support advanced processing power on ARM devices that allows users can fully experience an upgrade in computing such as faster booting, web browsing and 3D game experience.

 * Samsung Exynos5422 Cortex™-A15 2.0Ghz quad core and Cortex™-A7 quad core CPUs

* Mali-T628 MP6(OpenGL ES 3.0/2.0/1.1 and OpenCL 1.1 Full profile)

* 2Gbyte LPDDR3 RAM at 933MHz (14.9GB/s memory bandwidth) PoP stacked

* eMMC5.0 HS400 Flash Storage

* USB 3.0 Host x 1, USB 3.0 OTG x 1, USB 2.0 Host x 4

* HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort1.1 for display

* Integrated power consumption monitoring tool

 Note!! The package includes a XU3 board, a plastic case, an active cooler, micro HDMI cable(as of 2nd of February, 2015) and 5V/4A PSU. You need an additional MicroSD card or an eMMC module to install the OS. We strongly recommend the eMMC module for much higher performance boosting.

Integrated power consumption monitoring tool

ODROID-XU3 has the integrated power analysis tool. 

4 current/voltage sensors measure the power consumption of the Big A15 cores, Little A7 cores, GPUs and DRAMs individually. 

Professional developers can monitor CPU, GPU and DRAM power consumption via included on-board power measurement circuit. By using the integrated power analysis tool, developers will reduce the need for repeated trials when debugging for power consumption and get the opportunity to enhance and optimize the performance of their CPU/GPU compute applications, and therefore keeping power consumption as low as possible.

Frequency, Voltage, Ampere and Power information shows as an on-screen-overlay in Android platform. You can monitor 4 big cores and GPU temperature too.

Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) solution 

ODROID-XU3, equipped with four big cores (ARM® Cortex® -A15™ up to 2.0GHz) and four small cores (ARM® Cortex® -A7™ up to 1.4 GHz), provides improved processing capabilities while maintaining the most efficient power consumption imaginable. With the big one. LITTLE™ HMP solution, Exynos-5422 can utilize a maximum of all eight cores to manage computationally intensive tasks.  

OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenCL 1.1 for Linux and Android platforms 

The ARM® Mali™-T628 MP6 GPU offers key API support OpenGL ES 1.1, OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenCL 1.1 Full Profile and Google RenderScript. Mali-T628 is the GPU of choice for use in the next generation of market-leading devices, optimized to bring breathtaking graphical displays to consumer applications such as 3D graphics, visual computing, augmented reality, procedural texture generation and voice recognition. You can download the full featured OpenGL ES and OpenCL SDK from ARM Mali Developer website. It is even free! 

Below screen-shot shows the OpenGL-ES + OpenCL + Chromium browser with Ubuntu 14.04 on the HMP enabled Kernel 3.10 LTS.

MMC 5.0 

eMMC uses intelligent flash memory technology that not only offers the capacity to store digital content, but also meets even stricter high sequential and random performance requirements to ensure a strong user experience. This enables fast OS booting, quick application launching, seamless multi-tasking, and quick access to the cloud. 

In October 2013, JEDEC published the latest version of its popular eMMC standard: JESD84-B50: Embedded MultiMediaCard, Electrical Standard (5.0). eMMC v5.0 defines several new functionalities and enhancements for embedded mass-storage flash memory widely used in smartphones and other mobile devices; and matches the challenging performance targets required by the next generation of mobile systems by introducing an HS400 mode that offers additional improvement in terms of interface speed (up to 400 MB/s vs. 200 MB/s in the prior version). JESD84-B50 is available for free download from the JEDEC website.

http://www.jedec.org/standards-documents/results/jesd84-b50 

We've compared the performance of eMMC 4.5 with eMMC 5.0 on the ODROID boards.

SPECIFICATIONS

Processor Samsung Exynos5422 ARM® Cortex™-A15 Quad 2.0GHz/Cortex™-A7 Quad 1.4GHz

Memory 2Gbyte LPDDR3 RAM PoP (933Mhz, 14.9GB/s memory bandwidth, 2x32bit bus)

3D Accelerator Mali™-T628 MP6 OpenGL ES 3.0 / 2.0 / 1.1 and OpenCL 1.1 Full profile

Energy Monitor Measure the power consumption of Big cores, Little cores, GPU and DRAM individually. Accurate current sensors and voltage sensors are implemented on PCB for energy measurement.

Audio On-board Audio codec / Standard 3.5mm headphone jack. HDMI Digital audio output. Optional SPDIF optical output (USB module)

USB3.0 Host SuperSpeed USB standard A type connector x 1 port

USB3.0 OTG SuperSpeed USB Micro A-B type connector x 1 port

USB2.0 Host High Speed standard A type connector x 4 ports

Display HDMI, DisplayPort

Storage (Option) eMMC module socket : eMMC 5.0 Flash Storage (up to 64GByte) 

MicroSD Card Slot (up to 64GByte)

Fast Ethernet LAN 10/100Mbps Ethernet with RJ-45 Jack ( Auto-MDIX support)

Gigabit Ethernet LAN (Option) USB3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet adapter (USB module)

WiFi (Option) USB IEEE 802.11b/g/n 1T1R WLAN with Antenna (USB module)

HDD/SSD SATA interface (Optional) SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) to Serial ATA3 adapter for 2.5"/3.5" HDD and SSD storage

Power (included) 5V 4A Power

System Software Ubuntu 14.04 + OpenGL ES + OpenCL on Kernel LTS 3.10

Android 4.4.2 on Kernel LTS 3.10

Full source code is accessible via our Github.

Case (included) Mechanical case & cooler (98 x 74 x 29 mm approx. )

PCB Size 94 x 70 x 18 mm approx. (weight: 72grams approx)

 Hardkernel's Odroid project announced pre-orders for the Odroid-XU3 at $179, with shipments starting on Aug. The open-spec single board computer is the fastest of over a dozen other Samsung-based Odroid siblings, including an Odroid-XU model that it essentially replaces. While the $149-$169 Odroid-XU runs Samsung's original eight-core Exynos5410 Octa system-on-chip, the Odroid-XU3 advances to the new Exynos5422, which was announced back at February's Mobile World Congress.

Goods can also be purchased on the official website http://www.hardkernel.com/ including accessories. With us, the goods are in stock only in minimum quantities, including basic accessories. Rather, the price range is for organisations and businesses with a surcharge of 20 per cent excluding VAT.  

What other hardware do you need to purchase?

MSP EM module with Linux or Android: $40-$50

5V Power: $6

Ethernet cable: $2

Cooling fan: $5

Micro-USB cable: $3

micro HDMI cable: $6

USB-UART Module Kit: $10

ODROID-VU: $120

Check out other accessories here: ODROID | Hardkernel

Software

Benchmarking for software has been determined by environments, native languages, it's time to get started and the like

Tutorials (YouTube, main page, etc.)

How I Processed My Kernel - YouTube

Time to make LED flickering work

First, make sure you have all the right cables and additions: I recommend getting a pre-booted SD card MSP EM with Linux or Android (your choice), plug the microHDMI cable to the screen, connect the keyboard and mouse to USB ports, ethernet cable, memory with the operating system and power. After setup is ready the boot takes less than one minute for the command line to come up. Depending on what you want to do with it the next time you set the IDE and other applications depends on your taste choices.

Languages

C

C++

Python

System software

Ubuntu 14.04 + OpenGL ES + OpenCL on Kernel LTS 3.10

Android 4.4.2 on Kernel LTS 3.10

Note, I got rid of the programming environment because it does not quite fit this plate

From downloading the board from the box to printf on the screen using C, C++, Java, or?

Same procedure as LED: Once the operating system is up you can download ide options, set up and start programming.

Projects and community

Whenever you take on a new project, it's always nice to see what people have done. Therefore, the last part is devoted to resources already available.

What about the community with these already?

ODroid talk!

ODROID • View Forum - General

What references or examples are there?What can you do with it?

ODROID-XU3 with Ubuntu14.04 - YouTube

Play games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5fKrScVtP8

ODROID-XU3: ROS - YouTube

What cool projects are there already

myAHRS + Odroid XU3 demo 2 - YouTube

ODROID-XU3: Android Portrait Mode - YouTube

myAHRS + Odroid XU3 demo 1 - YouTube

Opinion period:

What I appreciate about Odroid-XU3

This board is designed for some hard work. If you want to make it your new desktop computer can handle the load if you want to start creating 3D games (which seems to be the most popular choice for this motherboard) it's good for it too! Personally, if I have a little time (AKA after the final), I want to try playing with opencv applications on it. With great abilities comes a serious amount of accessories to get it started, but once you're over that hurdle you can now ride.

* Bias Warning: I am a senior computer engineering student with a background in embedded systems. I've worked with a number of ARM-based boards on projects over the years. I note that I have my own set of preferences based on what has worked in the past, but I have tried to be as impartial as possible because not everyone has the same project goals. I am an intern at ARM, but these views are my own. If you have had another experience I welcome your opinion!