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Asus TinkerBoard

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funny enough, i have the udoo x86 (with pentium), tinkerboard and pi 3.

Always thought the udoo x86 board was interesting with the arduino built in - which makes it interesting when doing things like robotics (the quark SE and ARC's are via USB to the N3710 host).
 
Fun stuff... chmod +x after creating the file - tinkerboard tends to throttle hard after 70 Celsius..

pi3 sticks around to around 80 before it slows down...

vi info.sh

Code:
#!/bin/bash
celsius1=$(cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp | sed 's/.\{3\}$/.&/')
clock1=$(cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq | sed 's/.\{3\}$/.&/')
echo "Hostname  => $(hostname)"
echo "SW Rev    => $(uname -vr)"
echo "Uptime    =>$(uptime)"
echo "=========================="
echo "Core Temp => ${celsius1} °C"
echo "CoreClock => ${clock1} MHz"

As shown below... watch -n1 ./info.sh

Screen Shot 2017-12-30 at 6.23.58 PM.png
 
Fun stuff... chmod +x after creating the file - tinkerboard tends to throttle hard after 70 Celsius..

pi3 sticks around to around 80 before it slows down...
Both my pi 3 and thinkerboard share the same case actually. I mean they both have heatsink and fan on them. The thinkerboard is raspberry pi compatible so all the same cases and cooling fits.
 
Both my pi 3 and thinkerboard share the same case actually. I mean they both have heatsink and fan on them. The thinkerboard is raspberry pi compatible so all the same cases and cooling fits.

TinkerBoard would definitely benefit from a heatsink fan - it does include a largish heatsink in the box (large enough that it might interfere with some HAT's, so watch clearance there.

The Rockchip idles around 50c - and it runs up fairly quickly if all 4 cores are loaded up (for example, video playback with some codecs)

Microsoft had an interesting article regarding active cooling on a Pi 3, showing the benefits...

https://microsoft.github.io/ELL/tutorials/Active-cooling-your-Raspberry-Pi-3/
 
To summarize things up with the TinkerBoard. It's an interesting board - not for the beginner - a Pi3 is a better choice there - mostly due to documentation, software, and community support.

I would consider Tinker to be an intermediate class board - it's serviceable, one has to roll up one's sleeves a bit and get into the tender bits of linux to make the most of it, but all the tools are there to make that happen.
 
BTW - the Asus UK site seems to have the best factory support for this board...

https://www.asus.com/uk/Single-Board-Computer/Tinker-Board/HelpDesk_Download/

They recently pushed out a new Tinker OS 2.05 release with quite a few fixes... Tinkerboard also supports android, there are ROM's there for that side of the house.

The best Tinkerboard Community seems to be homed in the UK as well...

https://tinkerboarding.co.uk/forum/

And then I should add the armbian community.

https://www.armbian.com/tinkerboard/
 
The best Tinkerboard Community seems to be homed in the UK as well...

https://tinkerboarding.co.uk/forum/

And then I should add the armbian community.

https://www.armbian.com/tinkerboard/

Good to hear. Seems right time to get onboard then. I came across a benchmark TinkerBoard vs Rasp Pi 3 B+ vs a few other. TinkerBoard is still ahead of 3 B+ by miles on most items.

Is it true that WiFi performance on TinkerBoard is only 30Mbit/s?

Benchmark: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=raspberrypi-3-bplus&num=3
 
WiFi client performance on the Tinker is not a strong point...

The full GbE port in TinkerBoard is way more useful than 300Mbps ethernet port on Pi 3 B+ for network intensive applications.

From this benchmark, leaving 64-bit/32-bit aside, A17 is much more efficient core than A53.
ARMv7_vs_ARMv8_Performance_.png


Pi3 - Cortex-A53 @ 1.2GHz
System Benchmarks Index Score 890.8

TinkerBoard - Cortex-A17 @ 1.8 GHz
System Benchmarks Index Score 605.7

Intel N3700 @ 1.6GHz
System Benchmarks Index Score 1655.6

These results from unixbench are a bit counter climax. I would think swapping 890.8 and 605.7 will make more sense. What's going on there?
 
These results from unixbench are a bit counter climax. I would think swapping 890.8 and 605.7 will make more sense. What's going on there?

The DVFS curves on the tinker with the SW in use at the time exposed a throttling issue. It gets very hot, very fast, and pulls back under heavy load.

The Rockchip can burst very fast up to 1.8GHz, and it throttles back down to 125MHz - the 2.0.5 release should address some of this, and yes, one should consider a robust cooling solution for Tinker if one wants to push all the cores hard.
 
From this benchmark, leaving 64-bit/32-bit aside, A17 is much more efficient core than A53.

That's not really a benchmark - it's DMIPS/HZ for various ARM cores...

That being said - the A17 is a high-end core, and the RK3288 is a great implementation - we don't see a lot of other A17 chips as they were introduced about the same time as the big ARMv8 jump to 64-bit.

a53 essentially replaced A9, as it's small on the die, and supports more features - one can place 4 Cortex-a53 cores in less space than two Cortex-A9's, and get better performance and thermals at a given process node.

The full GbE port in TinkerBoard is way more useful than 300Mbps ethernet port on Pi 3 B+ for network intensive applications.

The Gigabit port on Tinker is actually the Rockchip GMAC, it's built into the SoC, and it is very good considering the price.

The Pi3 B+ -- it's GbE, but it's part of a USB2 combo controller, so while the PHY is GbE, effective throughput is going to be limited. Still nice to have, as it reduces some power, and it adds POE support, which for some is nice.
 
That's not really a benchmark - it's DMIPS/HZ for various ARM cores...

The guy ran tests and did the charting from his own data according to the article..

a53 essentially replaced A9, as it's small on the die, and supports more features - one can place 4 Cortex-a53 cores in less space than two Cortex-A9's, and get better performance and thermals at a given process node.

DMIPS/HZ wise, A9 appears to be a more efficient core than A53. The wonder ppl are seeing in A53 (such as RT-86U) is higher clock, and NEON (for OpenSSL).

The Gigabit port on Tinker is actually the Rockchip GMAC, it's built into the SoC, and it is very good considering the price.

Nice. Definitely preferred if applications are more network intensive. I heard TinkerBoard requires a good quality PSU. Also the TinkerBoard S is just released. I can't find any retailer nearby..
 
The guy ran tests and did the charting from his own data according to the article..

Actually no - the post slide is direct from an ARM presentation - I know, I was there...

A9 is a good core - A17 is the logical end - it is an improvement on A12 (paper release) and developed outside of A15, and it's competitive and more power efficient. It's probably the best ARMv7 only core out there, just not very popular...

a53 - it's likely ARM's most successful core to date - it has warts and bugs, but it's an in-order core similar to a7 - that being said, in certain tasks, it's very good.

The Broadcom SoC's like the RT-86U - it's not a53, it's a architecture variant, and it's pretty good - echo's of Vulcan tweaks there...

similar to what QCOM did with Krait/Kyro, but in a different use-case.
 
Actually no - the post slide is direct from an ARM presentation - I know, I was there...

I went through the article again..he didn't get the numbers himself, and he said so in the article. My bad..lol.

"...To do so, I’ve simply use DMIPS/Mhz (Dhrystone MIPS/Megahertz) values listed on Wikipedia."


TinkerBoard vs Pi 3 B+ i.e. A17 vs A53.
TinkerBoard wins over Pi 3 B+ categorically albeit cost more for TinkerBoard.

The newer TinkerBoard S cost $80 (but comes with on-board 16GB eMMC)
TinkerBoard also has 2GB RAM double the size of 3 B+.

Not sure about TinkerOS or Armbian features. Need to take a further look at the software.

edit:

The Rockship has extra 400MHz advantage over the Broadcom chip.
Given A17 is more efficient than A53, that also helps quite a bit I think.

Also that the Rockship is overclockable to 2.2Ghz - a further extra 400MHz advantage over standard TinkerBoard/S. That's sweet.
 
Last edited:
One of the nice things for an advanced user - Tinker uses uBoot as a bootloader, so it opens up possibilities... it's a cleaner approach for an experienced linux developer, as Pi's boot is pretty odd there - Pi can use uBoot, and some distro's outside of Raspbian do, but it complicates things.

Tinker also supports Android, and one of the two images that Asus provides is an android image - if I recall, it might be Marshmallow, maybe Noughat, but it's there, and that being said, if one tires of mucking about with the linux stuff, the tinker makes for a great STB for some Kodi action over 4K.

One complaint about Tinker, and this is not really directed just at Tinker, but the ARM SoC vendors in general - video support - it's a real mess there - one can do dumb framebuffer and get something on screen, but pretty much anything _fast_ needs ugly blobs - the the RK3288 on Tinker is the same there - Mali is a PITA, so it pretty much every other vendors (IMG, Adreno, Vivante, even VC4 on the Pi for that matter) which locks one into the SoC vendor's kernel/driver package. There's been a bit of upside with Rockchip since google uses this SoC for many chromebooks, but google's stuff is odd with dependencies that are not mainline. Same goes with the other SoC vendors with Android as those are purpose specific and are hard, if not impossible, to port into a mainline kernel. Grrr...
 
FYI....

TinkerOS Debian 2.07 - link below - again, the UK site seems to have the best support for this board...

https://www.asus.com/uk/Single-Board-Computer/Tinker-Board/HelpDesk_Download/

Changes:

TinkerOS_Debian V2.0.7
TinkerOS_Debian V2.0.7

TinkerOS default username is “linaro”, password is “linaro”

Release Notes
*Changelog
1. Merge Upstream/Rockchip (commit: 2801809, tag: release-20171213, kernel: 4.4.103).
2. Update Qt video for Media Player to support repeat function.
3. Improve the HDMI Eye Pattern.
4. Fixed onboard USB audio module missing after resume from suspend.
5. Update U-Boot's UMS name to "TinkerBoard UMS disk".
6. Set the GPIO pins default mode to input mode.
7. Support CAN-Bus.
8. Fixed Tinker Board can not be used as Wi-Fi AP.
9. Add missing spidev nodes when SPI enable.
10. Support Google AIY Voice Kit (v2) HAT sound card.
11. Sync Rockchip package to support display ratio setting.
12. Improve the USB camera performance.
13. Support ADS7846 touch screen for 4"/3.5" HDMI LCD.
14. Set U-Boot only stop the autoboot when triggered the space key.
15. Update rtl8723bs driver.
16. Improve the WiFi roaming fail issue.
17. Fix the warning message when trying to build the Kernel source code.
18. Add back the missing comment of the rk3288-gpiomem.c file.

*ARM Security Update:
1. Meltdown and Spectre
Variant 1: bounds check bypass (CVE-2017-5753)
Variant 2: branch target injection (CVE-2017-5715)

*Tinker CLI and GUI's Configuration Tools (Experimental):
1. Support to enabled/disabled wlan verbose log.

MD5:
bbe7fe5b56c5bb4ce3ebd057b939ebda (zip)
1a723676d5e977096a8fbabf8ef06bc4 (img)
 
*Changelog
1. Merge Upstream/Rockchip (commit: 2801809, tag: release-20171213, kernel: 4.4.103).

Good to see the kernel gets updated.

Btw, Libre Computer is offering very appealing alternatives using the same and higher grade Rockchips!
 
The Tinker is getting better SW support over time - Armbian stays fairly close to current (I think they're on 4.14). The upside with Tinker is that it is Asus, which may be important to some...

The Libre Computer Renegade boards use the more recent RK3328, and the Renegade Elite uses the RK3399

The biggest challenge with the Rockchip and Allwinner based boards is the Mali graphics drivers - some distro's are better than others...
 
Good to see the kernel gets updated.

Still something up with TinkerBoard and DVFS.... that's the only thing I can think of off the top of my head - and these numbers actually concur with other projects I've done - both are stock boards - the Tinker has the Heat Sink included with the board, the Pi 3B+ does not have a heat sink - both are running on SanDisk Extreme 32GB sd cards...

Both are headless, running the CLI only, configured as such via the OS utils.

Should already be there, but just to make sure...

Code:
sudo apt install build-essential git

Now, download UnixBench from GitHub...

Code:
git clone https://github.com/kdlucas/byte-unixbench.git

Build it local - both platforms support what is needed....the ./Run script should work, but one can do a make clean, make, and then do the ./Run

Up first is TinkerOS 2.07

Code:
Benchmark Run: Mon Jul 09 2018 16:32:15 - 17:00:49
4 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests

Dhrystone 2 using register variables        8712967.8 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone                     1144.7 MWIPS (12.1 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput                               1240.1 lps   (29.9 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks        132610.6 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks           35006.1 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks        334655.8 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput                              222101.9 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching                  32554.8 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation                               2247.1 lps   (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                   2294.4 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                    695.8 lpm   (60.1 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead                         505074.9 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)

System Benchmarks Index Values               BASELINE       RESULT    INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables         116700.0    8712967.8    746.6
Double-Precision Whetstone                       55.0       1144.7    208.1
Execl Throughput                                 43.0       1240.1    288.4
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks          3960.0     132610.6    334.9
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks            1655.0      35006.1    211.5
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks          5800.0     334655.8    577.0
Pipe Throughput                               12440.0     222101.9    178.5
Pipe-based Context Switching                   4000.0      32554.8     81.4
Process Creation                                126.0       2247.1    178.3
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                     42.4       2294.4    541.1
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                      6.0        695.8   1159.7
System Call Overhead                          15000.0     505074.9    336.7
                                                                   ========
System Benchmarks Index Score                                         316.3

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Mon Jul 09 2018 17:00:49 - 17:29:40
4 CPUs in system; running 4 parallel copies of tests

Dhrystone 2 using register variables       22388261.9 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone                     3541.5 MWIPS (13.5 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput                               3383.9 lps   (29.5 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks        170703.7 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks           44959.4 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks        485914.9 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput                              906476.6 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching                  81474.5 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation                               6417.8 lps   (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                   5247.4 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                    672.5 lpm   (60.2 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead                        1535317.7 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)

System Benchmarks Index Values               BASELINE       RESULT    INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables         116700.0   22388261.9   1918.4
Double-Precision Whetstone                       55.0       3541.5    643.9
Execl Throughput                                 43.0       3383.9    787.0
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks          3960.0     170703.7    431.1
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks            1655.0      44959.4    271.7
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks          5800.0     485914.9    837.8
Pipe Throughput                               12440.0     906476.6    728.7
Pipe-based Context Switching                   4000.0      81474.5    203.7
Process Creation                                126.0       6417.8    509.3
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                     42.4       5247.4   1237.6
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                      6.0        672.5   1120.8
System Call Overhead                          15000.0    1535317.7   1023.5
                                                                   ========
System Benchmarks Index Score                                         682.6

Now the Pi3 B+

Code:
Benchmark Run: Mon Jul 09 2018 16:32:59 - 17:01:08
4 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests

Dhrystone 2 using register variables        4884587.5 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone                     1111.7 MWIPS (10.8 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput                                917.0 lps   (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks        144045.5 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks           41659.0 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks        361676.9 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput                              264765.2 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching                  53270.5 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation                               2231.0 lps   (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                   1786.1 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                    578.2 lpm   (60.1 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead                         604504.0 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)

System Benchmarks Index Values               BASELINE       RESULT    INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables         116700.0    4884587.5    418.6
Double-Precision Whetstone                       55.0       1111.7    202.1
Execl Throughput                                 43.0        917.0    213.3
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks          3960.0     144045.5    363.8
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks            1655.0      41659.0    251.7
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks          5800.0     361676.9    623.6
Pipe Throughput                               12440.0     264765.2    212.8
Pipe-based Context Switching                   4000.0      53270.5    133.2
Process Creation                                126.0       2231.0    177.1
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                     42.4       1786.1    421.2
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                      6.0        578.2    963.7
System Call Overhead                          15000.0     604504.0    403.0
                                                                   ========
System Benchmarks Index Score                                         311.8

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Mon Jul 09 2018 17:01:08 - 17:29:13
4 CPUs in system; running 4 parallel copies of tests

Dhrystone 2 using register variables       17267337.2 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone                     4215.9 MWIPS (9.9 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput                               2258.9 lps   (29.9 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks        229944.0 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks           62439.0 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks        573495.6 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput                             1051084.1 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching                 234694.7 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation                               4731.8 lps   (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                   4482.9 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                    618.1 lpm   (60.2 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead                        2315401.8 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)

System Benchmarks Index Values               BASELINE       RESULT    INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables         116700.0   17267337.2   1479.6
Double-Precision Whetstone                       55.0       4215.9    766.5
Execl Throughput                                 43.0       2258.9    525.3
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks          3960.0     229944.0    580.7
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks            1655.0      62439.0    377.3
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks          5800.0     573495.6    988.8
Pipe Throughput                               12440.0    1051084.1    844.9
Pipe-based Context Switching                   4000.0     234694.7    586.7
Process Creation                                126.0       4731.8    375.5
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                     42.4       4482.9   1057.3
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                      6.0        618.1   1030.1
System Call Overhead                          15000.0    2315401.8   1543.6
                                                                   ========
System Benchmarks Index Score                                         765.4
 
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