Just got my ODROID-U2 with Exynos4412 SoC (Cortex-A9)

[Massman]

Came in the mail today, from South Korea. Had to pay TWD $200 tax, though .... but that's a lot less than what I would pay in Belgium if there's tax at customs

 

SPECIFICATIONS

• Low-cost development platform
  
• Ultra compact size with full metal enclosure
  
• Quad core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore
  
• Samsung Exynos4412 Prime Cortex-A9 Quad Core 1.7Ghz with 1MB L2 cache
  
• 2048MB(2GB) LP-DDR2 880 Mega data rate
  
• Mali-400 Quad Core 440MHz
  
• 10/100Mbps Ethernet with RJ-45 LAN Jack
  
• 2 x High speed USB2.0 Host port
  
• Audio codec with headphone jack on board
  
• Android 4.x & Ubuntu 12.10
  
• Community-driven projects & supports
  

 

 

The specs are pretty much those of a Galaxy S3 with higher core clock. Or the one of a Note II with lower GPU clock. It's a quad core, so it should be quite a bit faster than the Raspberry Pi. I'll be running HWBOT Prime and the OpenArena benchmark to see how it performs. Not sure if it can be overclocked

 

Some pictures:

 

 

 

 

[Dreadlockyx]

Will you be running it on Ubuntu or Android ? Maybe the first one (Xubuntu) is slightly better for Java operations...

[Massman]

Linux OS first - HWBOT Prime isn't available on Android yet.

 

I think I'll go for the Debian Wheezy install first. That's what I'm using for the RPi as well, so it might be more familiar.

[Massman]

HDMI -> DVI isn't supported, so I took my work home today. The eMMC sdcard I ordered together with the ODROID comes with Android 4.0.4 default installed. It's pretty much plug-and-play, actually. Looks like the least mobile Android device ever

 

Let's try 3DMark for Android on this one ...

 

 

[Massman]

Haven't checked Ubuntu yet - any hardware you want me to check specifically? I think it should be fully supported though. Ran Ice Storm, but the score seems low?

 

 

[GENiEBEN]

Score is very low, that's around what I've had with an A9 1.5 dual core + Mali gpu.

Btw, forget Ubuntu, it's a resource hog. Go Debian or Arch.

[Massman]

Score is very low, that's around what I've had with an A9 1.5 dual core + Mali gpu.

Btw, forget Ubuntu, it's a resource hog. Go Debian or Arch.

 

I have around 2K Ice Storm Extreme, which seems to be +/_ what to expect from a Galaxy S3. The Note II has the Mali GPU clocked from 480 to 533, so obviously the score is a bit higher.

[Dreadlockyx]

Well, then we have to do any tweak there is to do with the GUI and then shut it down, I suppose ?

[Massman]

http://hwbot.org/submission/2411697_massman_hwbot_prime_samsung_exynos_4412_2400.44_primes_per_second

 

Not bad! Now to figure out how to overclock. It will definitely not be as easy as it is with the Raspberry Pi. Seems it's only possible via the kernel.

[bob80]

An Exynos that beats a Phenom II X4... lol

[Dreadlockyx]

^this

 

If you use Android, this might be useful. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2192893 Seems like an access to the kernel, which allows overclocking as well as other stuff.

[ObscureParadox]

Is the fact that it beat it something to do with it being a RISC processor by any chance?

[Trouffman]

Nice board

[Massman]

Is the fact that it beat it something to do with it being a RISC processor by any chance?

 

Might be related to the new Java JDK8 for ARM. I think only the ARM version is already available. JDK7 for ARM is about 1700pts

[VictordeHollander]

I'm running my ODROID-U2 with XUbuntu 13.04 , which is in my opinion the most user friendly OS for this device at the moment. But a lighter OS or running it from the console might be a little faster.

[Massman]

^this

 

If you use Android, this might be useful. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2192893 Seems like an access to the kernel, which allows overclocking as well as other stuff.

 

As far as I know, the main issue is that the the Kernel has to provide overclocking for your specific SoC. In this case, the Exynos 4412. There are kernels out there which have predefined settings upto 2000MHz, but we are far from the more ideal situation like on RPi where it's only a matter of adjusting the boot config file.

 

The way I see it, currently most ARM devices are in a phase where x86 was maybe 15 years ago. The BIOS we have today for architecture like Haswell, are graphical interfaces to control specific MSR. Most of the work for overclocking has been done by Intel and mainboard vendors - the interface we have is super-super-simple. For ARM, we are currently looking at the datasheets containing registers and equations. The information can be put in the kernel and that leaves a little room for tweaking, but what we are basically still doing is recompile and flash new "bioses" (if you compare to x86). The Raspberry Pi is somewhat closer to the BIOS interface as we know it - you can adjust the settings in one file - but it's still very basic.

 

What we have to do for this device to overclocking it past the "known" limitations is quite similar to using the PLL diagnosis in SetFSB or using RWutility to read registers. Only, well ... the changes are not realtime.

 

[Massman]

My first overclock. Flashed a new kernel and now running 2000 on ARM, and 800 on Mali GPU. Going up from 2700 to slightly over 4000. The CPU isn't too stable though, 3dmark would crash at physics test once in a while.

 

 

Edited August 13, 2013 by Massman

[xxbassplayerxx]

Moar volts!

[Massman]

Hehe. The developers for these kernels don't really want to open more volt/freq options because "it increases power consumption". Default load is like 10W

[Dreadlockyx]

@Massman: Well, if all we've got is configuration files (RPi) and registry tweaks (others), all we can do is, as you said, find some PLL-looking overclocking. But apart from that, we're far from settings like load-line calibration and case latency. I think we'll have to wait for the industry to provide some tools or products that are more OC-friendly.

Edited August 15, 2013 by Dreadlockyx

[Massman]

Personal achievement today.

 

Scored 4160 with CyanogenMod 10.1.2 rom. Modified and re-compiled the kernel myself to get a Mali GPU overclock of 800MHz :D .

 

Nothing too impressive, to be honest, but this is the first time I managed to compile the kernel. I have no prior knowledge of Linux whatsoever, so it's an achievement for me . I have a vague idea how to code the CPU overclock >2GHz ... trying that later this week!

[GENiEBEN]

If you fail just send me one =))

[Dreadlockyx]

Nice one ! I am personally lost in Linux sometimes, so rebuilding a whole kernel... hats off !

[Massman]

Haha, well ... it doesn't involve more than just editing a config file and then follow a "compile kernel" how-to. No need to take your hat off for that. Also, I lost the functionality of the on board LAN port. So that's definitely not good.

 

Anyway, I've figured out how to change the CPU frequency and voltage. Was able to create a 2.1GHz - 1.5V setting, and select it in OS. But it's very unstable (which is a great indication that the frequency is actually being set. It's essentially editing a P-state table - pretty simple, but a lot of manual work. So that is one bridge built. For future testing, I will need to enhance my cooling solution by either going LN2 (hehe) or adding perhaps a strong fan or so.

 

As for the Mali GPU overclocking, I am not entirely sure how it works yet. I've been digging through the kernel source code, but I find no reference to the various oc settings that can be configured via the .config files. It is definitely not via a P-state table. It seems to me that the current clock settings of 400/533/640/800 are nothing more than making use of the available ACLK dividers. According to the Exynos user manual, the available dividers are:

 

- aclk_100 => 400 x 1,00 = 400 MHz

- aclk_133 => 400 x 1,33 = 533 MHz

- aclk_160 => 400 x 1,60 = 640 MHz

- aclk_200 => 400 x 2,00 = 800 MHz

- aclk_266 (for gps) ?=> 400 x 2,66 ?= 1064 MHz

- aclk_400 (for mcuisp) ?=> 400 x 4,00 ?= 1600 MHz

 

I have not found exactly where that aclk divider is configured yet. But that should just be a matter of time. As far as I can see though, the only options for further overclocking the Mali GPU is either 1) hope that the 266 divider works or 2) figure out how to overclock the apll. Option number 2) is pretty similar to overclocking the BCLK frequency on IVB to increase the GPU frequency. The main issue of course is that all frequencies linked to aclk will be overclocked, and I have not yet mapped out all the connections.

 

Second issue with the Mali GPU is something I picked up from the Odroid forums. Apparently the DVFS scaling is broken when overclocking the GPU. DVFS stands for Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling, and basically comes down to the automatic overvoltage for given frequencies. To overcome this issue, the overclock options are tied to specific voltage settings. These are the settings:

 

- 533 MHz - 1.075V

- 640 MHz - 1.125V

- 800 MHz - 1.2V

 

No idea where to adjust the voltages yet.

[Xtreme Addict]

You are too bored with Hasfail yet?

 

But seriously, great job. I don't know anything about Linux, and I personally hate Faildroid, but it has to be some nice fun to figure out ocing on ARM in Kernel

 

Keep pushing it, it's great to follow your thread and look on those achievements you made on this little thing, but please don't include it in PRO CUP