STAR64

The STAR64

The Star64 is a RISC-V based Single Board Computer powered by StarFive JH7110 Quad-Core SiFive U74 64-Bit CPU, Imagination Technology BX-4-32 GPU and supports up to 8GB 1866MHz LPDDR4 memory. It provides an eMMC module socket, MicroSD Card slot, PCI-e, Pi-2 Bus, USB 3.0, and many other peripheral interfaces for makers to integrate with sensors and other devices.

Software releases

The releases are still in alpha state and are only fit for testing purposes.

• A Set of Images built with Yocto for commandline, weston and plasma - Where possible, GPU/VPU acceleration is enabled.
• Armbian
• NixOS, based on the the nixos-hardware configuration
• Apache NuttX RTOS

SoC and Memory Specification

• Based on StarFive JH7110

CPU Architecture

• Quad-core U74 up to 1.5GHz CPU

• Fully compliant with the RISC-V ISA specification
• 64-bit RISC-V Application Core
• 32KB L1 I-cache with ECC
• 32KB L1 D-cache with ECC
• 8 Region Physical Memory Protection
• Virtual Memory support with up to 47 Physical Address bits
• Integrated up to 2MB L2 Cache with ECC
• includes RV64IMAC S7 monitor core, 16 KB L1 I-Cache with ECC, 8 KB DTIM with ECC
• 32-bit RISC-V CPU core (E24) for real time control, support RV32IMFC RISC-V ISA

GPU Architecture

• Imagination Technology BXE-4-32 up to 600Mhz GPU

• Support OpenCL 3.0
• Support OpenGL ES 3.2
• Support Vulkan 1.2
• Tile-based deferred rendering architecture for 3D graphics workloads, with concurrent processing of multiple tiles
• Support for GPU visualization, up to 8 virtual GPUs
• On fly frame buffer compression and decompression (TFBC) algorithm
• Performance: 128 FP32 FLOPs/Clock, 256 FP16 FLOPs/Clock

System Memory

• LPDDR4 RAM Memory Variants: 2GB, 4GB and 8GB.

Board Features

Video

• Digital Video output up to 4K@30Hz
• 4K HDR @ 60fps
• H.264/AVC Base/Main/High/High10 profile @ level 5.1; up to 4K×2K @ 60fps
• H.265/HEVC Main/Main10 profile @ level 5.1 High-tier; up to 4K×2K @ 60fps

Audio

• 3.5mm audio Jack

Network

• Single or Dual 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet
• 2.4GHz/5Ghz MIMO WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac with Bluetooth 5.2

Storage

• on-board 128Mbit (16MByte) XSPI NOR flash memory - bootable
• microSD - bootable, supports SDHC and SDXC and storage up to 256GB
• eMMC - bootable (optional eMMC Module)
• 1× USB3.0 Dedicated Host port
• 3× USB2.0 Host port

Expansion Ports

• PCIe 2.0 ×1 lane
• 2×20 pins "Pi2" GPIO Header
  • The JH7110 SoC supports full multiplexing of its GPIO pins. This means any non-power/ground pin can be configured to any function outlined in Table 4-2 of the SoC datasheet.
• 4 lane MiPi DSI port for LCD panel
• 4 lane MiPi CSI port for camera module

Board Information, Schematics and Certifications

Model "A" Baseboard Dimensions: 133mm×80mm×19mm

Input Power: DC 12V @ 3A 5.5mmOD/2.1mmID center-positive Barrel DC Jack connector

Schematic:

• STAR64 Schematic 20230504 v1.1 (Production Released version)
• STAR64 Schematic 20220721 v1.0 (Prototype Board)

Certifications:

• Disclaimer: Please note that PINE64 SBC is not a "final" product and in general certification is not necessary. However, PINE64 still submits the SBC for FCC, CE, and ROHS certifications and obtain the certificates to prove that the SBC board can pass the testing. Please note, a final commercial product needs to perform its own testing and obtain its own certificate.
• Not yet available

Datasheets for Components and Peripherals

Star64 JH7110 SoC information:

• StarFive JH7110 SoC Product Brief
• StarFive JH7110 SoC Datasheet
• StarFive JH7110 SoC Technical Reference Manual

X-Power PMU information:

• X-Power AXP15060 Datasheet V0.1

LPDDR4 (200 Balls) SDRAM:

• Micron LPDDR4 Mobile LPDDR4 Datasheet

eMMC information:

• PINE64 eMMC module schematic
• PINE64 USB adapter for eMMC module V2 schematic
• PINE64 USB adapter for eMMC module PCB in JPEG
• 16GB Foresee eMMC Datasheet
• 32GB/64GB/128GB SanDisk eMMC Datasheet

SPI NOR Flash information:

• GigaDevice 128Mb XSPI-Flash Datasheet

Ethernet related info:

• TBA

WiFi/BT module info:

• Fn-Link 6252B 11AC Dual Band 2T2R WiFi + Bluetooth5.2 Datasheet

Bringup Notes

1. The USB over-current protection is not wired up correctly to the USB ports on Star64. The default Starfive Kernel will disable USB on boot as it belives the ports are overcurrent. This ugly hack works around it: https://github.com/Fishwaldo/Star64_linux/commit/2634a13ecfa1fa5c232ec2b9f6a6b6b0d9d66898
2. The Wifi Chip (RTL8852BU) is not supported in the kernel. There is a Vendor Driver that is imported in the kernel at https://github.com/Fishwaldo/Star64_linux/tree/Star64_devel/drivers/staging/rtl8852bu but it really needs a cleanup. It does BUG_ON at boot, but wifi is confirmed working.
3. HDMI can be finicky. 4K Monitors are known to have a issue. This is also relevant for VisionFive2
4. Some kernels/distributions do not detect the total memory correctly. This is due to the way u-boot is configured. Currently, u-boot reads the memory from the eeprom on the Star64, and updates the dtb file before booting the kernel. Distributions that boot differently may not get the updated dtb file with the correct memory entry. You can work around this by recompiling the DTB with the correct memory for your board
5. VisionFive2 Kernels will only offer limited functionality on the Star64 - Mainly USB, Wifi and PCI will not work.
6. The 4-pin 12 volt JST-XH-4A connector found on the Star64 is incompatible with the dual SATA power adapter intended for the ROCKPro64. The connector on the Star64 is rotated 180 degrees to the one on the ROCKPro64, resulting in the cable receiving +12V where GND is expected and vice versa. The cable's internal circuitry ends up shorting in this configuration.
7. Booting from uSD: Component S1804 is adjacent to the 40pin GPIO Bus; ignore the printed text on S1804 that says "ON" or "ONKE". Do pay attention to the '1' and '2' printed on S1804. Also pay attention to the 'L' and 'H' text on the board next to S1804. The 'L' stand for '0' and the 'H' stands for '1'. You will need to flip switch '1' (GPIO_1) on S1804 to the 'L' position and switch '2' (GPIO_0) on S1804 to the 'H' position. S1804 maps to the table next to S1804 that has text [ [GPIO_1 | GPIO_0], [0|0] Flash, [0|1] SD, [1|0] EMMC, [1|1] UART ]; Helpful links: https://mrrcode979.github.io/blog/post/star64-guide/, https://www.bortzmeyer.org/star64-first-boot.html
8. TTL use notes: Ground is on pin 6, RXD is on pin 8, and TXD is on pin 10.

LEDs

The LEDs can be configured to stop blinking. Under Linux this can be done using the following command (as root):

echo "default-on" > /sys/devices/platform/leds/leds/blue-led/trigger

To list possible other triggers for the blue LED:

cat /sys/devices/platform/leds/leds/blue-led/trigger 

An example for a trigger is activity, where the the blue LED reflects the CPU activity.

Potential Issues

If you get the following error in u-boot (or your 8Gb board is only detected as 4Gb) the possible problem is a empty, or corrupt eeprom:

Not a StarFive EEPROM data format - magic error
EEPROM dump: (0x100 bytes)
00: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
10: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
20: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
30: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
40: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
50: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
60: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
70: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
80: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
90: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
A0: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
B0: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
C0: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
D0: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
E0: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
F0: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 

Then from within u-boot execute the following commands:

mac initialize
mac product_id <PRODUCTID>
mac write_eeprom

Set ProductID to either:

• For 8Gb Models: STAR64V1-2310-D008E000-01234567
• for 4Gb Models: STAR64V1-2310-D004E000-01234567

You can replace the last 8 digits with a random number if you wish. If these commands fail, please join the #star64 channel in the Pine64 community for more assistance.

Casing/Enclosure Compatibility

The table below collect known information about casing and enclosure compatibility for the Star64 sbc.

Casing and enclosure compatibility for Star64

Casing/Enclosure	Compatible	Notes
ROCKPro64 PREMIUM ALUMINUM CASING	No	Star64 has two stacked ethernet ports, making it too tall. Also, audio jack is too large and there is a USB type A instead of a USB type C port.
NAS Case	Yes	Micro SD slot and Second Gigabit Ethernet port are not accessible without modification

Prototype Bringup Notes

Note: This section is relevant to the original prototype (v1.0) that a few developers received.

1. The schematic has several discrepancies with actual board labels.
2. The serial console can be found with TXD on pin 8 and RXD on pin 10; a convention common to Pi-style boards. Use the 40pin header pinouts in color on page one and not the schematic prose.
3. If you have only a single core running and no PCI card present, it appears to power up via the +5V/GND lines from the USB serial adapter pins.
4. It will not boot from a VisionFive R1 uSD card.
5. The boot device switch labels and the silk screen are inverted. "0" means "On".
6. 2021.10-00001-gdbdaad919b will attempt to boot from SPI, but it appears blank. If you let it for many minutes, the device will eventually time out and boot OpenSBI v1.0 from (SPI?). This will fail, but only after self-identifying as a VisionFive R2, complete with five cores and 4 GB of RAM, before failing. A "press any key" timeout is offered, but I've been unable to make it stop. It will eventually crash with:

Loading Environment from SPIFlash... SF: Detected gd25lq128 with page size 256 Bytes, erase size 4 KiB, total 16 MiB
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

Not a StarFive EEPROM data format - magic error