ROCK64

The ROCK64

The ROCK64 is a credit-card size 4K60P HDR Media Board Computer powered by Rockchip RK3328 Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53 64-Bit Processor and supports up to 4GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 memory. It provides an eMMC module socket, MicroSD Card slot, Pi-2 Bus, Pi-P5+ Bus, USB 3.0, and many other peripheral interfaces for makers to integrate with sensors and other devices.

It supports many different open source operating systems, such as Android, Debian, and Yocto.

Software releases

Under ROCK64 Software Releases you will find a complete list of currently supported operating system images, which work with the ROCK64, as well as other related software.

OS build Installation Guide and tools:

• Guide to install stock Android build to eMMC module
• Tools to burn Android build into a bootable microSD card
• Tools that allows developer flash image into eMMC's Loader/Parameter/Misc/Kernal/Boot/Recovery/System/Backup partition
• Windows ADB driver package
• ROCK64 MAC Address

Requirement	GNU/Linux	Android/Linux	Kodi/Linux
2160p 30Hz 8bit h264/h265/vp8	partial? 1	yes	yes
UI using GPU	no	yes	yes
Youtube	no	yes	no
vp9 / mpeg4 / mpeg2 / 10bit HDR / YCbCr	no	yes?	yes

Upstreaming Status

Warning: The data presented in this section requires updating.

Function	Status		Component	Notes
Video Output	Linux Mainline		rockchipdrm	With mpv, you'll need to specify something like mpv --gpu-context=drm --drm-connector=1.HDMI-A-1 to get it to play back on a VT
3D Acceleration	Linux Mainline	Upstream Mesa	lima	Very recent version recommended for the best experience. Has weird glitches on HDMI output in weston.
Video Decode	Linux Staging	Broken/Not in ffmpeg	hantro_vpu and rockchip_vdec, using v4l2-requests	Soon to be moved out of staging, ffmpeg patch set seemingly abandoned, does not work on newer kernels. Git branch with commits
Audio	Linux Mainline		snd_soc_rockchip_*
Power Button	Linux Mainline		rk805_pwrkey	If your PWR switch does nothing unless held, this may need to be loaded manually with modprobe or by putting it in /etc/modules-load.d/
Analog Video Output	Needs porting		rockchip_drm_tve	Definitely needs some cleanup before it'd be ready for mainline, and needs some dt bindings written.

SoC and Memory Specification

• Based on Rockchip RK3328

CPU Architecture

• Quad-core Cortex-A53 up to 1.5GHz CPU
• Full implementation of the ARM architecture v8-A instruction set
• ARM Neon Advanced SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) support for accelerated media and signal processing computation
• ARMv8 Cryptography Extensions
• In-order pipeline with symmetric dual-issue of most instructions
• Unified system L2 cache
• Includes VFP v3 hardware to support single and double-precision operations
• Integrated 32KB L1 instruction cache, 32KB 4-way set associative L1 data cache
• TrustZone technology support
• Full CoreSight debug solution
• One separate power domain for CPU core system to support internal power switch, and to externally turn on/off based on different application scenario
• PD_A53: Cortex-A53 + Neon + FPU + L1 I/D Cache of core 2/3
• One isolated voltage domain to support DVFS

Frequencies & Voltages

Frequency	Voltage
408 MHz	0.950 V
600 MHz	0.950 V
816 MHz	1.000 V
1008 MHz	1.100 V
1200 MHz	1.225 V
1296 MHz	1.300 V

Power Draw

These numbers for power draw have been measured through an USB power monitor (FNB38) while running the stress utility, whereby "cpu" stands for stress --cpu 4 and "vm" stands for stress --vm 4. The former spins on the CPU, the latter stresses the memory. Real workloads are usually a mix of both. The tests were ran through ssh, with nothing besides power and ethernet plugged into the ROCK64

Please keep in mind that under real world usage, many other factors come into play. Having a display connected, running a graphical session, I/O and most importantly the connected USB peripherals can add a lot.

Helpful refresher on the formula for power (W) on DC: power = current × voltage, because the power factor is 1. The ROCK64 runs on 5V, so use that to calculate current if you need to.

Frequency	Power cpu	Power vm
1296 MHz	2.64 W	2.95 W
1200 MHz	2.32 W	2.69 W
1008 MHz	1.90 W	2.31 W
816 MHz	1.62 W	2.05 W
600 MHz	1.45 W	1.85 W
408 MHz	1.33 W	1.72 W
Idle (no load)	1.10 W

It appears a good upper bound for a headless setup is in the neighbourhood of 3 W, or the energy contained in 0.025 bananas per hour.

GPU Architecture

• ARM Mali-450MP2 Dual-core GPU
• OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0, OpenVG1.1

System Memory

• LPDDR3 RAM Memory Variants: 1GB, 2GB and 4GB.

Board Features

The ROCK64 and a size comparison

Video

• Digital Video output up to 4K@60Hz
• 4K HDR @ 60fps
• H.264/AVC Base/Main/High/High10 profile @ level 5.1; up to 4Kx2K @ 60fps
• H.265/HEVC Main/Main10 profile @ level 5.1 High-tier; up to 4Kx2K @ 60fps
• VP9, up to 4Kx2K @ 60fps
• MPEG-1, ISO/IEC 11172-2, up to 1080P @ 60fps
• MPEG-2, ISO/IEC 13818-2, SP@ML, MP@HL, up to 1080P @ 60fps
• MPEG-4, ISO/IEC 14496-2, SP@L0-3, ASP@L0-5, up to 1080P @ 60fps
• VC-1, SP@ML, MP@HL, AP@L0-3, up to 1080P @ 60fps
• MVC is supported based on H.264 or H.265, up to 1080P @ 60fps

Audio

• 3.5mm A/V Jack (Composite Video Output and RCA Stereo support using conversion cable)

Network

• 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n with Bluetooth 4.0 (optional USB dongle)

Storage

Position of the two-pin header for disabling the optionally installed eMMC module (highlighted in red)

• microSD - bootable, supports SDHC and SDXC and storage up to 256GB
• eMMC - bootable (optional eMMC Module)
• 128Mbit (16MB) on-board SPI flash memory (empty by default) - bootable? Usually accessible as a Linux MTD device at /dev/mtd0
• 1 USB3.0 Dedicated Host port
• 2 USB2.0 Dedicated Host port (top one is USB-OTG)

Optionally installed eMMC module can be disabled by placing a jumper onto the two pins on the separate two-pin header, located near one of the mounting holes and two side-mounted buttons. See the picture in this section, in which this two-pin header is highlighted in red.

Expansion Ports

All GPIO pins, including UART, operate at 3.3V. (See VCCIO5 in the schematics.)

• 2x20 pins "Pi2" GPIO Header
• 2x11 pins "Pi P5+" GPIO Header (with 2nd 10/100Mbps Ethernet pins)

Information, Schematics and Certifications

Warning: While it's also possible to power the ROCK64 from the pins on the GPIO header, doing that isn't advisable because the Murata BLM18PG181SN1 inductor that's placed in series with that power input is rated for up to 1.5 A when the temperature of its case is below 85 oC. If you can guarantee not to go above those ratings, it may work reliably, otherwise you risk damage to your board.

Board dimensions: 85 x 56 x 18.8 mm, see the ROCK64 board dimension drawing

Power input: 3 A at 5 V DC, using 3.5 mm OD / 1.35 mm ID type H barrel connector (also known as DC 35135, 2 A at 5 V will work if there is no heavy load on the USB 3.0 port)

ROCK64 ver 3.0 SBC related info:

• ROCK64 SBC v3.0 Change Notice
• ROCK64 Schematic v3.0 (Production Release)
• ROCK64 Component Reference location v3.0 (top layer)
• ROCK64 Component Reference location v3.0 (bottom layer)
• ROCK64 SBC v3.0 Pi-2 and Pi-P5+ Bus GPIO Assignment
• ROCK64 Rev3 SBC RTC Battery Connector polarity

ROCK64 ver 2.0 SBC related info:

• ROCK64 Schematic v2.0 (Production Release)
• ROCK64 SBC v2.0 Pi-2 and Pi-P5+ Bus GPIO Assignment
• Github on ROCK64 GPIO library, thanks to Leapo
• Good documentation about ROCK64 GPIO pins article
• ROCK64 Audio DAC with 10/100Mbps Ethernet POT Board Schematic

ROCK64 3D autodesk drawing (from TeaPack):

• ROCK64 board 2D drawing @courtesy of TeaPack
• ROCK64 board 3D drawing @courtesy of TeaPack
• ROCK64 Audio DAC with 10/100Mbps Ethernet POT board 3D drawing @courtesy of TeaPack
• ROCK64 board with Audio DAC POT board 3D drawing @courtesy of TeaPack

Certifications:

• ROCK64 FCC Certificate
• ROCK64 CE Certificate
• ROCK64 RoHS Certificate

Datasheets for Components and Peripherals

Rockchip RK3328 SoC information:

• Rockchip RK3328 SoC Brief
• Rockchip RK3328 Datasheet V1.2
• Rockchip RK3328 Technical Reference Manual part 1
• Rockchip RK805 Datasheet V1.1

LPDDR3 (178 Balls) SDRAM:

• Hynix LPDDR3 Datasheet V1.2
• Samsung LPDDR3 Datasheet V1.00.00
• Spectek LPDDR3 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:

• WinBond 128Mb SPI Flash Datasheet
• GigaDevice 128Mb SPI Flash Datasheet

Ethernet related info:

• Realtek RTL8211F 10/100/1000M Ethernet Transceiver Datasheet
• 10/100Mbps MegJack on Audio DAC POT board Datasheet

Peripheral related info:

• JMicron JMS578 to SATA Datasheet

Enclosure information:

• Outdoor Aluminum Cast Dust-proof IP67 Enclosure Drawing

Remote control button mapping:

• Official Remote Control for the PINE A64 Button Mapping

Enclosures

The ROCK64 fits in three officially sold cases.

• "Model B" Acrylic Open Enclosure, Store
• "Model B" Aluminum Waterproof Enclosure, Store
• ROCK64 Premium Aluminum Casing, Store

Troubleshooting

HDMI output disconnects as soon as it connects

Some older monitors seemingly can get into a weird state wherein the ROCK64 is unable to establish a proper connection with them. User:CounterPillow has seen this happen on an iiyama ProLite G2773HS connected over HDMI, and an Acer P225HQL connected over an HDMI to DVI adapter. The symptoms usually are that you see the monitor briefly turn on its backlight without displaying a picture, but then immediately either shutting off again or showing a "No Signal" message.

The solution is to completely power down your ROCK64, also removing its power source. Then plug in the monitor, and start up the ROCK64 afterwards. You should now be getting a picture again.

Power button doesn't do anything on a short press (Linux)

Make sure the rk805_pwrkey module is loaded, e.g. with lsmod | grep rk805_pwrkey. The module auto loading of rk805_pwrkey was fixed in the following upstream kernels: v6.0/v5.15.66/v5.10.142/v5.4.213/v4.19.258/v4.14.293 so there should be no requirement for fixes with those kernels or newer. If it doesn't show up, do a modprobe rk805_pwrkey as root. To make this persistent, create a 99-rk805_pwrkey.conf in /etc/modules-load.d/ with the content rk805_pwrkey

If it still doesn't work, make sure your init system is actually listening to the button press. With systemd, check /etc/systemd/logind.conf and make sure it's either all commented out (uses defaults) or contains something like HandlePowerKey=poweroff. You can change the short press action by setting HandlePowerKey to one of "ignore", "poweroff", "reboot", "halt", "kexec", "suspend", "hibernate", "hybrid-sleep", "suspend-then-hibernate", or "lock".

Video output is glitchy during activity

If your video output glitches out while there is memory bandwidth pressure, the likely reason is that the video output (VOP) quality-of-service (QoS) registers aren't set to high priority mode.

User:CounterPillow submitted a patch to u-boot to fix this, but someone still needs to write a kernel patch to save/restore the QoS registers from the power domain driver.

Other Resources

• ROCK64 Forum
• IRC Server: irc.pine64.org Channel: ROCK64
• ROCK64 Linux GitHub Repo
• ROCK64 ayufan GitHub Repo
• Rockchip Linux GitHub Repo
• Rockchip Android RKMC (Forked from Kodi 16.1)
• Rockchip Open Source Wiki
• Armbian's ROCK64 Page