Rockchip (Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Co., Ltd.) is a Chinese
fabless
Fabless manufacturing is the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing their fabrication (or ''fab'') to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry. These foundries are typically, but not exclus ...
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...
company based in
Fuzhou
Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...
,
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...
province. Rockchip has been providing SoC products for tablets & PCs, streaming media TV boxes, AI audio & vision, IoT hardware since founded in 2001. It has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Hong Kong.
It designs
system on a chip
A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memory ...
(SoC) products, using the
ARM architecture
ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...
licensed from
ARM Holdings
Arm is a British semiconductor and software design company based in Cambridge, England.
Its primary business is in the design of ARM processors (CPUs). It also designs other chips, provides software development tools under the DS-5, RealView an ...
for the majority of its projects.
Rockchip was one of the top 50 fabless C suppliers in 2018. The company established cooperation with Google, Microsoft and Intel. On 27 May 2014,
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
announced an agreement with Rockchip to adopt the Intel architecture for entry-level tablets.
Rockchip is a supplier of SoCs to Chinese
white-box tablet manufacturers
as well as supplying OEMs such as
Asus,
HP,
Samsung
and
Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
.
Products
Featured Products
RK3399 is the flagship SoC of Rockchip, Dual
Cortex-A72
The ARM Cortex-A72 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Austin, Texas, Austin design centre. The Cortex-A72 is a 3-way decode out-of-order execution, out-of-order superscalar pipeli ...
and Quad
Cortex-A53
The ARM Cortex-A53 is one of the first two central processing units implementing the ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Cambridge design centre. The Cortex-A53 is a 2-wide decode superscalar processor, capable of dual-iss ...
and
Mali-T860MP4 GPU, providing high computing and multi-media performance, rich interfaces and peripherals. And software supports multiple APIs: OpenGL ES 3.2,
Vulkan
Vulkan is a low- overhead, cross-platform API, open standard for 3D graphics and computing. Vulkan targets high-performance real-time 3D graphics applications, such as video games and interactive media. Vulkan is intended to offer higher perfor ...
1.0, OpenCL 1.1/1.2,
OpenVX
OpenVX is an open, royalty-free standard for cross platform acceleration of computer vision applications. It is designed by the Khronos Group to facilitate portable, optimized and power-efficient processing of methods for vision algorithms. This i ...
1.0, AI interfaces support TensorFlow Lite/AndroidNN API.
RK3399 Linux source code and hardware documents are on GitHub
and Wiki opensource website.
RK3566 is a successor to the RK3288 and outperforms it significantly, with quad core Arm A55 CPUs and an Arm Mali G52 GPU. Boards based on it are expected to be on sale in early 2021 from manufacturers like Pine64.
RK3288 is a high performance IoT platform, Quad-core Cortex-A17 CPU and Mali-T760MP4 GPU, 4K video decoding and 4K display out. It is applied to products of various industries including Vending Machine, Commercial Display, Medical Equipment, Gaming, Intelligent POS, Interactive Printer, Robot and Industrial Computer.
RK3288 Linux source code and hardware documents are on GitHub
and Wiki opensource website.
RK3326 and PX30 were announced in 2018, marketed for AI. PX30 is a variant of RK3326 targeting IoT market, supporting dual VOP. They use Arm's CPU Cortex-A35 and GPU G31.
RK3308 is an entry-level product line for mainstream devices. The chip has multiple audio input interfaces, and greater energy efficiency, featuring embedded voice activation detection).
The announcement of RV1108 indicated Rockchip's move to AI/computer vision territory.
With CEVA DSP embedded, RV1108 powers smart cameras including 360° Video Camera, IPC, Drone, Car Camcoder, Sport DV, VR, etc. It also has been deployed for new retail and intelligent marketing applications with integrated algorithms.
Early Products
RK26xx series - Released 2006.
RK27xx series - Rockchip was first known for their RK27xx series that was very efficient at
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
/MP4 decoding and was integrated in many low-cost
personal media player (PMP) products.
RK28xx series
The RK2806 was targeted at
PMPs.
The RK2808A is an ARM926EJ-S derivative. Along with the
ARM
In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between th ...
core a
DSP
DSP may refer to:
Computing
* Digital signal processing, the mathematical manipulation of an information signal
* Digital signal processor, a microprocessor designed for digital signal processing
* Yamaha DSP-1, a proprietary digital signal ...
coprocessor is included. The native clock speed is 560 MHz. ARM rates the performance of the ARM926EJ-S at 1.1
DMIPS
Dhrystone is a synthetic computing benchmark program developed in 1984 by Reinhold P. Weicker intended to be representative of system (integer) programming. The Dhrystone grew to become representative of general processor (CPU) performance. The ...
/MHz the performance of the Rockchip 2808 when executing ARM instructions is therefore 660 DMIPS roughly 26% the speed of Apple's
A4 processor
The Apple A4 is a 32-bit package on package (PoP) system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. and manufactured by Samsung. It was the first SoC Apple designed in-house. The first product to feature the A4 was the first-generation iPad, foll ...
. The DSP coprocessor can support the real-time decoding of 720p video files at
bitrate
In telecommunications and computing, bit rate (bitrate or as a variable ''R'') is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time.
The bit rate is expressed in the unit bit per second (symbol: bit/s), often in conjunction w ...
s of up to 2.5 Mbit/s. This chip was the core of many
Android and
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants.
Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...
-based
mobile internet devices.
The RK2816 was targeted at
PMP devices, and
MIDs. It has the same specifications as the RK2806 but also includes HDMI output,
Android support, and up to 720p hardware video acceleration.
RK29xx series
The Rockchip RK291x is a family of
SoCs
SOCS (suppressor of cytokine signaling proteins) refers to a family of genes involved in inhibiting the JAK-STAT signaling pathway.
Genes
* CISH
* SOCS1
* SOCS2
* SOCS3
* SOCS4
* SOCS5
* SOCS6
* SOCS7
Suppressor of cytokine signaling 7 is a pro ...
based on the
ARM Cortex-A8
The ARM Cortex-A8 is a 32-bit processor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture.
Compared to the ARM11, the Cortex-A8 is a dual-issue superscalar design, achieving roughly twice the instructions per cycle. The Cort ...
CPU core. They were presented for the first time at
CES 2011. The RK292x are single core SoCs based on
ARM Cortex-A9
The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore is a 32-bit multi-core processor that provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores, each implementing the ARM v7 architecture instruction set. It was introduced in 2007.
Features
Key features of the Cortex-A9 core are:
* ...
and were first introduced in 2012.
The RK2918
was the first chip to decode Google
WebM
WebM is an audiovisual media file format. It is primarily intended to offer a royalty-free alternative to use in the HTML5 video and the HTML5 audio elements. It has a sister project, WebP, for images. The development of the format is sponsored ...
VP8 in hardware. It uses a dynamically configurable companion core to process various codecs. It encodes and decodes
H.264
Advanced Video Coding (AVC), also referred to as H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10, is a video compression standard based on block-oriented, motion-compensated coding. It is by far the most commonly used format for the recording, compression, and distr ...
at 1080p, and can decode many standard video formats including Xvid, H.263, AVS, MPEG4, RV, and WMV. It includes a
Vivante
Vivante Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with an R&D center in Shanghai, China. The company was founded in 2004 as GiQuila and focused on the portable gaming market. The company's first prod ...
GC800
GPU
A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...
that is compatible with
OpenGL
OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...
ES 2.0 and
OpenVG
OpenVG is an API designed for hardware-accelerated 2D vector graphics. Its primary platforms are mobile phones, gaming & media consoles and consumer electronic devices. It was designed to help manufacturers create more attractive user interfaces ...
. The RK2918 is compatible with
Android Froyo (2.2), Gingerbread (2.3), HoneyComb (3.x) and Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0). Unofficial support for Ubuntu and other Linux flavours exists. As of 2013, it was targeted at
E-readers
An e-reader, also called an e-book reader or e-book device, is a mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and periodicals.
Any device that can display text on a screen may act as an e-read ...
.
The RK2906 is basically a cost-reduced version of the RK2918, also targeted at
E-readers
An e-reader, also called an e-book reader or e-book device, is a mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and periodicals.
Any device that can display text on a screen may act as an e-read ...
as of 2013.
The Rockchip RK2926 and RK2928
feature a single core
ARM Cortex A9
In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between the ...
running at a speed up to 1.0 GHz. It replaces the Vivante GC800 GPU of the older RK291x series with an
ARM
In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between th ...
Mali-400 GPU. As of 2013, the RK2926 was targeted at tablets, while the RK2928 was targeted at tablets and
Android TV
Android TV is a smart TV operating system based on Android (operating system), Android and developed by Google for television sets, digital media players, set-top boxes, and soundbars. A successor to Google TV (operating system), Google TV, it fe ...
dongles and boxes.
The RK3066 is a high performance dual-core
ARM Cortex-A9
The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore is a 32-bit multi-core processor that provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores, each implementing the ARM v7 architecture instruction set. It was introduced in 2007.
Features
Key features of the Cortex-A9 core are:
* ...
mobile processor similar to the Samsung Exynos 4 Dual Core chip. In terms of performance, the RK3066 is between the Samsung Exynos 4210 and the Samsung Exynos 4212. As of 2013, it was targeted at tablets and Android TV dongles and boxes.
It has been a popular choice for both tablets and other devices since 2012.
The RK3068 is a version of the RK3066 specifically targeted at Android TV dongles and boxes. Its package is much smaller than the RK3066.
The RK3028 is a low-cost dual-core
ARM Cortex-A9
The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore is a 32-bit multi-core processor that provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores, each implementing the ARM v7 architecture instruction set. It was introduced in 2007.
Features
Key features of the Cortex-A9 core are:
* ...
-based processor clocked at 1.0 GHz with
ARM Mali-400 GPU. It is pin-compatible with the RK2928. It is used in a few kids tablets and low-cost Android HDMI TV dongles.
The RK3026 is an updated ultra-low-end dual-core
ARM Cortex-A9
The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore is a 32-bit multi-core processor that provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores, each implementing the ARM v7 architecture instruction set. It was introduced in 2007.
Features
Key features of the Cortex-A9 core are:
* ...
-based tablet processor clocked at 1.0 GHz with
ARM Mali-400 MP2 GPU. Manufactured at 40 nm, it is pin-compatible with the RK2926. It features 1080p H.264 video encoding and 1080p decoding in multiple formats. Supporting Android 4.4, it has been adopted for low-end tablets in 2014.
The RK3036 is a low-cost dual-core
ARM Cortex-A7
The ARM Cortex-A7 MPCore is a 32-bit microprocessor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture announced in 2011.
Overview
It has two target applications; firstly as a smaller, simpler, and more power-efficient succes ...
-based processor released in Q4 2014 for smart set-top boxes with support for H.265 video decoding.
RK31xx series
The RK3188 was the first product in the RK31xx series, announced for production in the 2nd quarter of 2013. The RK3188 features a quad-core
ARM Cortex-A9
The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore is a 32-bit multi-core processor that provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores, each implementing the ARM v7 architecture instruction set. It was introduced in 2007.
Features
Key features of the Cortex-A9 core are:
* ...
clocked up to 1.6 GHz frequency.
It is targeted at tablets and Android TV dongles and boxes,
and has been a popular choice for both tablets and other devices requiring good performance.
* 28 nm HKMG process
at
GlobalFoundries
GlobalFoundries Inc. (GF or GloFo) is a multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Malta, New York. Created by the divestiture of the manufacturing arm of AMD, th ...
* Quad-core
ARM Cortex-A9
The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore is a 32-bit multi-core processor that provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores, each implementing the ARM v7 architecture instruction set. It was introduced in 2007.
Features
Key features of the Cortex-A9 core are:
* ...
, up to 1.6 GHz
* 512 KB L2 cache
*
Mali-400 MP4 GPU, up to 600 MHz (typically 533 MHz) supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0, Open G 1.1
* High performance dedicated 2D processor
* DDR3, DDR3L, LPDDR2 support
* Dual-panel display up to 2048x1536 resolution
The RK3188T is a lower-clocked version of the RK3188, with the CPU cores running at a maximum speed of 1.4 GHz instead of 1.6 GHz. The Mali-400MP4 GPU is also clocked at a lower speed. As of early 2014, many devices advertised as using a RK3188 with a maximum clock speed of 1.6 GHz actually have a RK3188T with clock speed limited to 1.4 GHz. Operating system ROMs specifically made for the RK3188 may not work correctly with a RK3188T.
The RK3168, first shown in April 2013, is a dual-core Cortex A9-based CPU, also manufactured using the 28 nm process.
It is targeted at low-end tablets.
The chip has seen only limited use as of May 2014.
The RK3126 is an entry-level tablet processor introduced in Q4 2014. Manufactured using a 40 nm process, it features a quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU up to 1.3 GHz and a Mali-400 MP2 GPU. It is pin-compatible with RK3026 and RK2926.
* 40 nm process
* Quad-core
ARM Cortex-A7
The ARM Cortex-A7 MPCore is a 32-bit microprocessor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture announced in 2011.
Overview
It has two target applications; firstly as a smaller, simpler, and more power-efficient succes ...
, up to 1.3 GHz
*
Mali-400 MP2 GPU
* High performance dedicated 2D processor
* DDR3, DDR3L memory interface
* 1080p multi-format video decoding and 1080p video encoding for H.264
The RK3128 is a higher-end variant of RK3126, also to be introduced in Q4 2014, that features more integrated external interfaces, including CVBS, HDMI, Ethernet MAC, S/PDIF, Audio DAC, and USB. It targets more fully featured tablets and set-top boxes.
RK32xx series
Rockchip has announced the
RK3288 for production in the second quarter of 2014.
Recent information suggests that the chip uses a quad-core
ARM Cortex-A17
The ARM Cortex-A17 is a 32-bit processor core implementing the ARMv7-A architecture, licensed by ARM Holdings. Providing up to four cache-coherent cores, it serves as the successor to the Cortex-A9 and replaces the previous ARM Cortex-A12 spe ...
CPU, although technically ARM Cortex-A12,
which as of October 1, 2014, ARM has decided to also refer to as Cortex-A17 because the latest production version of Cortex-A12 performs at a similar performance level as Cortex-A17.
* 28 nm HKMG process.
* Quad-core
ARM Cortex-A17
The ARM Cortex-A17 is a 32-bit processor core implementing the ARMv7-A architecture, licensed by ARM Holdings. Providing up to four cache-coherent cores, it serves as the successor to the Cortex-A9 and replaces the previous ARM Cortex-A12 spe ...
, up to 1.8 GHz
* Quad-core ARM Mali-T760 MP4 (also incorrectly called Mali-T764) GPU clocked at 600 MHz
supporting
OpenGL ES
OpenGL for Embedded Systems (OpenGL ES or GLES) is a subset of the OpenGL computer graphics rendering application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D computer graphics such as those used by video games, typically hardware-accel ...
1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1,
OpenCL
OpenCL (Open Computing Language) is a framework for writing programs that execute across heterogeneous platforms consisting of central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), digital signal processors (DSPs), field-progra ...
1.1,
Renderscript
RenderScript is a component of the Android operating system for mobile devices that offers an API for acceleration that takes advantage of heterogeneous hardware. It allows developers to increase the performance of their applications at the cost ...
,
Direct3D
Direct3D is a graphics application programming interface (API) for Microsoft Windows. Part of DirectX, Direct3D is used to render three-dimensional graphics in applications where performance is important, such as games. Direct3D uses hardware a ...
11.1
* High performance dedicated 2D processor
* 1080P video encoding for H.264 and VP8,
MVC
MVC may refer to:
Science and technology
* Maximum-value composite procedure, an imaging procedure
* Multivariable calculus, a concept in mathematics
* Multivariable control, a concept in process engineering
* Mechanical vapor compression, a desal ...
* 4K H.264 and 10 bits
H.265
H is the eighth letter of the Latin alphabet.
H may also refer to:
Musical symbols
* H number, Harry Halbreich reference mechanism for music by Honegger and Martinů
* H, B (musical note)
* H, B major
People
* H. (noble) (died after 12 ...
video decode, 1080p multi-video decode
* Supports 4Kx2K H.265 resolution
* Dual-channel DDR3, DDR3L, LPDDR2, LPDDR3
* Up to 3840x2160 display output,
HDMI
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controller, ...
2.0
RK3288 controversy
Early reports including Rockchip first suggested in summer 2013 that the RK3288 was originally designed using a quad-core
ARM Cortex-A12
The ARM Cortex-A12 is a 32-bit processor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture. It provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores. The Cortex-A12 is a successor to the Cortex-A9.
ARM renamed A12 as a variant of Cortex-A ...
configuration. Rockchip's primary foundry partner
GlobalFoundries
GlobalFoundries Inc. (GF or GloFo) is a multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Malta, New York. Created by the divestiture of the manufacturing arm of AMD, th ...
announced a partnership with ARM to optimize the ARM Cortex-A12 for their 28 nm-SLP process. This is the same process used for earlier Rockchip chips such as the RK3188, and matches the choice of Cortex-A12 cores in the design of the RK3288.
In January 2014, official marketing materials listed the CPU cores as
ARM Cortex-A17
The ARM Cortex-A17 is a 32-bit processor core implementing the ARMv7-A architecture, licensed by ARM Holdings. Providing up to four cache-coherent cores, it serves as the successor to the Cortex-A9 and replaces the previous ARM Cortex-A12 spe ...
. At the CES electronics show in January 2014, someone apparently corrected the CPU specification as being
ARM Cortex-A12
The ARM Cortex-A12 is a 32-bit processor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture. It provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores. The Cortex-A12 is a successor to the Cortex-A9.
ARM renamed A12 as a variant of Cortex-A ...
instead of Cortex-A17 on one of the panels of their show booth.
However, since then, official specifications from Rockchip's website and marketing materials as well specifications used by device manufacturers have continued to describe the CPU as a quad-core
ARM Cortex-A17
The ARM Cortex-A17 is a 32-bit processor core implementing the ARMv7-A architecture, licensed by ARM Holdings. Providing up to four cache-coherent cores, it serves as the successor to the Cortex-A9 and replaces the previous ARM Cortex-A12 spe ...
.
Recent testing of early RK3288-based TV boxes (August/September 2014) provided evidence that the RK3288 technically contains Cortex-A12 cores, since the "''ARM 0xc0d''" CPU architecture reported by CPU-Z for Android is the reference for Cortex-A12, while the original Cortex-A17 is referred to as "''ARM 0xc0e''".
However, on the ARM community website, ARM clarified the situation on October 1, 2014, saying that Cortex-A12, for which Rockchip is one of the few known customers, will be called Cortex-A17 from now on, and that all references to Cortex-A12 have been removed from ARM's website.
ARM explained that the latest production revision of Cortex-A12 now performs close to the level of Cortex-A17 because the improvements of the Cortex-A17 now also have been applied to the latest version of Cortex-A12. In this way, Rockchip now gets the official blessing from ARM for listing the cores inside the RK3288 as Cortex-A17.
The first
Android TV
Android TV is a smart TV operating system based on Android (operating system), Android and developed by Google for television sets, digital media players, set-top boxes, and soundbars. A successor to Google TV (operating system), Google TV, it fe ...
stick based on RK3288 was launched in November 2014 ("ZERO Devices Z5C Thinko").
RK33xx series
Rockchip announced RK3368, the first member of the RK33xx family, at the CES show in January 2015. The RK3368 is a SoC targeting tablets and media boxes featuring a 64-bit octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU and an OpenGL ES 3.1-class GPU.
* 64bits Octa-Core Cortex-A53, up to 1.5 GHz
* High-performance
PowerVR SGX6110 GPU with support for OpenGL 3.1 and OpenGL ES 3.0
* 4Kx2K H.264/H.265 real-time video playback
* HDMI 2.0 with 4Kx2K @ 60 fps display output
The RK3399, also known as OP1
announced by ARM at Mobile World Congress in February 2016, features six 64 bit CPUs, including 2
Cortex-A72
The ARM Cortex-A72 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Austin, Texas, Austin design centre. The Cortex-A72 is a 3-way decode out-of-order execution, out-of-order superscalar pipeli ...
and 4 Cortex-A53. The RK3399 is used for the development of the open source Panfrost driver for ARM Mali GPU Midgard series.
Consumer devices include Asus Chromebook Flip C101PA-DB02, Asus Chromebook Tablet CT100, Samsung Chromebook Plus, and Pine64 Pinebook Pro.
SBCs include 96Boards RK1808, Boardcon EM3399, Firefly RK3399, Khadas Edge, Lenovo Leez LP710, NanoPi M4B, Rock Pi 4, Pine64 RockPro64, Orange Pi 4, and Zidoo M9.
SOMs include BeiQi RK3399Pro AIoT (Compatible 96boards), Boardcon PICO3399 SO-DIMM, and Geniatech SOM3399 RK3399 (Compatible 96boards).
The RK3399Pro is a version of the RK3399 that includes a 2.4 TOPS NPU.
SBCs include Rock Pi N10, Toybrick RK3399Pro, and VMARC RK3399Pro SoM Ficus2 Evaluation Board. SOM example is VMARC RK3399Pro SoM.
RK35xx series
The RK3566 is expected to be available in Q2 2020, with the following specifications:
* CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 @ 1.8 GHz
* GPU – Arm Mali-G52 2EE
* NPU – 0.5 TOPS with support for INT8/ INT16
* Multi-Media
** 8M ISP 2.0 with 3F HDR (Line-based/Frame-based/DCG)
** Support MIPI-CSI2,4-lane
** 1080p60 H.265, H.264 encoding
** 4K H.264/H.265/VP9 60fps video decoder
** DVP interface with BT.656/BT.1120
* Memory – 32-bit DDR3L/LPDDR3/DDR4/LPDDR4/LPDDR4X
* Storage – eMMC 4.51, NAND Flash, SFC NOR flash, SATA 3.0, SD card via SDIO
* Display
** Support Dual Display
** MIPI-DSI/RGB interface
** LVDS/eDP/DP
** HDMI 2.0
* Audio – 2x 8-ch I2S, 2x 2-ch I2S, PDM, TDM, SPDIF
* Networking – 2x RGMII interfaces (Gigabit Ethernet) with TSO (TCP segmentation offload ) network acceleration
* USB – USB 2.0 OTG and USB 2.0 host; USB3.0 HOST
* Other peripherals
** PCIe
** 3x SDIO 3.0 interface for Wi-Fi and SD card
** 6x I2C, 10x UART, 4x SPI, 8x PWM, 2xCAN interface
RK3566-based SBC example is Pine64 Quartz64.
RK3568-based SBC example is Firefly Station P2, and SOM example is Core-3568J AI Core Board.
The RK3588 succeeds the RK3399Pro as flagship SoC. It's expected to be available in Q3/Q4 2020.
* CPU – 4x Cortex-A76 and 4x Cortex-A55 cores in dynamIQ configuration
* GPU – Arm "Natt" GPU
* NPU 2.0 (Neural Processing Unit)
* Multimedia – 8K video decoding support, 4K encoding support
* Display – 4K video output, dual-display support
* Process – 8 nm LP
Open-source commitment
Rockchip provides open source software on GitHub
and maintains a wiki Linux SDK website.
To offer free downloads of SoC hardware documents and software development resources as well as third-party development kits info. The chipsets available are RK3399, RK3288, RK3328 and RK3036.
Markets and competition
In the market for SoCs for tablets, Rockchip faces competition with
Allwinner Technology
Allwinner Technology Co., Ltd is a fabless semiconductor company that designs mixed-signal systems on a chip (SoC). The company is headquartered in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China. It has a sales and technical support office in Shenzhen, Guangdong ...
,
MediaTek
MediaTek Inc. () is a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company that provides chips for wireless communications, high-definition television, handheld mobile devices like smartphones and tablet computers, navigation systems, consumer multimedia pr ...
,
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
,
Actions Semiconductor
Actions Semiconductor Co. Ltd. () is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company founded in 2000 and headquartered in Zhuhai, Guangdong province. The company has about 600 employees and designs SoCs for tablets, digital audio players, photo viewers ...
,
Spreadtrum
UNISOC (), formerly Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. (), is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Shanghai which produces chipsets for mobile phones. UNISOC develops its business in two major fields - consumer electronics and i ...
,
Leadcore Technology
Leadcore Technology is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company that provides system-on-chip solutions for smartphones and tablets, specializing in the TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE network standards used in China and in other countries.
According to Dig ...
,
Samsung Semiconductor
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, ac ...
,
Qualcomm
Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4 ...
,
Broadcom
Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...
,
VIA Technologies
VIA Technologies Inc. (), is a Taiwanese manufacturer of integrated circuits, mainly motherboard chipsets, CPUs, and memory. It was the world's largest independent manufacturer of motherboard chipsets. As a fabless semiconductor company, VIA c ...
and
Amlogic.
After establishing a position early in the developing Chinese tablet SoC market, in 2012 it faced a challenge by Allwinner.
In 2012, Rockchip shipped 10.5 million tablet processors, compared to 27.5 million for Allwinner.
However, for Q3 2013, Rockchip was forecast to ship 6 million tablet-use application processors in China, compared to 7 million for Allwinner who mainly shipped single-core products.
Rockchip was reported to be the number one supplier of tablet-use application processors in China in Q4 2013, Q1 2014 and Q2 2014.
Chinese SoC suppliers that do not have
cellular baseband technology are at a disadvantage compared to companies such as MediaTek that also supply the
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
market as white-box tablet makers increasingly add phone or cellular data functionality to their products.
Intel Corporation made investments into the tablet processor market, and was heavily subsidizing its entry into the low-cost tablet market as of 2014.
Cooperation with Intel
In May 2014,
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
announced an agreement with Rockchip to jointly deliver an Intel-branded mobile SoC platform based on Intel's
Atom
Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons.
Every solid, liquid, gas, and ...
processor and
3G modem technology.
Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will deliver an Intel-branded mobile SoC platform. The quad-core platform will be based on an Intel Atom processor core integrated with Intel's 3G modem technology, and is expected to be available in the first half of 2015.
Both Intel and Rockchip will sell the new part to OEMs and ODMs, primarily into each company's existing customer base.
As of October 2014, Rockchip was already offering Intel's XMM 6321, for low-end
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
s.
It has two chips: a dual-core application processor (either with Intel processor cores or ARM Cortex-A5 cores) with integrated modem (XG632) and an integrated RF chip (AG620) that originates from the cellular chip division of
Infineon Technologies
Infineon Technologies AG is a German semiconductor manufacturer founded in 1999, when the semiconductor operations of the former parent company Siemens AG were spun off. Infineon has about 50,280 employees and is one of the ten largest semicond ...
(which Intel acquired some time ago). The application processor may also originate from Infineon or Intel.
List of Rockchip SoCs
ARMv7-A processors
ARMv8-A processors
Tablet processors with integrated modem
See also
*
List of Rockchip products
This is a list of Rockchip products.
Products
Featured products RK3399
RK3399 was the flagship SoC of Rockchip, Dual A72 and Quad A53 and Mali-T860MP4 GPU, providing high computing and multi-media performance, rich interfaces and peripheral ...
*
List of Qualcomm Snapdragon processors
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
*
Samsung Exynos
Exynos, formerly Hummingbird (), is a series of ARM-based system-on-chips developed by Samsung Electronics' System LSI division and manufactured by Samsung Foundry. It is a continuation of Samsung's earlier S3C, S5L and S5P line of SoCs.
Exy ...
*
Rockchip RK3288
The Rockchip RK3288 is an ARM architecture System on Chip (SoC) from Rockchip. It is the first SoC, in August 2014, that uses the 32-bit ARM Cortex-A17 processor. It is a quad-core processor with a NEON coprocessor and hardware acceleration for vi ...
*
Chromebook
A Chromebook (sometimes stylized in lowercase as chromebook) is a laptop or tablet running the Linux-based ChromeOS as its operating system. Initially designed to heavily rely on web applications for tasks using the Google Chrome browser, Chromeb ...
*
List of applications of ARM cores
This is a list of products using Processor (computing), processors (i.e. central processing units) based on the ARM architecture family, sorted by generation release and name.
__TOC__
List of products
}
, Broadcom BCM2837: ''Raspberry Pi 3'',
Hi ...
*
ARM Cortex-A53
The ARM Cortex-A53 is one of the first two central processing units implementing the ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Cambridge design centre. The Cortex-A53 is a 2-wide decode superscalar processor, capable of dual-is ...
*
Allwinner Technology
Allwinner Technology Co., Ltd is a fabless semiconductor company that designs mixed-signal systems on a chip (SoC). The company is headquartered in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China. It has a sales and technical support office in Shenzhen, Guangdong ...
*
Amlogic
*
Actions Semiconductor
Actions Semiconductor Co. Ltd. () is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company founded in 2000 and headquartered in Zhuhai, Guangdong province. The company has about 600 employees and designs SoCs for tablets, digital audio players, photo viewers ...
*
Leadcore Technology
Leadcore Technology is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company that provides system-on-chip solutions for smartphones and tablets, specializing in the TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE network standards used in China and in other countries.
According to Dig ...
*
MediaTek
MediaTek Inc. () is a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company that provides chips for wireless communications, high-definition television, handheld mobile devices like smartphones and tablet computers, navigation systems, consumer multimedia pr ...
*
Nufront
Nufront Co., Ltd. is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company founded in 2004 that provides system-on-chip integrated circuits for tablets and smartphones.
Products
Processors
Other Chipsets
See also
* Allwinner Technology
* HiSil ...
*
Spreadtrum
UNISOC (), formerly Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. (), is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Shanghai which produces chipsets for mobile phones. UNISOC develops its business in two major fields - consumer electronics and i ...
References
External links
Rockchip Wiki Linux SDKGithub Rockchip-linux WebsiteRockchip Korea Company website Rockchip Korea Company website RK3288 SoC specification 22 February 2014
RK3368 SoC specification 19 April 2015
{{Electronics industry in China
Fabless semiconductor companies
Semiconductor companies of China
ARM architecture
Embedded microprocessors
System on a chip
Companies based in Fuzhou
Computer companies established in 2001
Privately held companies of China
Chinese brands
Microprocessors made in China
Chinese companies established in 2001
Electronics companies established in 2001