• Maximum CPU clock of Quad-core Cortex-A73 is increased to 2.4Ghz from 1.8Ghz.
• Maximum CPU clock of Dual-core Cortex-A53 is increased to 2.0Ghz from 1.9Ghz.
• On-board RTC backup battery holder is mounted on the board.

N2 block diagram

CPU performance

Dhrystone-2, Double-Precision Whetstone, Sysbench and Memory bandwidth benchmark results show the N2+ system performance comes out

ahead of other popular ARM SBCs.

 

• The Mali-G52 runs at 800Mhz and is ~10% faster than Mali-T860MP4 in ODROID-N1.
• The Mali-G52 is the second Bifrost-based mainstream GPU from Arm.
• There are two Shader Processors in the GPU and each core has three Execution Engines. This is sometimes referred to as MP6.
• GPU performance was measured with glmark2-es2 “–off-screen” option.

GPU OpenCL performance 

 

Source : Tested by forum user hominoid

The GPU powered hash computing rate on N2 is over 30% faster than N1.

 

All three SBC ran Lyra2rev2 simultaneously on a shared network. Each platform’s sgminer was compiled with the latest ARM Compute Library v18.11.

 

 

Thermal characteristics 

To check the thermal throttling, we ran some heavy CPU and GPU loads together on the SoC and monitored temperature.

We ran the test within a chamber that keeps the ambient temperature at 35°C. So we believe the large stock passive heatsink is enough for very heavy computing loads.

cmd : stress-ng –cpu 6 –cpu-method matrixprod && glmark2-es2-fbdev –off-screen –run-forever

 

But you will meet a throttling phenomenon if you overclock the CPU frequency to 2.4Ghz and there is no cooling fan when your room temperature is higher than 30°C.

 

 

Gbit Ethernet

According to our iperf test result, the throughput performance was near 1Gbps.

SPI Flash memory boot

ODROID-N2 can boot from on-board SPI memory instead of uSD memory or eMMC cards.

The on-board SPI memory is 8MB in size and can include the bootstrap binaries, U-boot, bare minimum Linux kernel, and a ramdisk

that includes “Petitboot”. The “Petitboot” software provides a user friendly interface and allows users to select a boot media.

 

RTC

ODROID-N2 has an on-board RTC component, NXP PCF8563, interfaced to the I2C bus and can use a backup battery as an

alternative power source while the main power source is absent. Since the actually measured power consumption is less than 1uA,

the RTC can run for over 10 years with a CR2032 backup battery. Also, this will let your ODROID-N2 wake up at a certain time

once you set an alarm time and shutdown it.

Installing RTC backup battery : https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-n2/getting_started/equip_an_rtc_battery

 

Crypto Engine

The ARMv8 architecture supports hardware accelerated crypto extensions for building a secure system. As expected, we could see very decent openSSL

performance with ODROID-N2.

cmd: openssl speed sha256 (8KByte)

 

 

The N2 GPIO interface is similar to C2 and fully supports a 3.3Volt interface while N1 could only support 2.8Volt IO. This is beneficial for using

various peripherals without complicated level shifters.

Another big improvement is a faster SPI bus interface. Its maximum frequency is over 150Mhz, and we will try to implement a DMA driven SPI driver for faster LCD display.

 

Power consumption

• Idle state: 1.6~1.8 Watt
• Heavy load state: 5.9~6.2 Watt (stress-ng –cpu 6 –cpu-method matrixprod)
• No cables are attached except DC power input and USB-UART debug console cable.

 

Software support

 

Linux

• Ubuntu 20.04 LTS images are available with Kernel version 4.9.230 LTS as of today. This LTS kernel version will be officially supported until Jan, 2023.
• The Mali G52 GPU Linux driver works only on the framebuffer and Wayland. We tested the latest PPSSPP emulation and it can handle x3 scaling on a 4K

​display nicely with well implemented VSYNC.

• The fb-dev Mali driver supports OpenGL-ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.1 as well as OpenCL-1.2 and 2.0 at this moment. Note that you have to use the Minimal Ubuntu

OS image to utilize the GPUacceleration instead of the Ubuntu Mate image.

 

There is a Linux Wayland driver too. Ubuntu 20.04 Gnome desktop works with fully accelerated hardware GPU on a modern Kernel 5.7.

This trial upstream OS image is available on the forum.

 

Android

Android 9 Pie is ready, and you can access a source code BSP and pre-built image together. Note that GUI layer(SurfaceFlinger) resolution is limited at 2K while the video layer is true 4K.

The Android platform is based on a full 64bit system software with a Vulkan capable GPU driver.

 

 

SBC Specification

 

Form Factor

• Board Dimensions: 90mm x 90mm x 17mm
• Heatsink Dimensions: 100mm x 91mm x 18.75mm
• Weight: 200g including heatsink

 

Processor

• Amlogic S922X Processor (12nm fab)
• Quad-core Cortex-A73(up to 2.4Ghz) and Dual-core Cortex-A53 (up to 2Ghz)
• ARMv8-A architecture with Neon and Crypto extensions
• Mali-G52 GPU with 6 x Execution Engines (800Mhz)

Memory

• DDR4 4GiB or 2GiB with 32-bit bus width
• Data rate: 2640 MT/s (PC4-21333 grade)
• 1.2Volt low power design

Storage

• 1 x eMMC connector (8G, 16G, 32G and 64G are available)
• 1 x microSD slot (DS/HS modes up to UHS-I SDR104)

 

• 1 x GbE LAN ports (RJ45, supports 10/100/1000 Mbps)
• Realtek RTL8211F (Ethernet transceiver)
• LED indicators
• Green LED: Flashing by data traffics at 100Mbps connection
• Amber LED: Flashing by data traffics at 1000Mbps connection
• Optional WiFi USB adapters

Video

• 1 x HDMI 2.0 (up to 4K@60Hz with HDR, CEC, EDID)
• 1 x Composite video (3.5mm jack)

Audio

• 1 x Stereo Audio line-out (3.5mm jack)
• 1 x HDMI digital output
• 1 x Optional SPDIF optical output

External

• I/O 4 x USB 3.0 Host ports (shares one single root hub)
• 1 x USB 2.0 OTG port for Host or Device mode. (No power input)
• 1 x Debug serial console (UART)
• 1 x Peripheral Expansion Header (40-pin, 2.54mm pitch)
• 2 x DC 5V, 2 x DC 3.3V, 1 x DC 1.8V, 8 x GND
• 1 x SPI
• 1 x UART
• 2 x I2C
• 25 x GPIO (Max)
• 2 x ADC input (10bit, 1.8V Max)
•  All 3.3V I/O signal level except for ADC input at max 1.8Volt.

• On board RTC(Real Time Clock) IC to keep date and time. A CR2032 coin battery holder was replaced with the 2-pin 1.25mm pitch connector.
• No battery is included in the board.
• Please purchase the very common bare CR2032 cell from your local store.
• You can keep the RTC time up to several years with a 200mAh CR2032 battery.
• 8MiB SPI Flash for boot manager
• IR receiver for remote controller
• Built with a large passive heatsink
• System LEDS Indicators:
• – Red (PWR) – Solid light when DC power is connected
• – Blue (ALIVE) – Flashing like heartbeat while Kernel is running.
• Active Cooling Fan Connector (5V 2-pin)
• – Connector (2-pin, 1.25mm pitch)

• 1 x DC jack : outer (negative) diameter 5.5mm, inner(positive) diameter 2.1mm
• DC 7.5V ~ 18V (up to 25W)
• DC 12V/2A power adaptor is recommended
• Power consumption:
• IDLE : ≃ 2.2W (Performance governor)
• CPU Stress : ≃ 5.9W (@2016/2208MHz), 6.2W (@2016/2400MHz)
• Power-off : ≃ 0.2W

Note: 

The supplier of the product has no replacement and/or refund policy as part of their product warranty/guarantee. Furthermore, the repair cost and the cost of shipping to and fro from South Korea has to be borne. As Fab.to.Lab is merely an intermediary we extend the exact same warranty terms to all customers of Harkernel.

Please find more details here: Supplier warranty terms and conditions: https://www.hardkernel.com/agreement/