What is the best way to identify hardware?

[STLJ]

So that's my question, the board build seems to be the easy one.
The processor on the other hand is a nightmare mainly from the urban rebranding.

Amlogic AML8726-M and M1 I think are the same (single core 800)

Amlogic AML8726-M3 is a step above (single core 1000)

Amlogic AML8726-M6 and MX I think are the same (dual core)

Now the Arm A9 cortex comes in two flavors MPcore and none

Just how many flavors are there?

Stane1983 have you any luck with Linux on the C03ref board?

STLJ

 

[stane1983]

So that's my question, the board build seems to be the easy one.
The processor on the other hand is a nightmare mainly from the urban rebranding.

Amlogic AML8726-M and M1 I think are the same (single core 800)

Amlogic AML8726-M3 is a step above (single core 1000)

Amlogic AML8726-M6 and MX I think are the same (dual core)

Now the Arm A9 cortex comes in two flavors MPcore and none

Just how many flavors are there?

Stane1983 have you any luck with Linux on the C03ref board?

STLJ

Hi,

yes, but nothing published yet. Linux XBMC runs ok on m1 devices (c03ref).

About your question, I believe you're asking how to recognize M8 chipset (Amlogic quad core) which comes in M/S801 and M/S802. I don't have any real hardware yet so I can answer only by looking at sources and specifications I have.

M8 reference boards are starting with K100 (K100, K101, K200, K201...). Main difference in M801 and M802 chip is that M801 does not support 4K resolution on HW level.

Looking at kernel info will not give you much informations because if board is not customized, it will report it as something similar as MesonX platform (where X is 6 for MX board and 8 for M8).

Also, rooting Amlogic M8 (for now, android 4.3 and KitKat) is possible with SuperSU solution because its the only one solution which works on SELinux kernel.

 

[STLJ]

Stane1983 I would be happy to test/try out any Linux your willing to share.

I think you over answered my question, I am trying to figure out how many variants of the AML8726-M are manufactured and how to identify them both by its factory designation and urban designation. Best to do this with software or do we have to read the numbers on the chips, some would require removal of the glued on heat sink.

I am more interested in the c03ref board and I think they only had the M, M1 (same chip) and M3 put on these boards.

The m1ref is the same board if I read correctly and OS 2.3 and higher reliable it to c03ref.

looking forward to your thoughts

STLJ

 

[stane1983]

Stane1983 I would be happy to test/try out any Linux your willing to share.

I think you over answered my question, I am trying to figure out how many variants of the AML8726-M are manufactured and how to identify them both by its factory designation and urban designation. Best to do this with software or do we have to read the numbers on the chips, some would require removal of the glued on heat sink.

I am more interested in the c03ref board and I think they only had the M, M1 (same chip) and M3 put on these boards.

The m1ref is the same board if I read correctly and OS 2.3 and higher reliable it to c03ref.

looking forward to your thoughts

STLJ

Hi,

I don't know how many reference boards are there. Reference designs (boards) are boards provided by Amlogic to clients. Based on these reference boards and schematics are manufacturer products like Visson or Geniatech one's.

This kind of work is not good because boardname is eg c03ref, but it does not have anything in common (except Amlogic chipset) with original c03ref. It's gpio-s are different, bootloader might be stored on SPI chip that officially is not supported by U-Boot but manually added to it (JEDEC definition) so using reference board name for flashing firmware could easily lead to bricking device if firmware is not from manufacturer.

There are MID (tablet), MBX (STB) and TV (Amlogic provides their own platform for TVs).

Some most common reference boards:

AML8726M1:
m1ref (or similar)
c03ref - pretty much the same as m1ref, m1ref used in Android earlier than 2.3.4

AML8726M3:
f16ref - most commonly used MBX reference design, but vary from manufacturer to manufacturer of its implementation
f16ref_dongle - dongle version of f16ref, most common difference from software side is that bootloader is placed on NAND instead of separate SPI chip, that uses also some f16ref boards on market

AML8726MX/MXS:
g02ref - earliest MBX reference design, in most cases later converted to g18ref, it's device tree in android is not maintained anymore afaik
g18ref - most common MX boards, comes in wide range of products, similar notes as for f16ref, some boards (same ones) migrated from g02ref to g18ref (like Zoomtak M6)
g24ref - tablet reference design
g34ref - tablet reference design (MXS chipset)
hXXref - TV reference design afaik

AML8726M8:
kXXX - don't know much about it yet, both MBX and MID designs here (k100, k101, k200, k201, k202....)

Amlogic M1 platform never officially supported ICS, it is Gingerbread platform (latest source 2.3.4, EOL 2012-04-27)

Amlogic M3 platform uses ICS and upgraded kernel 2.6.34 (not compatible with M1 chipset), latest sources are ICS 4.0.4, EOL 2013-07-01

Amlogic MX is still supported by Amlogic, it is included in M8 source tree, which means that manufacturers are able to migrate to KitKat and kernel 3.10+ which I doubt its gonna happen.

About c03ref linux xbmc, I'll see what I can do for you, have to dig trough archive

Cheers