ODROID-C1

[Janos (retired)]

Just been released: ODROID-C1

Quad Core Linux computer is now $35.00.



* Amlogic ARM® Cortex®-A5(ARMv7) 1.5Ghz quad core CPUs
* Maliâ„¢-450 MP2 GPU (OpenGL ES 2.0/1.1 enabled for Linux and Android)
* 1Gbyte DDR3 SDRAM
* Gigabit Ethernet
* 40pin GPIOs
* eMMC4.5 HS200 Flash Storage slot / UHS-1 SDR50 MicroSD Card slot
* USB 2.0 Host x 4, USB OTG x 1,
* Infrared(IR) Receiver
* Ubuntu 14.04 or Android KitKat

[Alez]

Link is here http://hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php
Looks like they now have a store in Germany and USA so for us in Europe we should be able to buy without having to pay import duties from Korea.
Will have to look into it a bit more as I was just thinking time to buy a new toy or two.

[scole of TSBT]

How do you admin these when running android OS? Do they start a SSH service or do you have to connect a monitor and keyboard?

[Janos (retired)]

I only used a monitor and keyboard for first setup, static IP, etc. Then I used BOINC RPC to control tasks. Linux (for me) is easier and I have noticed it to be a bit more stable.

[Alez]

My only concern with them would be that unlike the u3 the c1 doesn't have a heatsink. Guess you could use raspberry pi stick on heatsinks. The eMMC almost costs the same as the c1.
Janos, how did you get on with the Parallela boards ?

[scole of TSBT]

There's a heatsink add-on accessory item for it...http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products ... 1637555371

Looks like the same heatsink as the U3. If so, maybe the U3 heatsink with fan will fit it?

[Janos (retired)]

Janos, how did you get on with the Parallela boards ?

They run well. BOINC projects have yet to fully support them though - just the arm cores for the moment. Very stable but they need active cooling (or a monster heatsink).

[Alez]

Think a u3 is better value than the c1 really for 24 / 7 crunching. How do the parallela boards compare to the u2's I and you have ?

[Silver]

Is the U3 is better value?
That was my initial thought too but it's only 200 MHz quicker but almost twice the cost of the C1.
I suppose you need to factor in the cost of heatsink for the C1 am I missing anything else?

[Alez]

Actually no, The U3 has double the memory but I didn't realise the heatsink for the C1 was only $3.90. I presumed it would be more. The eMMC required still doubles the cost though. Need to check if they can be bought far cheaper and then flash them from a single eMMC purchased.

[Janos (retired)]

This company in the UK are offering pre-orders: http://www.lilliputdirect.com/odroid-c1 ... e-computer

[Silver]

Scole, did you buy a C1 and if so how's it performing?
Care to share some stats with us.

[scole of TSBT]

I only bought a U3 which runs off an eMMC and have run mostly the WCG VINA app for the challenge. It averages 7.8 hours per WU. It has the heat sink with integrated fan, but the fan cycles a lot. Guess I need to overclock it?

I'm going to stick with the Android TV boxes. They perform better than the U3 and for $50-$60, you get a pre-loaded system with power adapter, etc ready to run. Of course, I will have to do the Frankstein cooling mod on them.

[Silver]

Thanks Scole, I obviously want paying attention when you said what you were adding to your list!
I might have to have a proper look at the tv boxes if they're that good.

[Alez]

Thanks Scole, I obviously want paying attention when you said what you were adding to your list!
I might have to have a proper look at the tv boxes if they're that good.

Put them in a toaster rack naked and they run for ever

[Dirk Broer]

Link is here http://hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php
Looks like they now have a store in Germany and USA so for us in Europe we should be able to buy without having to pay import duties from Korea.

They have a store in the UK too now :bom:

[Dirk Broer]

Now there's the ODROID-C1+:

It replaced the original C1 in July 2015. Compared to the C1 it has :

• Standard Type-A HDMI connector
• An included heat sink on board
• An I2S bus to support HiFi audio add-on boards
• CEC function that doesn't require the RTC backup battery
• A power path from USB OTG port as well as DC barrel connector
• Improved SD-card compatibility

Because of the above changes, the original cases and heat sinks are not compatible!

Price went up $2, to $37

[Alez]

I was thinking it might be time to add to the droid herd as a few of the original rk3188's are getting a bit long in the tooth. Without having to pay import taxes, these seem quite affordable and if they are as reliable as my other 4 ordroids then well worth considering.

[Dirk Broer]

Performance-wise the Odroid-C1/C1+ suffers form the fact that it is a Cortex-A5, which it tries to make up by sheer MHz.

According to their own -slightly juggled- performances figures (I un-juggled them for you):
Odroids compared

SBC	Raspberry Pi 2	ODROID-C1	ODROID-U3	ODROID-XU4
ARM family	Cortex-A7 Quad	Cortex-A5 Quad	Cortex-A9 Quad	Cortex-A15/Cortex-A7 Octo
Speed	900 MHz	1500 MHz	1700 MHz	2000 MHz(A15)/1400 MHz(A7)
Dhrystone MIPS	1006.6	1262.8	2300.7	3994.1
Double-Precision Whetstone MIPS	358.7	439.6	739.3	1024.5

I'd invest in XU4s, if I were you (double the price and triple the performance)......

[Silver]

m not going to buy any more C1, they may be cheaper than the other Odroids andI've never worked it out properly but I don't think the price per credit scaled down. I know they were around half the price of U3 but they didn't generate half the credit.
As Dirk suggests I'd look at the XU4, there is a thread further down about it.
If you can wait a week or two I should be able to give you some stats as a package may have arrived at my house yesterday.......

[Alez]

not in a rush. I thought the xu4's were BIG/little concept so for Boinc purposes it will only ever run the 4 main cores.

[Silver]

That's very true but not much you can do about it though, fingers crossed the numbers work out.

[Dirk Broer]

not in a rush. I thought the xu4's were BIG/little concept so for Boinc purposes it will only ever run the 4 main cores.

My team mate Chris has a Cubieboard4 with an Allwinner A80 SOC, also in big.LITTLE.
All eight cores work -Droid's name is 'Europa' (after a Jupiter moon)- , here he's running eight WUs enigma on it:

[Dirk Broer]

According to Hardkernel's own -slightly juggled- performances figures (I un-juggled them for you and added the values for the Pi3):

SBC	Raspberry Pi 2	Raspberry Pi 3	ODROID-C1	ODROID-U3	ODROID-XU4	ODROID-C2
ARM family	Cortex-A7 Quad	Cortex-A53 Quad	Cortex-A5 Quad	Cortex-A9 Quad	Cortex-A15 / Cortex-A7 Octo	Cortex-A53 Quad
Speed	900 MHz	1200 MHz	1500 MHz	1700 MHz	2000 MHz (A15) /1400 MHz (A7)	2000 MHz
Dhrystone DMIPS	1006.6	2458	1262.8	2300.7	3994.1	2623.9
Double-Precision Whetstone MWIPS	358.7	711	439.6	739.3	1024.5	1005.2

[scole of TSBT]

There's a used Odroid-XU4 for sale on Amazon for $80 US...hmmm...http://amzn.com/B0163GEA64

Will linux-ARM and android-ARM project apps run on the 64 bit Cortex-A53?

[Silver]

If you let me know which projects you mean I'll try them on mine and see if they run Dirk

[Dirk Broer]

A shining example of a 32-bit ARMv6 (original Rapberry Pi with ARM11 SOC) application that also runs on 32-bit ARMv7 (Raspberry Pi 2 with ARM-Cortex-A7) is Enigma@Home. Another I can think of is Seti@Home.
My guess is that it will run on the Raspberry Pi 3 too (64-bit ARMv8 archtecture/instruction set, running a ARM Cortex-A53).
I also guess that a re-compile of the ARM applications, optimizing them for ARMv8, will give better results for the Pi3.

[Dirk Broer]

Raspberry Pi 3 versus Hardkernel Odroid C2 (both quad-core ARM Cortex-A53):

]]

Feature	RasPi 3	Odroid C2
SOC	Broadcom BCM2837	Amlogic S905
Speed	1200 MHz	2000 MHz(rated)-1500 MHz(real)
Dhrystone DMIPS	2760 (theoretically) 2441 (Hackaday)	4600 (theoretically) 2624 (Hardkernel)
Double-Precision Whetstone MIPS	711.3	1005.2
GPU	VideoCore IV @300/400 MHz	Mali-450MP @700 MHz
RAM	1GB LPDDR2	2GB DDR3
LAN	10/100 Ethernet	Gigabit Ethernet
WiFi	802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz)	requires USB dongle
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.1 LE	requires USB dongle
eMMC	No	Yes

For the 3.14 version of the Raspberry Pi I'd like 2 GB RAM (better make it 4), a SATA port and an eMMC connector...
As both WiFi and Bluetooth are already onboard, I'd glady give up on two USB ports.
Given the fact that the RasPi3 runs at 60% of the speed of the Odroid C2, I am more impressed with the RasPi3 figures.
Who knows what water-cooling the Pi3 might bring in terms of overclocking performance....

[Dirk Broer]

The latest on Odroid C1+:
Remove the Jumper on J8, if you don't use the USB OTG port as a power input.
It will reduce the power consumption and heat significantly. My guess is that it's the black thing on the edge of the board:

Notice that the heat sink has grown to C2 proportions in this iteration

The latest on Odroid C2:
Remove the Jumper on J1, if you don't use the USB OTG port as a power input.
It will reduce the power consumption and heat significantly. My guess is that it's the black thing on the edge of the board here too (next to the HDMI connector).
On older editions of these boards those jumpers were nowhere to be seen....

Notice that Hardkernel has dropped the rating of the CPU from 2000MHz to 1500MHz. It seems to be kernel-related, higher settings are ignored. It also affects other AMLogic S9xx products...

[Dirk Broer]

I was given an Odroid-C1 (old model) for free, so I am going to test it against the worst performing ARM boards that I have active at the moment: the venerable Raspberry Pi 2 Model B.
I also got a Banana Pi M2 (original model with Allwinner A31s), and a -probably defect, according to the previous owner- Cubieboard4, unfortunately without PSU.
As the two other boards had PSUs that were slightly below specs I will order new 5V/2A PSUs for the Banana and the Odroid, and 5V/4A PSUs for my -by now two- Cubieboard4's.
The Cubieboard4 should be able to run against the Odroid-XU4 -in theory.

According to Hardkernel, the Odroid-C1 should be able to beat even the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, so we'll soon find out just how good their marketing department really is.
Either they have the goose with the golden eggs, or they sell a load of bull shit. They claim a 30% advantage for the Odroid-C1 over the Raspberry Pi 2 in a range of -manipulated to fit the same Y-ax- benchmarks
How do they do it? To gain a 30% advantage in benchmarks they tested a stock Raspberry Pi2@900MHz against a stock Odroid-C1@1500MHz, so the 30% performance was gained using a 66% higher clock. But these benchmarks and their differences between them have been presented in such a way that it sheds a benign light on the Odroid-C1, how will the two boards compare in BOINC?

For the time being I replaced the Odroid-C1's old, DIY 14x14mm heatsink with the 40x40mm heatsink with fan that came with my Odroid-XU4 -which means that the optional big passive heatsink of the XU4 -aka XU4Q for Quiet- will also fit. I had to take the XU4 fan out because it almost died, but it runs in the same housing with fan that the competing Pi 2 runs in, so the 40x40mm heatsink will get enough air.
If the test runs well I'll try to fit a 52Pi Ice Tower cooler on the Odroid-C1 and overclock it to its said maximum of 1824 MHz...

[Dirk Broer]

I've updated my two PI2's to the newest Raspbian Buster, and the results (BOINC MIPS-wise) are again astonishing:

New MIPS, please! -part two

Raspbian version	Linux kernel	BOINC version	Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone) per core	Integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per core
Jessie	3.6.11	7.4.23	364	1,292
Stretch	4.9.41	7.6.33	614	11,941
Buster	4.19.50	7.14.2	634	15,719

BOINC MIPS seem to be closely related to Bogo MIPS and presently go up like they're named Bitcoin MIPS...

Lets run it again for kernel 5.4.79, BOINC-Client for Raspberry Pi OS is still 7.14.2
Raspberry Pi 2 @1000 MHz
750 2/3/2021 9:08:32 PM Benchmark results:
751 2/3/2021 9:08:32 PM Number of CPUs: 4
752 2/3/2021 9:08:32 PM 712 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
753 2/3/2021 9:08:32 PM 17469 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU

Odroid-C1 @1500 MHz, kernel 3.10.107, BOINC-Client 7.16.6
82 2/3/2021 9:02:17 PM Benchmark results:
83 2/3/2021 9:02:17 PM Number of CPUs: 4
84 2/3/2021 9:02:17 PM 994 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
85 2/3/2021 9:02:17 PM 17562 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU

As the Odroid-C1's Amlogic S805 is clocked 50% higher than the Pi 2's Broadcom BCM2836 for the benchmarks above, it is no more than logical that the MIPS are higher too.
And it is not only the CPU that is clocked higher, the GPU of the C1 runs at 600 MHz, while the Pi 2's GPU has to do with 250 MHz.
The Odroid-C1 uses DDR3 RAM @792MHz, the Pi 2 LP-DDR2 RAM @400MHz
But as the Broadcom BCM2836 Cortex-A7 is the better chip when compared with the Amlogic S805 Cortex-A5, the difference is less than the clock speed would suggest.
The Odroid-C1's 994 floating point MIPS is nice, but if it scaled like the clock speed it should have been 1068. This is because the Cortex-A7 has a higher IPC value.
The Odroid-C1's 17,562 integer MIPS are nice too, but it should have been 26,203 to impress. The Cortex-A7's higher IPC (Instructions per Clock Cycle) strikes again.
Still, one has to bear in mind that at the time of its introduction the C1 stood against the Raspberry Pi Model B+, with its single-core Broadcom BCM2835 ARM11.

[Miklos M]

It looks like it would have no cooling issues.

[Dirk Broer]

It looks like it would have no cooling issues.

I know of three -visual- iterations of the Odroid-C1/C1+, one without(!) heatsink -the original, like the one I have-, one with a fair-sized aluminium heatsink -the first C1+, and one with a slightly bigger black heatsink, the present model.

The most incredible is the fact that the C1/C1+ can even be overclocked to 1800 MHz! I'll try that later....

[Dirk Broer]

Bad news for my Odroid-C1/C1+/C2 plans:

"We are sorry to announce the discontinuation of the ODROID-C1+ and the ODROID-C2 products that have been sold since 2014.

The C1+ and C2 single board computers have been adopted as control devices in the equipment of many B2B customers and have been used in various fields.
However, since Amlogic's old CPUs, S805 and S905, are no longer available, we inevitably post this news of the discontinuation of the C1+ and C2 boards as a regretful notice.

About 10,000 C1+ stocks are being secured and sold, and C2 is producing about 20,000 units, and it is likely to be available from February 17th.
According to the sales trend of the last 3 months, it seems that the quantity can supply about 4~6 months, but it may be consumed more quickly.
We tried to secure a larger quantity, but the problem of supplying semiconductors that struck around the world became more difficult for a small company like us.
This is the quantity that we have secured with our best efforts, so please understand.

When all of the above quantities are sold, the C1+ and C2 models are no longer available.
If possible, please consider positively adopting the new C4 or N2+ models. The new models are expected to have no supply problems in the next 3-4 years.
Thanks,"

So, should I invest in the Odroid-C4? To paraphrase Ludwig von Drake: "There are two answers to that question, and they are both NO"

1. The Odroid-C4 comes at the same price as the Odroid-XU4, but the performance is less.
2. The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 4 GB costs less and performs better.

Data per Hardkernel

MIPS left, Dollars right

[Dirk Broer]

News from the Odroid-C front: a new Odroid-C5 has been released!
Not more cores and more Watts/24h, but faster cores with less Watts!
To compare the family (click on it to make bigger):


The C5 even has an inline AI-SR (super resolution) NPU that helps with the video ouput...and did I mention the price?