So I see lots of comments re how bad the A64 and H5 SBCs are.  Is anyone having good luck with any ARMv8 system?

 

I will note that I had decent stability using the Odroid C2 with Hardkernel's own images, which run 64-bit mode.  But maybe something better has emerged?

 

What do you mean by "better"? And "better" for what use cases? And why exactly ARMv8/64bit?

Let's speculate that bad support for A64 is because it was introduced by a board maker(s), which does not understand this business. They know how to generate sales, but they completely fail to establish rapport with community, which is essential for such projects. Support is terrible and they expect that everything is done by community without any input except a bunch of free boards. On the other hand Hardkernel try ... harder   My first impression with Pine64 was - yet another cash collecting scheme, while for Hardkernel I can have neutral feelings at worst.

• inexperienced vs experienced?
• raising popularity of Amlogic?
• right place at right time?

None of above?

I'm interested in 64 bit mode mostly because it seems to provide performance benefits.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/4

 

http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/03/01/64-bit-arm-aarch64-instructions-boost-performance-by-15-to-30-compared-to-32-bit-arm-aarch32-instructions/

 

Sure, Cortex A9 and A15 provide even better performance, but the low-cost SBCs have A7s and A53s.

I'm interested in 64 bit mode mostly because it seems to provide performance benefits.

 

If you rule out cryptographic instructions that comparison become more realistic. Is gain big enough to bother?

while for Hardkernel I can have neutral feelings at worst.

• inexperienced vs experienced?
• raising popularity of Amlogic?
• right place at right time?

None of above?

 

I am not 100% sure how to interpret that: "I can have neutral feelings at worst."

I guess you mean you have neutral or even a good feeling about Hardkernel ?

I guess you mean you have neutral or even a good feeling about Hardkernel ?

 

Yes, we could rephrase it this way. 

Well, I wouldn't just rule out crypto, you need crypto to secure your IoT mesh network... but sure, it's a minor contributor to CPU burden.

...so, no one can think of a native 64-bit under-$50 (USD) SBC as good as Odroid-C2?

 

(...runs for weeks w/o crashing, decent support for interfaces, etc)

Hardware cryptographic accelerator support already exists: http://sunxi.montjoie.ovh It's something unrelated to "64bit"

 

Check this too.

 

...so, no one can think of a native 64-bit under-$50 (USD) SBC as good as Odroid-C2?

A64, even it's poorly supported ATM is more or less only 64bit alternative under those conditions.

...so, no one can think of a native 64-bit under-$50 (USD) SBC as good as Odroid-C2?

 

(...runs for weeks w/o crashing, decent support for interfaces, etc)

I love the C2.  Too bad its SOC lacks the aes crypto extensions.  It is currently my favorite modern little board.

 

I probably wouldn't bother with 64 bit ARM in a production project unless I needed enhanced crypto, but it looks to me like that architecture is going to get more of the good stuff going forward.

I love the C2.  Too bad its SOC lacks the aes crypto extensions.  It is currently my favorite modern little board.

 

I probably wouldn't bother with 64 bit ARM in a production project unless I needed enhanced crypto, but it looks to me like that architecture is going to get more of the good stuff going forward.

As you can see in the S905 datasheet, the SoC has the cryptographic engine with AES support, but there is no kernel support for it yet.

There's an unused Pine A64+ board for sale on eBay right now (Jan 16, 2017) - it's located in the US and price is $28 (I don't know what shipping would be; for Denmark shipping is too much [$17.30] ).