Pine64

The Pine64 is a cost-optimized board sporting ARMv8 (64-bit ARM) capable cores.

= Identification = There is a pine cone like logo next to the uSD slot, also it says "Pine64" under the logo. Also on the SoC there is a quite prominent "A64" print.

On the back of the device, the following is printed: Designed in Silicon Valley, California. Built in Silicon Delta, China.

The PCB has the following silkscreened on it: A64-DB-Rev B 2015-12-17

In android, under Settings->About Tablet, you will find:
 * Model Number: Pine A64
 * Build Number: tulip_t1-eng 5.1.1 LVY4BE 20151210 test-keys

Different models
So far there are three different models:
 * The Pine64 with 512MB DRAM
 * The Pine64+ with 1GB DRAM
 * The Pine64+ with 2GB DRAM

The last two seem to be identical apart from the installed DRAM size. Differences between the Pine64 and the Pine64+ are:
 * The Pine64 only supports Fast Ethernet. So the PHY chip will be a Realtek 8201 instead of the 8211 on the bigger model. The 8211 speaks RGMII, while the 8201 is using the MII interface. This requires differences in the DT.
 * The smaller model will lack the connectors for the touchscreen, LCD screen and the camera port.

= Sunxi support =

Current status
There are Linux images using an updated and enhanced version of Allwinner's BSP kernel, that work reasonably well and provide a graphical GUI along with support for most features of the board.

Upstream kernel support is work in progress, so far there is a "close-to-mainline" branch (based on 4.7-rc1) which supports UART, MMC (uSD card), GPIO, I2C and Ethernet (missing USB and any kind of graphics or sound support). Out-of-the-box arm64 distributions boot reasonably well with this kernel.

This firmware log and 4.4-rc kernel dmesg provides some information about the system.

Images
End Users: Here are links to current images that are community supported:
 * Ubuntu by Longsleep (from Pine64.pro)
 * Arch Linux image (not supported anymore)
 * Debian Mate (from Pine64.pro)
 * Debian XFCE (from Pine64.pro)

(You should also cross-check the Wiki page that's linked under Manufacturer Images.)

Developers: Get apritzel's github basic image first. For instructions see the README.md in there for now.

longsleep has also built a minimal Ubuntu image combined with the the BSP Kernel that can be downloaded here. You will find instructions here on how to set it up.

This image is intended for developers and comes with the following:


 * BSP Linux Kernel 3.10.65+
 * BSP U-Boot
 * Ubuntu Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) aarch64
 * HDMI at 1080P
 * HDMI analog audio (alsa, pulseaudio)
 * Ethernet (including 1000M)
 * USB
 * Wifi

BSP
Allwinner's BSP contains an arm64 Linux kernel based on Linaro's LSK-3.10.65 (includes Linaro and Android patches). It has traces (commented or not-configured code parts) of nasty experiments (like entering the kernel in AArch64 EL3 or running in secure EL1). This released/leaked code does not exactly match what's on the provided Android images. The BSP kernel is entered in non-secure El1, thus denying any kind of virtualization (like KVM).

Manual build
You can build things for yourself by following our Manual build howto and by choosing from the configurations available below.

Sunxi/Legacy U-Boot
The Allwinner provided BSP package contains U-Boot source code, which contains a 32-bit port based on the 2014.07 release. The code as in the tarball does not even compile, also the whole port is severely crippled, just enough to boot an Android system from MMC. Limitations include: missing booti support (no direct kernel image load, only Android kernel images can be used), no network support, only loading data from Android partitions (no filesystem support), completely non-standard DT bindings, no support for easy FDT loading, etc. For the complete rant see the Wiki history ;-)

However the existing code base was fixed and extended by longsleep to allow loading kernels directly (using booti and proper FDT support) and adding filesystem support, thus overcoming the most severe limitations. The most current code base can be found here.

At the moment this U-Boot version is required to boot BSP kernels.

Mainline U-Boot
Basic support has been merged in 2016.05-rc1. It supports serial console and MMC (µSD card), but no Ethernet or USB yet. The  command is supported to load Linux arm64 kernel images, also   is available to launch Aarch64 EFI applications (like grub2).

The port is a 64-bit version, so the Allwinner provided boot0/ATF pair will not boot this without further changes/patches. Also SPL support is still missing, because: There are possible solutions for both problems (especially the last one) and they should be available over time. This will eventually enable SPL support.
 * 1) we are missing the required magic DRAM initialization bit to replace boot0's DRAM init code
 * 2) the SPL must run (or at least start) in AArch32 mode, since this is the state in which the boot ROM hands over execution.

To compile it, check out the latest U-Boot tree and use: $ export CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- $ make pine64_plus_defconfig $ make You will want to use the resulting u-boot-dtb.bin file.

You may want to use these additional fixes on top.

Mainline kernel
Mainline kernel support is work in progress. For a first experience, grab a firmware image and flash it to a micro-SD card: (replacing sdx with the device name of your micro-SD card).
 * 1) zcat pine64_firmware-20160601.img.xz | dd of=/dev/sdx bs=1M

This image contains Allwinner's boot0 (for initializing the DRAM), an ARM Trusted Firmware version (for 64-bit initialization, PSCI support and basic PMIC setup) and an upstream U-Boot, plus the device trees for both board variants.

Then get the latest "close-to-mainline" kernel tree and build it (in an existing kernel tree): $ git remote add a64 https://github.com/apritzel/linux.git $ git fetch a64 $ git checkout -b a64-v5 a64/a64-v5 $ export CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- $ ARCH=arm64 make clean defconfig $ ARCH=arm64 make -j4 Image

Copy the built kernel image (from arch/arm64/boot/Image) to the first FAT partition of the micro-SD card. Then put this SD card into the Pine64 board, connect a serial console to either the Euler connector or the EXP headers and power the board. You will see the kernel being loaded and booted, but finally fail due to the missing root file system. By creating a logical partition (sdx5) on that micro-SD card and populating it with an off-the-shelf arm64 root file system you should be able to log in and explore the system.

= Tips, Tricks, Caveats =

Boot sequence
The A64 SoC is wired to come out of reset in 32-bit monitor mode. As other Allwinner devices, the A64 SoC starts executing BROM code (mapped at address 0), which is consequently ARM32 code. The complete BROM code can be found at address 0x2c00 and has a total length of 32KB. To enter FEL mode, power on the board without a SD card inserted. If the code does not detect a FEL condition, it will load 32KB from sector 16 (8 KByte) of the microSD card to SRAM and will execute this. At least the first instructions of this code need to be still 32-bit ARM code.

The Allwinner firmware continues in 32-bit, loading U-Boot (32-bit also) from the microSD card at sector 38192 (19.096 KByte). It also loads a (hacked) version of ARM Trusted Firmware (ATF) into DRAM and code for the arisc management core into SRAM. Finally it does a RMR write to warm-reset the SoC in AArch64 execution state and jumps to the ATF entry point by putting its address in the RVBAR register. ATF will then initialize the boot core for non-secure execution and drop to non-secure AArch32 EL1 to run U-Boot.

U-Boot then runs happily in 32-bit. Only just before it starts the kernel, it uses a custom smc service call back into (Allwinner's version of) ARM Trusted Firmware to hand over the kernel entry point. The ATF code will then return into _AArch64_ non-secure EL1, but using the provided kernel entry point instead of returning to U-Boot.

FEL mode
The Pine64 board will fail over to FEL mode if it doesn't detect a card present in the µSD slot.

The actual USB OTG controller in the SoC is connected to the upper USB host receptacle. So it needs a somewhat special USB cable (A male to A male) or an adapter (A male to Mini/Micro B female) to connect your Pine64 board to your desktop PC, which is running the sunxi-fel tool.

As soon as you boot your Pine64 into FEL mode (remember, don't insert a SD card) you should find a new USB device:

$ lsusb Bus 001 Device 005: ID 1f3a:efe8

$ ./sunxi-fel version AWUSBFEX soc=00001689(A64) 00000001 ver=0001 44 08 scratchpad=00017e00 00000000 00000000

SPI NOR Flash
It should be possible to have an extra hardware accessory, pluggable into the Raspberry Pi compatible expansion header to add a small SPI NOR Flash on SPI0 pins. It can store a bootable firmware and provide all the fashionable "industry standards" compatibility for running AArch64 server grade Linux distributions (not exactly now, but maybe some time in the future). The Bootable SPI flash page provides additional details.

Expansion headers
Documentation about the pin assignments and more specifications (like the physical dimensions of the board) can be found in the Hardware section of the official Pine64 Wiki.

AXP803 PMIC
Some of the default reset voltages after cold boot are not exactly matching the board specification. For example, the voltage on the Euler connector's "3.3V" pin is in fact 3.0V (DCDC1) until Allwinner's bootloader configures the PMIC. In the current "upstream" firmware stack ARM Trusted Firmware sets up the PMIC and programs DCDC1 to the specified 3.3V. It also enables DC1SW to power the Ethernet PHY.

The DRAM voltage is provided from DCDC5, which can be set to 1.5V by default according to the AXP803 manual. Moreover, the AXP803 manual is explicitly recommending to use DCDC5 specifically for DRAM. This is safe even with 1.35V DDR3L chips, because they are compatible with 1.5V too. However the default reset voltage appears to be in fact set to 1.24V at least in the pre-production batch of Pine64 boards, because the DCDC5SET pin is left floating there.

DC5V/BAT POWER jumper


On the 1GB and 2GB Pine64+ variants a DC5V/BAT POWER switch can be used to choose between the 2 USB ports being powered through PMIC (limiting maximum current on the USB ports to 650mA and supporting power when running on battery due to step-up converters transforming the battery's 3.7V to 5V) or directly from DC-IN. This should allow to power USB disks or other high current consumers without a powered USB hub in between.

Please be aware that when using the jumper in DC5V position higher current is possible on the USB ports and while this might allow to directly power USB disks (peak consumption of up to 1A at spin-up) think about that only in BAT mode USB ports are powered when Pine64+ is running on battery. Please think also about powering the board through Euler pins 4/6 instead of the standard Micro USB jack since in DC5V mode USB consumers might add significantly to undervolting problems (Micro USB is rated for 1.8A max anyway and due to tiny contacts and cable wires you suffer from both high cable and contact resistance ending up with severe voltage drops falling way below the allowed minimal 4.7V allowed by USB specs when using the Micro USB jack to power the board)

Gigabit PHY issue
A couple of Pine64+ (both 1GB and 2GB variants) is affected by Gigabit Ethernet problems. In GbE mode transfer speeds are low, many retransmits happen and packets get lost. In the meantime it's confirmed that this is a hardware issue. If you're affected you can try to force Pine64+ in Fast Ethernet mode (using ethtool -s eth0 speed 100 duplex full or an Ethernet cable with just 2 cable pairs) but it's unlikely that other software fixes cure the problem. Please refer to the aforementioned thread how/whether Pine64 comes up with a solution.

CPU clock speed limit
The voltage-frequency table for Allwinner A64 can be found in FEX files included in the A64 SDK: Based on the data from this table, 1152MHz @1.3V is the fastest cpufreq operating point. Additionally, the AXP803 PMIC uses 1.1V default voltage for DCDC2/DCDC3 (VDD-CPU). Which means that the the CPU can be safely clocked up to 816MHz before the PMIC is initialized.
 * dvfs voltage-frequency table configuration
 * max_freq: cpu maximum frequency, based on Hz
 * min_freq: cpu minimum frequency, based on Hz
 * lv_count: count of lv_freq/lv_volt, must be < 16
 * lv1: core vdd is 1.30v if cpu frequency is (1104Mhz, 1152Mhz]
 * lv2: core vdd is 1.26v if cpu frequency is (1008Mhz, 1104Mhz]
 * lv3: core vdd is 1.20v if cpu frequency is (816Mhz, 1008Mhz]
 * lv4: core vdd is 1.10v if cpu frequency is (648Mhz,  816Mhz]
 * lv5: core vdd is 1.04v if cpu frequency is (480Mhz,  648Mhz]
 * lv6: core vdd is 1.04v if cpu frequency is (480Mhz,  648Mhz]
 * lv7: core vdd is 1.04v if cpu frequency is (480Mhz,  648Mhz]
 * lv8: core vdd is 1.04v if cpu frequency is (480Mhz,  648Mhz]
 * lv6: core vdd is 1.04v if cpu frequency is (480Mhz,  648Mhz]
 * lv7: core vdd is 1.04v if cpu frequency is (480Mhz,  648Mhz]
 * lv8: core vdd is 1.04v if cpu frequency is (480Mhz,  648Mhz]

USB controllers and ports
The A64 SoC includes two USB 2.0 EHCI/OHCI host controllers. The first host controller (HCI0) is connected to a PHY switch, which can be toggled between driving a normal USB PHY (connected to the lower USB receptable on the board) and HSIC pins on the SoC, which allow connecting on-board USB peripherals (often a hub), though this is not used on the board.

The second host controller (USB-OTG-HCI) shares a USB PHY with the (separate!) OTG controller and is connected to the upper receptable on the Pine64 board. So this socket can either be driven by a normal host controller interface or by the OTG controller - which provides a host mode as well, though apparently not without issues.

= Serial port / UART =



The board connects 4 of the SoCs UART to easily accessible header pins. There is UART2 on the RPi connector, also UART3 and UART4 on the Euler connector. UART0 is the main UART used by Allwinner's firmware for boot and debug messages and is accessible on pins 29 (TXD), 30 (RXD), 25/34 (GND) on the Euler connector (this is not mentioned in the official connector description). Alternatively you can use the UART0 on the EXP connector, accessible on pins 7 (TXD), 8 (RXD), 9 (GND). The RX pin on there is connected via a FET to the SoC's pin, so it prevents injecting power via this line.

Using screen to connect to the UART0 for example on OS X:

$ sudo screen /dev/cu.usbserial 115200

All of the UARTs use 3.3V voltage levels. Look at UART howto for further instructions.

A connected UART cable is leaking power and this causes some annoyances. For example, unplugging and plugging back a power cable does not reboot the board cleanly. Thus ensuring the availability of a reset button is recommended for doing any reasonable software development.

The board does not have a hardware reset button out of the box, but a button can be easily connected to the appropriate pin on the expansion connector. Also a standard micro switch (upright version) can be soldered on the board next to the USB sockets to ease early development ;-)

= Pictures =

Pine64 (512 MB)
= See also = wiki.pine64.org Further info on the hardware and firmware

forum.pine64.org Discussion on pine64

Manufacturer images
Pine A64 Android release and Linux BSP