This afternoon, Rockchip held a new product launch conference in China, at which it jointly released a new generation of notebook processor RK3288-C with Google. At the same time, Chrome OS terminals that use Ruixin microchips and cooperate with ASUS, Haier, Hisense and other manufacturers were also released.
These six devices include the first 10 inch Chromebook that can be turned 360 ° - ASUS Chromebook Flip, and the first Chrome OS device in the form of a TV stick, Chromebit.
RK3288-C: Chrome OS customized processor
These new Chrome OS devices above are equipped with RK3288-C processor. The "C" in the name represents Chrome OS, which is more like a targeted optimization version of RK3288 in essence. The RK3288-C is a 28nm process quad core A17 architecture with a maximum frequency of 1.8GHz and a Mali-T760 MP4 GPU.
A17 is the architecture with high performance in the active ARM camp (under A57, the performance is close to A15 and). Among the official PPT performance, the RK3288-C with 1.8GHz dominant frequency runs 1500 and 12.1 respectively in the Peacekeeper and Robohornet tests for web browsing speed, which is 25% and 30% higher than similar products, with significant growth. As a "side effect", the startup speed of the new Chromebook has been reduced to 8 seconds.
The GPU image performance of the RK3288-C is relatively stronger than that of the CPU at the upper middle level. The Mali-T760 MP4 it carries is the third-generation MIDgard architecture with the strongest ARM in service (the 6-core T760 MP6 on Samsung Exynos5433).
The Chromebook equipped with RK3288-C is 25% ahead of the previous Chromebook in the WebGL FishTank test.
As a pioneer manufacturer of MP4 chips, Ruixin Micro has also added special support for video decoding in RK3288-C. Its VP8 H.264 hard decoding chip is the only H.264 hard decoding solution for the time being. Its direct effect is that when browsing video websites such as Youku, Tencent Video and YouTube, it can provide a better online video experience with lower power consumption.
In terms of power consumption, the RK3288-C processor adopts multiple power management and optimization technologies such as DDR frequency conversion, which can reduce the power consumption of multi task operation by 10%~15%, and the overall power consumption is 2.9 W/h. Not only is the power consumption 45% lower than that of the original Chromebook CPU scheme (about 4.8 W/h), but also this power consumption is close to that of many mobile phones, even better than the stove 810.
In addition to the improvement in performance and endurance, the RK3288-C is a highly integrated SoC. The number of circuit board components is 35% less than the original product, which can save up to 20% of the circuit board area, allowing the machine to be lighter and thinner.
Air sea tactics, gather new products
After the release of the processor, six devices equipped with RK3288-C were released successively. The first one to appear was ASUS Chromebook Flip, which was the first 10 inch Chromebook that could be 360 ° flipped. Naturally, the biggest feature was the flippable keyboard similar to YOGA. In addition, thanks to the new CPU, its battery life has increased to 13 hours at a time.
At the same time, ASUS also launched the more conventional Chromebook C201.
Then there is the Chromebit in the form of a TV stick. The size of the machine is about the same as that of the Chromecast, which is only used to project the screen. When it is equipped with full-size Chrome OS, you can use the display or TV and other screens directly as Chrome OS devices through the HDMI interface (of course, you must connect external Bluetooth keys and mice).
Then came the Chromebook C11 of Hisense, a TV/mobile phone manufacturer.
Haier's Chromebook 11 and 11E are the first of six devices to go on sale. The machine is equipped with RK3288-C, 2GB DDR3 memory and 16GB eMMC flash memory, and has a 10 hour endurance.
The Chromebook 11E (E stands for education version) is aimed at the education market. In order to meet the "lively demand" of students, the machine adopts a special design to improve the firmness of the body. In addition to a water spill proof keyboard and a removable battery, it also adds a hand-held handle.
summary
Because domestic chips have never been commercially used in the PC field, there is also the so-called "domestic coreless theory" in the PC field, but there are not many chip manufacturers in China. Apart from Huawei and MTK, Ruixin Micro, Jingchen and Juli are the largest three.
The latter three first made their fortunes in the MP4 era, and then the emergence of Android and tablet computers allowed them to develop rapidly. But their high-end chips have been used only on Android tablets before, and the RK3288-C should be the first domestic chip to enter the PC field (if Chromebook is counted as a PC).
However, because Google has long since withdrawn from the mainland, even if the machine is returned from overseas, Chrome OS has to climb the wall before it can be used, so the new chromebooks and their new chips have little to do with ordinary consumers in mainland China. The bad news is that although RK3288-C has been adapted to Android 5.0, Chrome Os need Google's authorization, and they will be locked on the bootloader, so it is impossible to buy them back to use Android
