Lenovator offers a HiKey 960 board with 4GB RAM, instead of 3GB.
Will this in anyway conflict with Google supporting it as a Android reference board ?
Hi @Dokter_Bibber,
From the point of view of software, I don’t think the DDR size can impact the Android running, especially when the memory size is enlarged.
I have no 4GB DDR size board so cannot confirm the 4GB board can boot up with existed booting images, so rather than the software issue, I am not sure if the booting images can dynamically adjust the DDR timing setting for 4GB part. But sometimes we are lucky to use the exactly same setting for different DDR parts.
Please aware one thing is: if you are using ARM-TF/UEFI, even the hardware has 4GB RAM, but it’s possible to still only use 3GB RAM, this is caused by hardcoded in UEFI and UEFI finally pass parameters to kernel side: https://github.com/96boards-hikey/OpenPlatformPkg/blob/testing/hikey960_v1.3.4/Platforms/Hisilicon/HiKey960/HiKey960.dsc#L293
Hi @leo-yan,
..... not sure if the booting images can dynamically adjust the DDR timing setting for 4GB part. .....This kind of stuff is what I'm afraid of that will cause it to be considered non-reference. It can cause all kinds of extra research and debugging. I'm trying to avoid compiling AOSP myself. But would compiling AOSP myself negate these issues ? Or will I have the same research and debugging issues ? (I realise that no one can say for sure.)
..... even the hardware has 4GB RAM, but it's possible to still only use 3GB RAM, .....This I can live with. ;)
I am afraid we cannot build for DDR related code, this part I don’t know well, but from my understanding the DDR initialization should be included in either the sec_xloader.img [1] or MCU firmware [2]. These two images both are prebuilt images.
[1] https://github.com/96boards-hikey/tools-images-hikey960/blob/master/sec_xloader.img
[2] https://github.com/96boards-hikey/tools-images-hikey960/blob/master/lpm3.img
Of course. I understand.
To avoid all these potential issues I’m going to look, elsewhere, for a HiKey 960 with 3GB.
Thanks for your help. Appreciated!
So, Have you found a way to get all 4GB runing on Debian?
I can’t speak for running Debian, but we have a custom AOSP build working just fine on both the 3GB and 4GB boards without modification.
Hey guys,
One new patch has been merged into UEFI for Hikey960, with this patch I verified it can support 4GB DDR RAM on my Hikey960 board: https://github.com/96boards-hikey/OpenPlatformPkg/commit/a43622af2f0adf1107225430478141f378217187
Suggest you could monitor the latest UEFI building images for new building so can support 4GB hikey960 board: https://snapshots.linaro.org/96boards//reference-platform/components/uefi-staging/latest/hikey960/release/
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Alas I already went for a 3GB version.
But I appreciate your effort. It shows the good service you get when buying a HiKey board.
Thanks.
Hi @leo-yan,
Actually i want to use Hikey960 boards of both 3GB and 4GB RAM with single build AOSP(Android P) + old kernel(4.9 where 3GB RAM supports).
Can you please suggest what needs to be modify to support both the boards(3GB and 4GB RAM)?
Hi @rvmanjumce,
I am worry I cannot delivery complete info for this, what I can think out is 4GB board didn’t work well for HDMI due to memory conflict for CMA. So John resolved the issue [1], please check if patch [2] has been landed into your local code base.
[1] https://bugs.96boards.org/show_bug.cgi?id=774
[2] https://android-review.googlesource.com/c/kernel/hikey-linaro/+/757180
Hi @leo-yan,
Your mentioned patch is for 4.14 kernel but i am using 4.9 kernel version.
and below is my observation with old AOSP + old kernel(4.9 where 3GB RAM supports) + Hikey960 4GB Board.
1.After device booted adb is not detected.
2.Heartbeat light is keep on blinking and another light is also turned on.
