BL1 looks for a header [named @AML header] at different offsets depending on the storage media:
- On an SD card or eMMC: offset 512 [512 bytes completly ignored by BL1], header and checksum from offset 528 to 623, payload at offset 4608 onwards
There's a bug where, because of the zero-offset requirement on eMMC, MBR structures cannot coexist, requiring tweaks to allow an MBR parition table to coexist. Further reading: //github.com/LibreELEC/amlogic-boot-fip/pull/8
BL2 is signed by using a proprietary utility from Amlogic called aml_encrypt_gxb, but there's a replacement called gxlimg. See //github.com/repk/gxlimg. It has been confirmed to work on Libre_Computer_AML-S905X-CC-V1.0_[librecomputer-lepotato]
Then BL2 loads the following:
- BL30/SCP_BL2: System control processor firmware
- BL31: EL3 Runtime Software
- BL32: OPTEE [optional]
- BL33: U-Boot
All bootloader stages except U-Boot are proprietary. BL31 can be replaced with upstream Arm Trusted Firmware-A. There's also an ongoing effort led by User:F to reverse-engineer BL2 and port U-Boot SPL.
Comparison of the technical characteristics between the processors, with the Amlogic S905X2 on one side and the Amlogic S905W2 on the other side, also their respective performances with the benchmarks. The first is dedicated to the tv box sector, It has 4 cores, 4 threads, a maximum frequency of 1.8GHz. The second is used on the tv box segment, it has a total of 4 cores, 4 threads, its turbo frequency is set to 1.8 GHz. The following table also compares the lithography, the number of transistors [if indicated], the amount of cache memory, the maximum RAM memory capacity, the type of memory accepted, the release date, the maximum number of PCIe lanes, the values obtained in Geekbench and Cinebench.
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Specification comparison:
Processor Amlogic S905X2 Amlogic S905W2Market [main]TV Box TV BoxISAARMv8-A [64-bit] ARMv8-A [64-bit]MicroarchitectureCortex-A53 Cortex-A35FamilyS9 Gen 2 S9 Gen 2Part number[s], S-Spec
S905X2, U211
S905W2
Release dateQ3 2019 Q4 2019Lithography12 nm 12 nmCores4 4Threads4 4Base frequency1.8 GHz 1.8 GHzTurbo frequency- -High performance cores
4x ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.8 GHz
4x ARM Cortex-A35 @ 1.8 GHz
Cache memory1 MB 1 MBMax memory capacity4 GB 4 GBMemory types
DDR3/DDR3L-2133, DDR4-2666, LPDDR4-3200
DDR3 RAM
TDP5 W 5 WGPU integrated graphicsARM Mali-G31 MP2 ARM Mali-G31 MP2GPU execution units2 2GPU shading units32 32GPU clock850 MHz 850 MHzGPU FP32 floating point20.8 GFLOPS 20.8 GFLOPSSocketSoC SoCDrystone MIPS18,400 DMIPS 12,816 DMIPSCrypto engine
AES, DES, TDES, TRNG
AES, DES, TDES, TRNG
Security
TrustZone, Secure boot
TrustZone, Secure boot
Max display resolution
4K@75fps
4K@30fps
Video decodingH.265 4K@75fps, H.264 4K@30fps H.265 4K@30fps, H.264 4K@30fpsVideo encodingH.265/H.264 1080p@60fps H.264 1080p@60fpsModem10/100/1000 MAC, 10/100 PHY 100M EthernetConnectivityUSB 2.0, USB 3.0, HDMI 2.1 USB 2.0, HDMI 2.0Wi-FiWi-Fi/IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ас Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/acBluetoothBluetooth 4.1 Bluetooth 5.0Audio
DAC, SPDIF, I2S, PDM
SPDIF
[Android] Geekbench 4 single core686 607[Android] Geekbench 4 multi-core2,071 1,725[SGEMM] GFLOPS Performance5.38 GFLOPS 1.37 GFLOPS[Multi-core / watt performance] Performance / watt ratio414 pts / W 345 pts / WAmazon
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We can better compare what are the technical differences between the two processors.
Price: For technical reasons, we cannot currently display a price less than 24 hours, or a real-time price. This is why we prefer for the moment not to show a price. You should refer to the respective online stores for the latest price, as well as availability.
We see that the two processors have an equivalent number of cores, they have a similar turbo frequency, that their respective TDP are of the same order. Both were produced in the same year.
Performance comparison with the benchmarks:
Performance comparison between the two processors, for this we consider the results generated on benchmark software such as Geekbench.
With Android:
Geekbench 4 - Multi-core & Single Core Score - Android Amlogic S905X2
In single core, the difference is 13%. In multi-core, the differential gap is 20%.
Note: Commissions may be earned from the links above. These scores are only an average of the performances got with these processors, you may get different results.
Geekbench 4 is a complete benchmark platform with several types of tests, including data compression, images, AES encryption, SQL encoding, HTML, PDF file rendering, matrix computation, Fast Fourier Transform, 3D object simulation, photo editing, memory testing. This allows us to better visualize the respective power of these devices. For each result, we took an average of 250 values on the famous benchmark software.
Equivalence:
Amlogic S905X2 Intel EquivalentAmlogic S905X2 AMD EquivalentAmlogic S905W2 Intel EquivalentAmlogic S905W2 AMD Equivalent
See also:
Amlogic S905XAmlogic S905X-HAmlogic S905X2-BAmlogic S905X3Amlogic S905X3-BAmlogic S905X4Amlogic S905X4-BAmlogic S905X4-KAmlogic S905X5