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The Cabin >> Raspberry and Other Pies >> Raspberry Pi And other CPUs
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Message started by Fernando on Dec 6^th, 2014, 2:12pm

Title: Raspberry Pi And other CPUs
Post by Fernando on Dec 6^th, 2014, 2:12pm

Read "Raspberry Pi wont Boot" on http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1414182701/3#3

Though 2014 has been a big year for the Raspberry Pi, it has not come with it's problems.

This is because Samsung, Raspberry Pi and others in the game have switched to other CPU and chip makers to make the two chips for the Raspberry Pi. This is more of a hassle with the CPU chip than the I/O Chip.

Thus far there are at least 4 or 5 chip makers making the ARM CPU for the Raspberry Pi, three of which are known: Samsung, Micron, and Hynic.

Samsung created the original System On A Chip for Raspberry Pi. This includes the BIOS, RAM, ROM, and GPU inside with the CPU for Raspberry Pi. This same chip has been used for tablets and smartphones as well.

Micron is as far as I know from hearing about them before, is a UK company with chip factories in China. To save money, both Samsung and Raspberry Pi went to Micron to make the CPU-SOaC for the Raspberry Pi. They also had Micron improve the ROM code to the new chip to make it slightly faster. This would cause compatibility issues on some R-Pi B and many of the R-Pi B+ models.

Hynic is a Chinese Chip making company hired by the Chinese Gov't to make the Raspberry Pi for their Asian Market. It uses the updated Micron Code, also giving it compatibility issues. They are making these Raspberry Pi Clones through a license from Raspberry Pi and have the Raspberry Pi logo on the board. They are also making the Banana Pi with the other Chinese companies.

There are I think two more companies where the Chinese gov. hired to make more Raspberry Pi Clones. These clones may or may not have the Raspberry Pi logo. They all use the Hynic CPU design so it has compatibility issues with the older Samsung R-Pis that the Hynic and Mircon R-Pi's have. These companies use Blue and/or Red Boards for the R-Pi motherboard.

Samsung has also adopted these ROM changes as well in their Model B+ Raspberry Pi's which gives them the same compatibility issues along with Micron, Hynic and the others.

You need to look at your Raspberry Pi Board, particularly at the CPU and see who made it.

In speaking with Gordon Hollingworth - Director of Engineering at Raspberry Pi, he stated that the fix is a downgrade of the ROM Firmware which is on their website:

https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/tree/master/boot

In his words, after you get the files,

Quote:

Copy fixup* start* and bootcode.bin to the first partition of the card (overwriting the current ones). Note, overwriting the kernel.img could also be done, but it may not work with the filesystem you're using...

His post on Linkedin (in case you do not have Linkedin)

Quote:

To get the latest you'll need to do as Nicolae has said and use rpi-update on the SD card on a model B

If you don't have a model B around then download the latest raspbian image or NOOBS from the official Raspberry Pi downloads page.

Finally if you just want to update the firmware on a non-raspbian image then you can download the firmware files from

https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/tree/master/boot

Copy fixup* start* and bootcode.bin to the first partition of the card (overwriting the current ones). Note, overwriting the kernel.img could also be done, but it may not work with the filesystem you're using...

Link: https://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=4035334&type=member&item=5935983629078392837&trk=groups_items_see_more-0-b-ttl

For the collector, there is a rare Purple Board Raspberry Pi made by Samsung. Only 1000 to 1500 of these units were made to note the 1million R-Pi (Model A & B) made and the introduction of the Model B+ at about the same time. Most of these were given out to the employees of Raspberry Pi.