Orange eMMC Module: The Samsung 5.1 Chipset Arrives

Hardkernel has now introduced an orange eMMC module, which uses the Samsung eMMC 5.1 chipset, which has been shipping since October 2017.

Figure 1 - Hardkernel now offers an orange eMMC module)
Figure 1 - Hardkernel now offers an orange eMMC module)

It works with C1/C2/XU4 series with a proper OS. The latest official OS images all work fine. The schematics are available at eMMC PCB Rev 0.4. Orange eMMC compatibility status with XU4 series OS images

OS image Image file information Status
Ubuntu Mate ubuntu-16.04.3-4.14-mate-odroid-xu4-20171212.img OK
Ubuntu Minimal ubuntu-16.04.3-4.14-minimal-odroid-xu4-20171213.img OK
Android 7.1.1 Alpha-1.1_14.11.17 OK
Android TV 7.1.1 Alpha-1.0_20.11.17 OK
Android 4.4.4 Android 4.4.4 (v5.8) OK
Debian Jessie Debian-Jessie-1.1.4-20171121-XU3+XU4.img OK
ODROID Game Station Turbo (OGST) ODROID-GameStation-Turbo-3.9.5-20171115-XU3+XU4-Jessie.img OK
Armbian All Armbian variants starting with version 5.35 OK
OMV OMV_3_0_92_Odroidxu4_4.9.61 OK
DietPi DietPi_OdroidXU4-armv7-(Jessie).7z 22-Nov-2017 OK
Yocto project No Flashable file reference Untested
Kali-Linux No Flashable file reference Untested
Arch-Linux No Flashable file reference Untested
ROS No Flashable file reference Untested
Lakka Lakka-OdroidXU3.arm-2.1-rc6.img.gz OK
Batocera batocera-5.12-xu4-20171214.img.gz OK
RecalBox recalbox (17.11.10.2) OK-ish?
RetroPie No Flashable file reference Untested

The eMMCs from Sandisk will be version up to 5.1 with slightly faster data transfer speed starting from July 20, 2017. As shown in Figure 2, the QR code is on the left side of the ver5.1 ​chipset while eMMC ver 5.0 has it on the right side.

Figure 2 - eMMC version 5.0 (left) has the QR code on the right side, and eMMC version 5.1 (right) has the QR code on the left side)
Figure 2 - eMMC version 5.0 (left) has the QR code on the right side, and eMMC version 5.1 (right) has the QR code on the left side)

Kernel version 3.10 should have the following patches applied in order to make it work with XU4 series properly: Github, Github, Github.

Figure 3 - Chart of eMMC modules for current running products 2016
Figure 3 - Chart of eMMC modules for current running products 2016

Figure 4 - eMMC modules for old products
Figure 4 - eMMC modules for old products

References

eMMC module Revison 0.3 schematics Yellow eMMC Module Revision 0.4 schematics eMMC reader board schematics

  • eMMC board dimensions : 18.5mm x 13.5mm
  • Gap between the PCBs : 1.1mm (Height of assembled B2B connectors

The connector is made by LS-Mtron Korea. On the eMMC module, the GB042-34S-H10 (Socket-34pin) was used. On the host board, the GB042-34P-H10 (Plug-34pin) was used. The connector specification is here Information about Sandisk eMMC (iDisk Extreme) Information about Samsung eMMC Information about Essencore eMMC (8GB eMMC is used for XU4) Information about Toshiba eMMC

eMMC Read/Write test on ODROID-C2 HS400 mode (Unit : MByte/sec)

Samsung Toshiba Sandisk
8G Write 45.4 21.9 N/A
8G Read 113 148 N/A
16G Write 80.1 N/A 25.6
16G Read 126 N/A 153
32G Write 124 N/A 98.7
32G Read 125 N/A 153
64G Write 124 83.7 107
64G Read 124 153 153

Read/write command for the eMMC benchmark:

$ dd if=/dev/zero of=test.tmp oflag=direct bs=1M count=1024
$ dd if=test.tmp of=/dev/null iflag=direct bs=1M

ODROID-C2 + Black eMMC Performance Test of File I/O test conditions

  • Ubuntu 16.04
  • Kernel version : Linux odroid64 3.14.79-115
  • Test tool : iozone revision 3.429

iozone installation and performance test:

$ sudo apt install iozone3
$ iozone -e -I -a -s 100M -r 4k -r 16k -r 512k -r 1024k -r 16384k -i 0 -i 1 -i 2<
/* 8G */
random random
kB reclen write rewrite read reread read write
102400 4 9290 13582 13570 13568 11900 8787
102400 16 10934 15680 27511 27484 25976 7699
102400 512 14943 23761 42163 42121 41361 15122
102400 1024 15140 28564 41951 41915 41196 16743
102400 16384 16559 24001 42308 42267 42287 28604
/* 16G */
random random
kB reclen write rewrite read reread read write
102400 4 14602 14622 18102 17953 16768 14421
102400 16 49363 49279 52902 52808 47450 48389
102400 512 49779 49993 138268 138315 137171 48836
102400 1024 50005 49870 137522 137709 136958 49027
102400 16384 49861 50058 139358 139154 139299 50024
/* 32G */
random random
kB reclen write rewrite read reread read write
102400 4 14608 14670 18333 18343 17935 14624
102400 16 58393 66157 56412 56766 55744 56371
102400 512 80356 81074 136828 137132 137503 79224
102400 1024 80464 81036 137368 137278 136896 79191
102400 16384 80388 81070 139486 139612 139446 80560
/* 64G */
random random
kB reclen write rewrite read reread read write
102400 4 14240 14299 17619 17548 16012 14216
102400 16 49991 57484 53245 53405 50001 59302
102400 512 132316 135079 134154 134016 134208 129755
102400 1024 132476 134966 133753 133840 133677 130054
102400 16384 135772 139140 136133 136019 135821 135107
/* 128G */
random random
kB reclen write rewrite read reread read write
102400 4 14162 14152 18161 18184 17833 14200
102400 16 56527 64906 55057 55684 54492 66525
102400 512 131327 131444 137307 137040 137358 132500
102400 1024 131908 131896 137570 137495 136844 132365
102400 16384 136418 134070 139940 133304 121160 134002
The black eMMC module is made with the Samsung eMMC chipset. The red and blue (normal) eMMC module is made with Sandisk or Toshiba or AIO chipset. The ODROID-C1/C0/C1+/C2 devices works with the black and red eMMC modules. The ODROID-XU4/XU3/U3/X2/U2 devices do NOT work with black eMMC module.

New 8GB eMMC test on XU4 Ubuntu

The new 8GB eMMC red PCB for the ODROID-XU4 model is based on Essencore/AIO's eMMC 5.0 technology. Sequential speed with “dd” test:

  • dd write : 15.1 MB/s
  • dd read : 104 MB/s
  • Random access(IOPS) speed test with 4k block.
  • Random write : io=993228KB, bw=9928.2KB/s, iops=2482
  • Random read : io=1479.1MB, bw=15149KB/s, iops=3787

eMMC vs SD card performance comparison on C2 Android using a 16GB eMMC Black PCB and a 16GB UHS-1 SDHC Card (Sandisk SDSDQAD-016G UHS-I 50 OEM model), with a cleanly flashed Android 5.1 V2.8 image and installed GApps Pico package:

  • eMMC booting time from power on event : 18~20 seconds
  • SDHC booting time from power on event : 32~35 seconds

Check points for system software developers

Do not overwrite the hidden eMMC boot partition. If you have, visit How to recover the eMMC boot loader to fix it. The eMMC must be partitioned as follows:

  • FAT16 partition with UUID 6E35-5356 (boot)
  • EXT4 partition with UUID e139ce78-9841-40fe-8823-96a304a09859 (Linux)

Copy the contents from Ubuntu image partitions to the boot and Linux partitions using “cp -afpv source destination”, then insert the eMMC module and boot normally. For comments, questions, and suggestions, please visit the original Wiki page at https://wiki.odroid.com/accessory/emmc/reference_chart.

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