RK3588 - RKNN Object detection on multiple video streams

 

Having previously reversed engineered the V831 NPU , let's now examine the RK3588 NPU. While the RK3588 RKNN advertises 6 TOPs@int8, it is not entirely clear what this figure represents since the RKNN process unit comprises a tri-core NPU. Referring to the Technical Reference Manual (TRM), we can gather further information:

1024x3 integer 8 MAC operations per cycle

The RKNN clock is 1Ghz therefore based on the standard TOPS formula 

TOPS = MACs * Frequency * 2

          = (1024x3) * 1Ghz * 2

If all three cores (1024x3) are utilized, the total computational power reaches 6 TOPS. The RKNN framework offers various workload configurations, including tri-core, dual-core, and single-core. However, upon reviewing the RKNN documentation, it appears that out of the 43 operators, only around 10 support tri-core or dual-core execution (as of v1.5.0 of RKNPU SDK) :

Conv, DepthwiseConvolution, Add, Concat, Relu, Clip, Relu6, ThresholdedRelu. Prelu, LeakyRelu

Deploying a single RKNN model in tri-core mode allows for achieving a maximum computational power of 6 TOPS, but this relies on encountering operators that support tri-core execution or having the model compiler identify parallelizable operations. Consequently, the utilization of the full 6 TOPS may be limited to specific scenarios. Given this constraint, an alternative approach could be running three instances of the model, with each instance allocated to a core. Although this approach increases memory usage, it may provide improved efficiency. For instance, when running rknn_benchmark against yolov5s-640-640.rknn for 1000 iterations with a core mask of 7 (tri-core), the results observed are (v1.5.0 sdk) :

Avg Time 9.86ms, Avg FPS = 101.416

Running 3 separate instances of rknn benchmark for same model with core mask 1, 2 & 4 (single core) the average per instance is :

Avg Time 18.84ms, Avg FPS = 53.084

The initial benchmark results suggest a potential improvement with this approach, as running three object detection streams in parallel could yield better overall performance. Furthermore this opens up the possibility of multi stream object detection. However, it is crucial to acknowledge that the frames per second (fps) figures reported by the benchmark are quite optimistic. Primarily because the test input is a static pre-cropped RGB (640x640) image, and the outputs are not sorted based on confidence levels. Hence, in a real-world deployment, additional pre and post processing steps would be necessary and effect the overall processing time.

In order to assess the feasibility of the aforementioned approach, I developed a C++ application that performs several tasks concurrently. This application includes the decoding of an H264 stream, resizing and converting each frame to RGB (640x640), running the yolov5 model on each frame for object detection whilst simultaneously rendering the video. It's worth noting that video playback occurs independently of rendering the rectangles generated by yolov5 through an overlay. The primary challenge encountered during development was optimizing the frequency of frame conversions and resizing for both inference and rendering. This optimization was crucial to ensure that the output rectangles from yolov5 remained synchronized with the corresponding video frame intended for rendering. Otherwise fast moving objects in the video stream are noticeably out of sync with the detected rectangle for that frame. The main argument passed to the application is the core mask, which allows the selection of which NPU core(s) to utilize for the processing tasks. 

As shown in the showcase video above, by running three instances of the application with each assigned a single NPU core, we were able to achieve sufficient performance to keep up (well almost in case of 60fps stream) with the video playback rate. The application was tested on the following boards running under weston:

• Mekotronics R58 Mini HDD
• Radxa Rock 5-b 

The test videos, sourced from the kangle site, are either 1080p at 60 or 30 frames per second (fps). To fit all the videos on the same display (1080p resolution), they are not resized back to their original format. The detected objects are color-coded as follows:

• Red: person
• Green: par, truck, bus, bicycle
• Blue: anything else
  

Benchmarks from concurrently running 3 instances show an average per instance of:

Avg Time = 25.20ms   Avg FPS = 38.49

Compared to a single instance running with NPU in tri-core mode

Avg Time = 15.92ms   Avg FPS = 61.42

Based on my testing it is possible to run object detection on 3 video streams assuming 1080p@30 assuming the inference time of your model on a single npu core is less than 25ms. This work was done as part of a suite of video applications that I'm developing for the RK3588.

CPU usage while running the 3 instances:

Tasks: 236 total,   2 running, 234 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 10.6 us,  3.3 sy,  0.0 ni, 84.5 id,  1.3 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.3 si,  0.0 st
MiB Mem :   7691.7 total,   6531.9 free,    558.4 used,    601.4 buff/cache
MiB Swap:      0.0 total,      0.0 free,      0.0 used.   6942.5 avail Mem

    PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
   1422 rock       1 -19 1153180 128604  89000 S  32.1   1.6   0:18.35 subsurf+
   1439 rock       1 -19 1158676 128880  89480 S  31.8   1.6   0:12.97 subsurf+
   1404 rock       1 -19 1161504 132664  89456 S  28.1   1.7   0:24.37 subsurf+
   1000 rock      20   0  705784  99024  76756 S  21.2   1.3   0:56.09 weston  
    363 root      20   0   94212  48112  47004 R   4.6   0.6   0:24.04 systemd+
    212 root     -51   0       0      0      0 S   4.3   0.0   0:10.57 irq/34-+
    927 rock      20   0   16096   4608   3416 S   0.7   0.1   0:00.60 sshd    
   1100 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   0.7   0.0   0:01.05 kworker+
   1395 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0.7   0.0   0:01.23 kworker+
   1402 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0.7   0.0   0:00.76 kworker+
    139 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0.3   0.0   0:01.07 queue_w+
    371 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0.3   0.0   0:00.16 kworker+
    910 rock      20   0   16096   4600   3408 S   0.3   0.1   0:00.89 sshd    
   1329 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0.3   0.0   0:00.43 kworker+
   1330 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   0.3   0.0   0:00.76 kworker+
   1403 root      20   0    7124   3128   2364 R   0.3   0.0   0:00.60 top     
   1421 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   0.3   0.0   0:00.46 kworker+
 

RK3588 - Adventures with an external GPU through PCIE Gen3 x4 (Radxa Rock-5b)

One of the interesting features of the RK3588 is the pcie controller because of it support for a Gen3 X4 link. I'd started looking into using the controller for a forth coming project and subsequently this lead me to the idea of testing the controller against a external GPU card to gain an understanding of it limitations and potential. From what I understand Jeff Geerling has been a similar journey with the RPI CM4 and has had limited success with help from numerous developers. Furthermore there was a Radxa tweet which a gave a teasing glimpse of the working GPU. So lets see what is or isn't possible using a Rock-5b.

 

 

I'd managed to get hold of a Radeon R7 520 (XFX R7 250 low-profile) card along a with M.2 Key M Extender Cable to PCIE x16 Graphics Card Riser Adapter. To power the card I'd reused a old LR1007 120W 12VDC ATX board which was to hand. Setup as shown below, we reuse the nvme slot for the m.2 adapter and revert back to an sd card for booting an OS. I'd used the Radxa debian image with a custom compiled Radxa kernel to include the graphics card drivers and fixes. Having reviewed the pcie BAR definitions in the rk3588.dtsi there should be enough address space available for the card to use. After removing the hdmi and mali drivers from kernel config, I initially tried the amdgpu driver but that seems to report an error and no display output

[   11.844163] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: [drm:amdgpu_ring_test_helper [amdgpu]] *ERROR* ring gfx test failed (-110)
[   11.844378] [drm:amdgpu_device_init [amdgpu]] *ERROR* hw_init of IP block <gfx_v6_0> failed -110
[   11.844383] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: amdgpu: amdgpu_device_ip_init failed
[   11.844388] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: amdgpu: Fatal error during GPU init
[   11.844414] amdgpu 0000:01:00.0: amdgpu: amdgpu: finishing device.
[   11.846559] [drm] amdgpu: ttm finalized
[   11.848018] amdgpu: probe of 0000:01:00.0 failed with error -110

The radeon driver fared slightly better with a similar error but at least display output for console login

[   12.059398] [drm:r600_ring_test [radeon]] *ERROR* radeon: ring 0 test failed (scratch(0x850C)=0xCAFEDEAD)
[   12.059408] radeon 0000:01:00.0: disabling GPU acceleration

The was puzzling as the card relies on pcie memory mapped I/O which the RK3588 should see a standard memory and be able to read/write too. It turns out Peter Geis who was attempting to mainline a pcie driver for the RK3566 and raised 2 issues per this thread which Rockchip replied too. The same issues weren't improved/fixed on the RK3588 as mentioned here . In simple terms for our requirements:

1. For the pcie dma transfers memory allocation are limited to 32bits so a 4GB board might not see an issue. While a 8GB board like mine the kernel could pick an address range above 4GB.

2. AMD cards rely on pcie snooping, there is no CPU snooping on the RK3588 interconnect. So any cache copies of the same device memory block won't get updated to remain in sync.

If we hack the Radeon driver to work around these issues we get:

[   12.529087] [drm] ring test on 0 succeeded in 1 usecs
[   12.529094] [drm] ring test on 1 succeeded in 1 usecs
[   12.529102] [drm] ring test on 2 succeeded in 1 usecs
[   12.529121] [drm] ring test on 3 succeeded in 8 usecs
[   12.529132] [drm] ring test on 4 succeeded in 3 usecs
[   12.706419] [drm] ring test on 5 succeeded in 2 usecs
[   12.706427] [drm] UVD initialized successfully.
[   12.816582] [drm] ring test on 6 succeeded in 18 usecs
[   12.816625] [drm] ring test on 7 succeeded in 5 usecs
[   12.816627] [drm] VCE initialized successfully.
[   12.816879] [drm:si_irq_set [radeon]] si_irq_set: sw int gfx
[   12.816921] [drm] ib test on ring 0 succeeded in 0 usecs
[   12.816989] [drm:si_irq_set [radeon]] si_irq_set: sw int cp1
[   12.817028] [drm] ib test on ring 1 succeeded in 0 usecs
[   12.817088] [drm:si_irq_set [radeon]] si_irq_set: sw int cp2
[   12.817127] [drm] ib test on ring 2 succeeded in 0 usecs
[   12.817185] [drm:si_irq_set [radeon]] si_irq_set: sw int dma
[   12.817224] [drm] ib test on ring 3 succeeded in 0 usecs
[   12.817281] [drm:si_irq_set [radeon]] si_irq_set: sw int dma1
[   12.817319] [drm] ib test on ring 4 succeeded in 0 usecs
[   13.477677] [drm] ib test on ring 5 succeeded
[   13.984454] [drm] ib test on ring 6 succeeded
[   14.491404] [drm] ib test on ring 7 succeeded
...

[   14.549296] [drm] Initialized radeon 2.50.0 20080528 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 1

 So potentially we have graphics acceleration ... let try kmstest

rock@rock-5b:~$ kmstest
trying to open device 'i915'...failed
trying to open device 'amdgpu'...failed
trying to open device 'radeon'...done
main: All ok!

Next (fingers crossed) kmscube

rock@rock-5b:~$ kmscube
Using display 0x55b67f0020 with EGL version 1.5
===================================
EGL information:
  version: "1.5"
  vendor: "Mesa Project"
  client extensions: "EGL_EXT_device_base EGL_EXT_device_enumeration EGL_EXT_device_query EGL_EXT_platform_base EGL_KHR_client_get_all_proc_addresses EGL_EXT_client_extensions EGL_KHR_debug EGL_EXT_platform_device EGL_EXT_platform_wayland EGL_KHR_platform_wayland EGL_EXT_platform_x11 EGL_KHR_platform_x11 EGL_MESA_platform_gbm EGL_KHR_platform_gbm EGL_MESA_platform_surfaceless"
  display extensions: "EGL_ANDROID_blob_cache EGL_EXT_buffer_age EGL_EXT_create_context_robustness EGL_EXT_image_dma_buf_import EGL_EXT_image_dma_buf_import_modifiers EGL_KHR_cl_event2 EGL_KHR_config_attribs EGL_KHR_create_context EGL_KHR_create_context_no_error EGL_KHR_fence_sync EGL_KHR_get_all_proc_addresses EGL_KHR_gl_colorspace EGL_KHR_gl_renderbuffer_image EGL_KHR_gl_texture_2D_image EGL_KHR_gl_texture_3D_image EGL_KHR_gl_texture_cubemap_image EGL_KHR_image EGL_KHR_image_base EGL_KHR_image_pixmap EGL_KHR_no_config_context EGL_KHR_reusable_sync EGL_KHR_surfaceless_context EGL_EXT_pixel_format_float EGL_KHR_wait_sync EGL_MESA_configless_context EGL_MESA_drm_image EGL_MESA_image_dma_buf_export EGL_MESA_query_driver EGL_WL_bind_wayland_display "
===================================
OpenGL ES 2.x information:
  version: "OpenGL ES 3.2 Mesa 20.3.5"
  shading language version: "OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.20"
  vendor: "AMD"
  renderer: "AMD VERDE (DRM 2.50.0, 5.10.110-99-rockchip-g6e21553c2116, LLVM 11.0.1)"
  extensions: "GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc GL_EXT_texture_compression_dxt1 GL_EXT_texture_compression_rgtc GL_EXT_texture_format_BGRA8888 GL_OES_compressed_ETC1_RGB8_texture GL_OES_depth24 GL_OES_element_index_uint GL_OES_fbo_render_mipmap GL_OES_mapbuffer GL_OES_rgb8_rgba8 GL_OES_standard_derivatives GL_OES_stencil8 GL_OES_texture_3D GL_OES_texture_float GL_OES_texture_float_linear GL_OES_texture_half_float GL_OES_texture_half_float_linear GL_OES_texture_npot GL_OES_vertex_half_float GL_EXT_draw_instanced GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_decode GL_OES_EGL_image GL_OES_depth_texture GL_AMD_performance_monitor GL_OES_packed_depth_stencil GL_EXT_texture_type_2_10_10_10_REV GL_NV_conditional_render GL_OES_get_program_binary GL_APPLE_texture_max_level GL_EXT_discard_framebuffer GL_EXT_read_format_bgra GL_EXT_frag_depth GL_NV_fbo_color_attachments GL_OES_EGL_image_external GL_OES_EGL_sync GL_OES_vertex_array_object GL_OES_viewport_array GL_ANGLE_pack_reverse_row_order GL_ANGLE_texture_compression_dxt3 GL_ANGLE_texture_compression_dxt5 GL_EXT_occlusion_query_boolean GL_EXT_robustness GL_EXT_texture_rg GL_EXT_unpack_subimage GL_NV_draw_buffers GL_NV_read_buffer GL_NV_read_depth GL_NV_read_depth_stencil GL_NV_read_stencil GL_EXT_draw_buffers GL_EXT_map_buffer_range GL_KHR_debug GL_KHR_robustness GL_KHR_texture_compression_astc_ldr GL_NV_pixel_buffer_object GL_OES_depth_texture_cube_map GL_OES_required_internalformat GL_OES_surfaceless_context GL_EXT_color_buffer_float GL_EXT_sRGB_write_control GL_EXT_separate_shader_objects GL_EXT_shader_group_vote GL_EXT_shader_implicit_conversions GL_EXT_shader_integer_mix GL_EXT_tessellation_point_size GL_EXT_tessellation_shader GL_ANDROID_extension_pack_es31a GL_EXT_base_instance GL_EXT_compressed_ETC1_RGB8_sub_texture GL_EXT_copy_image GL_EXT_draw_buffers_indexed GL_EXT_draw_elements_base_vertex GL_EXT_gpu_shader5 GL_EXT_polygon_offset_clamp GL_EXT_primitive_bounding_box GL_EXT_render_snorm GL_EXT_shader_io_blocks GL_EXT_texture_border_clamp GL_EXT_texture_buffer GL_EXT_texture_cube_map_array GL_EXT_texture_norm16 GL_EXT_texture_view GL_KHR_blend_equation_advanced GL_KHR_context_flush_control GL_KHR_robust_buffer_access_behavior GL_NV_image_formats GL_OES_copy_image GL_OES_draw_buffers_indexed GL_OES_draw_elements_base_vertex GL_OES_gpu_shader5 GL_OES_primitive_bounding_box GL_OES_sample_shading GL_OES_sample_variables GL_OES_shader_io_blocks GL_OES_shader_multisample_interpolation GL_OES_tessellation_point_size GL_OES_tessellation_shader GL_OES_texture_border_clamp GL_OES_texture_buffer GL_OES_texture_cube_map_array GL_OES_texture_stencil8 GL_OES_texture_storage_multisample_2d_array GL_OES_texture_view GL_EXT_blend_func_extended GL_EXT_buffer_storage GL_EXT_float_blend GL_EXT_geometry_point_size GL_EXT_geometry_shader GL_EXT_shader_samples_identical GL_KHR_no_error GL_KHR_texture_compression_astc_sliced_3d GL_OES_EGL_image_external_essl3 GL_OES_geometry_point_size GL_OES_geometry_shader GL_OES_shader_image_atomic GL_EXT_clip_cull_distance GL_EXT_disjoint_timer_query GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc_srgb GL_EXT_window_rectangles GL_MESA_shader_integer_functions GL_EXT_clip_control GL_EXT_color_buffer_half_float GL_EXT_memory_object GL_EXT_memory_object_fd GL_EXT_texture_compression_bptc GL_KHR_parallel_shader_compile GL_NV_alpha_to_coverage_dither_control GL_EXT_EGL_image_storage GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_R8 GL_EXT_texture_shadow_lod GL_INTEL_blackhole_render GL_MESA_framebuffer_flip_y GL_EXT_depth_clamp GL_EXT_texture_query_lod "
===================================
Using modifier ffffffffffffff
Modifiers failed!
Bus error

The 'bus error' indicates a memory alignment issue and turns out to be a bit of a of rabbit hole. To fix the Radeon kernel driver we are ensuring the cards memory is mapped as 'Device memory' type Device-nGnRnE. If it were 'Normal Memory' then unaligned access is allowed. This implies fixing up userspace drivers/applications as these errors are encountered as these applications can directly manlipulate the cards memory. For this particular bus error it was caused by a memcpy in the radeon gallium driver and fixed applied there and as shown in the video kmscube runs

===================================
Using modifier ffffffffffffff
Modifiers failed!
Using modifier ffffffffffffff
Modifiers failed!
Rendered 120 frames in 2.000246 sec (59.992635 fps)
Rendered 240 frames in 4.000428 sec (59.993577 fps)
Rendered 361 frames in 6.016865 sec (59.998019 fps)
Rendered 481 frames in 8.017015 sec (59.997390 fps)
Rendered 601 frames in 10.017050 sec (59.997704 fps)
Rendered 721 frames in 12.017079 sec (59.997942 fps)
Rendered 841 frames in 14.017118 sec (59.998067 fps)
Rendered 961 frames in 16.017314 sec (59.997574 fps)
Rendered 1082 frames in 18.033850 sec (59.998280 fps)

Similiar fixes were applied to glmark2-drm & glmark2-es2-drm to run successfully (1680x1050 resolution) although the terrain scene displayed a bunch of colored bars on the screen.

=======================================================
    glmark2 2021.12
=======================================================
    OpenGL Information
    GL_VENDOR:      AMD
    GL_RENDERER:    AMD VERDE (DRM 2.50.0, 5.10.110-99-rockchip-g6e21553c2116, LLVM 11.0.1)
    GL_VERSION:     4.5 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 20.3.5
    Surface Config: buf=32 r=8 g=8 b=8 a=8 depth=24 stencil=0 samples=0
    Surface Size:   1680x1050 fullscreen
=======================================================
[build] use-vbo=false: FPS: 939 FrameTime: 1.066 ms
[build] use-vbo=true: FPS: 2411 FrameTime: 0.415 ms
[texture] texture-filter=nearest: FPS: 1957 FrameTime: 0.511 ms
[texture] texture-filter=linear: FPS: 1958 FrameTime: 0.511 ms
[texture] texture-filter=mipmap: FPS: 2003 FrameTime: 0.499 ms
[shading] shading=gouraud: FPS: 1975 FrameTime: 0.506 ms
[shading] shading=blinn-phong-inf: FPS: 1973 FrameTime: 0.507 ms
[shading] shading=phong: FPS: 1976 FrameTime: 0.506 ms
[shading] shading=cel: FPS: 1974 FrameTime: 0.507 ms
[bump] bump-render=high-poly: FPS: 1739 FrameTime: 0.575 ms
[bump] bump-render=normals: FPS: 2373 FrameTime: 0.422 ms
[bump] bump-render=height: FPS: 2330 FrameTime: 0.429 ms
[effect2d] kernel=0,1,0;1,-4,1;0,1,0;: FPS: 1254 FrameTime: 0.798 ms
[effect2d] kernel=1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;: FPS: 707 FrameTime: 1.415 ms
[pulsar] light=false:quads=5:texture=false: FPS: 1338 FrameTime: 0.747 ms
[desktop] blur-radius=5:effect=blur:passes=1:separable=true:windows=4: FPS: 456 FrameTime: 2.194 ms
[desktop] effect=shadow:windows=4: FPS: 600 FrameTime: 1.667 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 214 FrameTime: 4.684 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=subdata: FPS: 233 FrameTime: 4.306 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=true:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 347 FrameTime: 2.885 ms
[ideas] speed=duration: FPS: 1430 FrameTime: 0.700 ms
[jellyfish] <default>: FPS: 806 FrameTime: 1.242 ms
[terrain] <default>: FPS: 150 FrameTime: 6.706 ms
[shadow] <default>: FPS: 843 FrameTime: 1.188 ms
[refract] <default>: FPS: 115 FrameTime: 8.718 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 1970 FrameTime: 0.508 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 1980 FrameTime: 0.505 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 1972 FrameTime: 0.507 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=low:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 1979 FrameTime: 0.505 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=medium:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 1971 FrameTime: 0.507 ms
[loop] fragment-loop=false:fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 1972 FrameTime: 0.507 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=false:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 1972 FrameTime: 0.507 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=true:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 1968 FrameTime: 0.508 ms
=======================================================
                                  glmark2 Score: 1450
=======================================================

Next up was to see if startx would run, unfortunately it drops out with a shader compiler error. Looks like glamor is using egl but encounters an opengl shader to compile, requires further investigation.

[  7916.924] (II) modeset(0): Modeline "360x202"x119.0   11.25  360 372 404 448  202 204 206 211 doublescan -hsync +vsync (25.1 kHz d)
[  7916.924] (II) modeset(0): Modeline "360x202"x118.3   10.88  360 384 400 440  202 204 206 209 doublescan +hsync -vsync (24.7 kHz d)
[  7916.924] (II) modeset(0): Modeline "320x180"x119.7    9.00  320 332 360 400  180 181 184 188 doublescan -hsync +vsync (22.5 kHz d)
[  7916.924] (II) modeset(0): Modeline "320x180"x118.6    8.88  320 344 360 400  180 181 184 187 doublescan +hsync -vsync (22.2 kHz d)
[  7916.925] (II) modeset(0): Output DVI-D-1 status changed to disconnected.
[  7916.925] (II) modeset(0): EDID for output DVI-D-1
[  7916.939] (II) modeset(0): Output VGA-1 status changed to disconnected.
[  7916.939] (II) modeset(0): EDID for output VGA-1
[  7916.939] (II) modeset(0): Output HDMI-1 connected
[  7916.939] (II) modeset(0): Output DVI-D-1 disconnected
[  7916.939] (II) modeset(0): Output VGA-1 disconnected
[  7916.939] (II) modeset(0): Using exact sizes for initial modes
[  7916.939] (II) modeset(0): Output HDMI-1 using initial mode 1680x1050 +0+0
[  7916.939] (==) modeset(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
[  7916.939] (==) modeset(0): DPI set to (96, 96)
[  7916.939] (II) Loading sub module "fb"
[  7916.939] (II) LoadModule: "fb"
[  7916.940] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libfb.so
[  7916.944] (II) Module fb: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[  7916.944]    compiled for 1.20.11, module version = 1.0.0
[  7916.944]    ABI class: X.Org ANSI C Emulation, version 0.4
[  7916.964] Failed to compile VS: 0:1(1): error: syntax error, unexpected NEW_IDENTIFIER

[  7916.964] Program source:
precision highp float;
attribute vec4 v_position;
attribute vec4 v_texcoord;
varying vec2 source_texture;

void main()
{
    gl_Position = v_position;
    source_texture = v_texcoord.xy;
}
[  7916.964] (EE)
Fatal server error:
[  7916.964] (EE) GLSL compile failure
[  7916.964] (EE)
 

Lastly I installed vappi to attempt video playback unfortunately even after fixing a couple of bus errors in galmium theres more to fix. So this pretty much sums up the nature of the problem to address. Furthermore this does raise the question is the  tweet from Radxa using acclerated graphics given the hardware restrictions of the RK3588.

RK3588 - Decoding & rendering 16 1080p streams

 

 

I'm currently working on a video application for the RK3588 given it is one of the few processors on the market that currently has native HDMI input support (up to 4K30). As part of that work one of the first tasks has been trying to rendering video efficiently within a Wayland/Weston window (not full screen). I reverted to Wayland for video because from my testing on X11 it can result in tearing if not played full screen as the graphic stack (ARM Mali )has no ability to vsync.  The existing Rockchip SDK patches the gstreamer waylandsink plugin to provide video rendering support for Wayland. However there are a number of challenges to get the waylandsink to render to a Weston window as by default it resorts to full screen, resulting in a Weston application launching a secondary full screen window to display video within. Whilst trying to find a solution to this problem I can a across a number of claims about the video decoder (part of the VPU) :

Up to 32-channel 1080P@30fps decoding (FireFly ROC-RK3588-PC)

x32 1080P@60fps channels (H.265/VP9) (Khandas Edge 2)

Up to 32 channels 1080P@30fps decoding (PEPPER JOBS X3588)

After reviewing the RK3588 datasheet and TRM I can't find a mention of this capability by Rockchip so I'd assume this a derived figure based on this statement in the datasheet "Multi-channel decoder in parallel for less resolution". From the datasheet H264 max resolution decode is 8K@30 and H265 it is 8K@60, theoretically that would mean 16 channels for H264 1080@30 and possibly 32 for H265 if each stream is 1080@30.

So the challenged turned out be could I decode 16 1080p streams and render each within its own window on a 1080@60 display? As you can tell from the above video it is possible. This is a custom Weston application running on a Rock 5B board  , each video is being read/decoded from a separate file (there is a mixture of trailers/open videos & a fps test video) and then rendered. Initially I tried to resizing each video using RGA3 (Raster Graphics Acceleration) however this turned out be to non-performant as RGA doesn't seem to cope well with more a than few videos. In turns out the only way to render is to use AFBC (Arm framebuffer compression). For this test there are 14 H264 streams (mixture of 30 & 60 fps) and 2 H265 60fps streams.