Rockchip shows off RK3288 A12 silicon with H.265 4K decoders

Computex 2014: Promised at CES, delivered in Taiwan

Jun 19, 2014 by

Rockchip logoThe big news from Rockchip at Computex was the Intel tie-up but the most significant was the functional RK3288 silicon SemiAccurate saw. It won’t be long now before you can get an A12, Mali-T760, and 4K H.265 video decoder in your phone.

We know that after CES we said that the RK3288 would debut in 3-4 weeks and it has been a bit more than that number of months before we brought you pictures of silicon. The issue there was that Rockchip was a no-show at MWC allowing Mediatek to publicly show off the first H.265 hardware decoder. You win some, lose some, but our sources say the silicon was ready by early March.

Rockchip RK3288 reference boards and Chromebook

Rockchip RK3288 reference boards and Chromebook design

As you can see from the above designs, the boards are done and they do work. The Chromebook pictured was fully functional and another was streaming 4x 1080p videos as one H.265 4K stream as pictured below. In short it works, it is not that expensive, and you can run a full laptop form factor from it. This is why Intel is scared silly of ARM, things like the Rockchip RK3288 can do everything you need in a laptop for a small fraction of what Intel charges.

Rockchip RK3288 running 4K video

Can you spot the stuck pixel?

Rockchip says the RK3288 was sampling at Computex in volume long before Computex and production shipments will begin “before the end of the month”. As of this posting there are 11 days left in June so it won’t be long now, the genetically gifted can count to that number on two hands. ARM A12, Mali-T760, and hardware 4K H.265 decode are literally days away from on the shelf, I for one can’t wait.S|A

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Charlie Demerjian

Roving engine of chaos and snide remarks at SemiAccurate
Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and SemiAccurate.com. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, securing and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture. As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also available through Guidepoint and Mosaic. FullyAccurate