RK182X SDK Overview

Overall block diagram

RK182X SDK
├─ Drivers & firmware   pcie-rkep / rknn3_rk1820.img / pcie_upgrade_tool
├─ User-space runtime   librknnrt.so / librknn3_api.so / rknn3_transfer_proxy
├─ Model toolchain      rknn3-toolkit / rknn3-model-zoo / rknn3_*_demo
└─ Samples              examples/{anomaly-detection, vi_yolo_venc, gstreamer, ...}

If the toolchain is not installed yet, read ch02 Environment Setup first.

1. SDK Composition

The RK182X is an AI accelerator card in PCIe Endpoint form; it does not run Linux itself. The SDK is an extension package on the host (RK3588 / RK3576) side.

Drivers & Firmware

Component	Role
`pcie-rkep` driver	Host-side PCIe Endpoint driver, enumerates the NPU device
`rknn3_rk1820.img`	NPU firmware, pushed over PCIe by the host
`pcie_upgrade_tool`	Firmware download and device management tool

User-Space Runtime

Component	Role
`librknnrt.so`	On-chip RKNPU inference runtime (not used directly by the RK182X card)
`librknn3_api.so`	Unified RKNN 3.x API (runtime entry point for the RK182X card)
`rknn3_transfer_proxy`	Proxy daemon that hides PCIe details from applications
`librknnsmi.so`	Device information queries

Measured on a real device:

$ systemctl status rknn3.service --no-pager -l | head -15
● rknn3.service - rknn3 runtime service
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/rknn3.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2026-08-14 10:44:12 UTC; 4h 10min ago
   Main PID: 1123 (rknn3_transfer_)
        CPU: 23.728s
   CGroup: /system.slice/rknn3.service
           ├─1123 /bin/rknn3_transfer_proxy
           └─1149 rknn3_transfer_proxy -s 0004:41:00.0

$ /usr/bin/pcie_upgrade_tool ld 2>&1 | sed 's/\x1b\[[0-9;]*m//g'
Program directory: /usr/bin/
List of connected rkep devices
Addr=0004:41:00.0 [1d87:182a]

$ ls -l /dev/pcie-rkep-*
crw------- 1 root root 10, 124  8月20日 16:56 /dev/pcie-rkep-0004:41:00.0

The above is sample output: times / time zones vary by environment; the actual BDF varies by board (0004:41:00.0 measured on this machine); the proxy process name may carry a hash suffix (e.g. rknn3_transfer_proxy_c36211b1), so rely on the actual result of pgrep -f rknn3_transfer_proxy.

Models & Toolchain

Component	Role
`rknn3-toolkit`	Python model conversion / quantization / simulation
`rknn3-model-zoo`	Official pre-built reference models
`rknn3_*_demo`	CNN / LLM / VLM inference demos

Directory Structure

RK1820_RK1828_AI_SDK/
├── driver/pcie-rkep/         # PCIe EP driver source
├── rknn/
│   ├── rknn3-runtime/        # Runtime libraries
│   ├── rknn3-toolkit/        # Model toolchain
│   └── rknn3-model-zoo/      # Reference models
├── examples/                 # Application samples
│   ├── anomaly-detection/    # Industrial anomaly detection (new in V1.0.0)
│   ├── vi_yolo_venc/         # Camera + YOLO + encoding
│   ├── rockit_yolo_detect/   # Rockit + YOLO detection
│   ├── gstreamer/            # GStreamer plugins
│   ├── docker/               # Docker deployment
│   └── web/                  # Web services
├── scripts/                  # Build scripts
├── package/                  # Pre-built artifacts
└── docs/                     # Release Note

2. How Does the RK182X "Boot"?

The RK182X has no boot flow of its own; it depends on the host:

Host RK3588 / RK3576 powers on and boots
        ↓
Host kernel loads the pcie-rkep driver
        ↓
PCI device 1d87:182a enumerated
        ↓
rknn3.service starts
        ↓
pcie_upgrade_tool pushes rknn3_rk1820.img over PCIe
        ↓
rknn3_transfer_proxy starts, exposing the librknn3_api.so interface
        ↓
Application processes can call inference

Key Points

Firmware path: /lib/firmware/rknn3_rk1820.img
Device node: /dev/pcie-rkep-<BDF> (BDF varies by board; use the pcie_upgrade_tool ld output)
Service unit: rknn3.service

3. Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
`rknn-smi info` does not work	`rknn-smi` does not apply to the RK182X card	Use `systemctl status rknn3.service` instead
`librknn3_api.so` not found	Runtime deb not installed	Install the `rknn3-runtime` deb
`pcie_upgrade_tool` missing	SDK not fully extracted	Re-extract the SDK to `$SDK_DIR`
`rknn3_transfer_proxy` not running	Service error	`sudo systemctl restart rknn3.service`

4. Next Steps

NPU Overview — start NPU development
MPP Overview — host-side multimedia framework
Environment Setup — environment setup recap

The NPU / MPP chapters live in the parent env/ subdirectory (not in this quick-start-guide directory), so their link paths differ from other chapters.