RISC-V (riscv64)
#1
Since I am interested in the RISC-V architecture and the everyday use of open technologies, it would be nice to use a more open technology in my desktop (at the moment my desktop is RockPro64, about two years, if I'm not mistaken), so I want to know there are no plans to release boards with riscv64 processor?
So far there is one board for a good price and performance (at least according to the description).
donation   slarm64

  Reply
#2
If the EOMA86 (sp?) guy is to believed, then RISC-V are not really as "open" as they like to market themselves, but rather just another group who are riding the current wave of "open source" popularity.

I have no reason to doubt EOMA86 guy (sorry, his name is not coming to me this moment) because he seems to have dedicated a large part of his life towards F/LOSS, and now /H with the libre-soc project.  In fact, that project used to be called libre-RISC, but they changed it somewhat recently...  Guess why?  Wink
Cheers,
TRS-80

What is Free Software and why is it so important for society?

Protocols, not Platforms

For the most Linux-y experience on your Linux phone, try SXMO!

I am (nominally) the Armbian Maintainer for PineBook Pro (although severely lacking in time these days).
  Reply
#3
RISC-V is open. But, any company that makes modifications and sells the results, does not have to share the results upstream. That is one of the main differences that GPL people point to as non-open source. However, this allows a company to embed a RISC-V processor in a device, (Western Digital and nVidia comes to mind), and not have to disclose the design modifications to their competitors.

As for the BeagleV, it's not completely suitable as a replacement desktop. Here are what I think it's missing;
  • The HDMI is 1080P@30FPS but some computer monitors support 50 to 76hz, so it would not work on those
  • Storage via SD card only is a bit limiting. A single SATA DOM port or eMMC connector would have been a good improvement
  • Using a combo slot of UFS/SD would have better than just a SD slot
It would have been nice to also have >1Gbps Ethernet. Like use a 2.5Gbps or 5Gbps chip. Having higher speed wired network would allow faster network share access. Or even booting off network share. At 5Gbps, that's about 500MBytes per second, so assuming your NAS can do that, makes this anywhere from 10 to 100 times faster than a SD card. Plus, MUCH longer endurance.

I do have to give it props for using;
  • USB 3.x for all ports
  • 8GB of RAM
  • Having both WiFi & Ethernet
  • And of course using USB-C for power

Now we have to wait til end of summer for general availability. (The April 2021 release is a limited pilot run for the community.)

PS UFS, (Universal Flash Storage), is one replacement for eMMCs inside smaller devices, like phones & tablets. Their is a "card" version that can be used in a UFS/SD combo slot.
--
Arwen Evenstar
Princess of Rivendale
  Reply
#4
(02-05-2021, 04:39 PM)Arwen Wrote: RISC-V is open. But, any company that makes modifications and sells the results, does not have to share the results upstream. That is one of the main differences that GPL people point to as non-open source. However, this allows a company to embed a RISC-V processor in a device, (Western Digital and nVidia comes to mind), and not have to disclose the design modifications to their competitors.

As for the BeagleV, it's not completely suitable as a replacement desktop. Here are what I think it's missing;
  • The HDMI is 1080P@30FPS but some computer monitors support 50 to 76hz, so it would not work on those
  • Storage via SD card only is a bit limiting. A single SATA DOM port or eMMC connector would have been a good improvement
  • Using a combo slot of UFS/SD would have better than just a SD slot
It would have been nice to also have >1Gbps Ethernet. Like use a 2.5Gbps or 5Gbps chip. Having higher speed wired network would allow faster network share access. Or even booting off network share. At 5Gbps, that's about 500MBytes per second, so assuming your NAS can do that, makes this anywhere from 10 to 100 times faster than a SD card. Plus, MUCH longer endurance.

I do have to give it props for using;
  • USB 3.x for all ports
  • 8GB of RAM
  • Having both WiFi & Ethernet
  • And of course using USB-C for power

Now we have to wait til end of summer for general availability. (The April 2021 release is a limited pilot run for the community.)

PS UFS, (Universal Flash Storage), is one replacement for eMMCs inside smaller devices, like phones & tablets. Their is a "card" version that can be used in a UFS/SD combo slot.

Yes, but for a start, too, not bad, there is another solution, but it is much more expensive, and the ITX form factor is not interesting to me)). the numb is closer to open than closed.

(02-05-2021, 03:10 PM)TRS-80 Wrote: If the EOMA86 (sp?) guy is to believed, then RISC-V are not really as "open" as they like to market themselves, but rather just another group who are riding the current wave of "open source" popularity.

I have no reason to doubt EOMA86 guy (sorry, his name is not coming to me this moment) because he seems to have dedicated a large part of his life towards F/LOSS, and now /H with the libre-soc project.  In fact, that project used to be called libre-RISC, but they changed it somewhat recently...  Guess why?  Wink

That's right, commerce, but still it's better than ARM / x86 / x64 with their policy and even ARM Nvidia has taken over.
donation   slarm64

  Reply
#5
@mara Yes, I agree, the BeagleV is a GREAT start. Even the SiFive Unmatched is a great board, (for what it is, Mini-ITX). Much better than the Unleashed board from 2 years ago.

My hope is that later boards will have a bit more completeness. As I said for the BeagleV, little better storage, video & network. Nothing earth shattering. But I would pay $50 US more for those "improvements".

As for the Unmatched, it kind of needs a pair of SATA or SAS ports, at least 2 DIMM sockets, (instead of, or in addition to soldered memory chips), and a little bit better wired network. (Again, 2.5/5Gbps wired network, or even 100M, 1/2.5/5/10Gbps wired network.) Without those, (at least the SATA/SAS & DIMMs), it is more of a niche market board, (in my opinion). For those that don't know, the Unmatched does have a 16x, (8x electrical), PCIe slot. But, since the board does not otherwise have graphics, it's is expected that slot would be for a graphics card.
--
Arwen Evenstar
Princess of Rivendale
  Reply
#6
I did get clarification on the BeagleV board's HDMI, it does seem to support 1080p@60fps. See this thread;

https://groups.google.com/g/beaglev/c/3etv3OmE-Sc

However, in that same thread it may mean that the HDMI connector is an input for capturing video. Not output. So we will have to see whence they update the specifications.
--
Arwen Evenstar
Princess of Rivendale
  Reply
#7
started porting slackware to riscv64, a little (very slow), gcc 10 compiled on rock64 for 5 days.
donation   slarm64

  Reply
#8
(02-08-2021, 04:04 PM)Arwen Wrote: I did get clarification on the BeagleV board's HDMI, it does seem to support 1080p@60fps. See this thread;

https://groups.google.com/g/beaglev/c/3etv3OmE-Sc

However, in that same thread it may mean that the HDMI connector is an input for capturing video. Not output. So we will have to see whence they update the specifications.
Have to update this, someone researched the issue, and the HDMI output IS 1080p@30fps.

See the linked thread's answer from Jason Kridner on Feb 11, 2021, 11:22:01 AM.
--
Arwen Evenstar
Princess of Rivendale
  Reply
#9
The advantage of RISC-V is its elegantly simple open ISA:  that's not "riding the wave of open-source popularity":  it's a new open instruction set architecture that any cpu factory can play with, without licensing deals!   NVidia (who bought ARM) cannot make that claim.  Removing the licensing aspect lowers cost of experimentation, leading to more innovation: already MicroMagic played with it and created a 5Ghz cpu!.  Assembly programming will be simpler on RISC-V.  Not that I plan on learning RISC-V to that extent; but every dollar I spend is an endorsement on reality, and I want to back the horses that are best for humanity over horses that just look like they're winning the race.
  Reply
#10
there is a ready slarm64-riscv64-current-riscv64-rootfs-20210314.tar.xz ChangeLog.txt
donation   slarm64

  Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  [Article] $8 RISC-V SBC on a Real-Time Operating System: Ox64 + NuttX lupyuen 0 405 12-17-2023, 02:27 AM
Last Post: lupyuen
  [Article] RISC-V Ox64 BL808: UART Interrupt and Platform-Level Interrupt Controller lupyuen 1 517 12-03-2023, 04:24 AM
Last Post: WhiteHexagon
  [Article] RISC-V Ox64 BL808 SBC: NuttX Apps and Initial RAM Disk lupyuen 2 572 11-25-2023, 06:42 PM
Last Post: lupyuen
  Armbian and AltLinux for Star64 (RISC-V) balbes150 28 5,715 11-24-2023, 06:26 AM
Last Post: balbes150
  [Article] RISC-V Ox64 BL808 SBC: Sv39 Memory Management Unit lupyuen 0 445 11-18-2023, 05:39 PM
Last Post: lupyuen
  [Article] RISC-V Ox64 BL808 SBC: Starting Apache NuttX Real-Time Operating System lupyuen 2 652 11-11-2023, 10:09 PM
Last Post: lupyuen
  [Article] Ox64 BL808 RISC-V SBC: Booting Linux and (maybe) Apache NuttX RTOS lupyuen 2 742 11-04-2023, 08:41 PM
Last Post: lupyuen
  power/battery usage on risc-v vs arm64? zetabeta 1 692 08-28-2023, 01:23 AM
Last Post: alphonso
  [Article] RISC-V Star64 JH7110: Inside the Display Controller lupyuen 2 871 08-23-2023, 05:08 PM
Last Post: lupyuen
  [Article] Star64 JH7110 + NuttX RTOS: Creating the First Release for the RISC-V SBC lupyuen 2 972 08-09-2023, 07:39 PM
Last Post: lupyuen

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)