RISC-V Mainboard For the Framework Laptop 13 Is Now Available (liliputing.com) 16
The DeepComputing RISC-V Mainboard that Framework announced last year for its 13-inch laptops is now available for $199. Liliputing reports: If you already have a Framework Laptop 13 with an Intel or AMD motherboard, the new board is a drop-in replacement. But if you don't have a Framework Laptop you can also use the mainboard as a standalone computer: Framework sells a $39 Cooler Master case that effectively turns its mainboards into mini desktop computers. The RISC-V Mainboard comes from a partnership between Framework and DeepComputing, the Chinese company behind the DC-ROMA laptops, which were some of the first notebook computers to ship with RISC-V processors.
The board features a StarFive JH7110 processor, which is a 1.5 GHz quad-core chip featuring SiFive U74 RISC-V CPU cores and Imagination BXE-4-32 graphics, 8GB of onboard RAM, and a a 64GB SD card for storage (there's also support for an optional eMMC module, but you'll need to bring your own). Since the board is designed to fit in existing laptop frames, it's the same size and shape as AMD or Intel models and has four USB ports in the same locations. But these ports are a little less versatile than the ones you might find on other Framework Laptop 13 Mainboards [...]. There's also a 3.5mm audio jack. You can check out the new board via the Framework Marketplace.
Further reading: Late last year, Framework CEO Nirav Patel delivered one of the best live demos we've ever seen at a tech conference -- modifying a Framework Laptop from x86 to RISC-V live on stage.
The board features a StarFive JH7110 processor, which is a 1.5 GHz quad-core chip featuring SiFive U74 RISC-V CPU cores and Imagination BXE-4-32 graphics, 8GB of onboard RAM, and a a 64GB SD card for storage (there's also support for an optional eMMC module, but you'll need to bring your own). Since the board is designed to fit in existing laptop frames, it's the same size and shape as AMD or Intel models and has four USB ports in the same locations. But these ports are a little less versatile than the ones you might find on other Framework Laptop 13 Mainboards [...]. There's also a 3.5mm audio jack. You can check out the new board via the Framework Marketplace.
Further reading: Late last year, Framework CEO Nirav Patel delivered one of the best live demos we've ever seen at a tech conference -- modifying a Framework Laptop from x86 to RISC-V live on stage.
How do these compare ? (Score:2)
How does this "a StarFive JH7110 processor, which is a 1.5 GHz quad-core chip featuring SiFive U74 RISC-V CPU cores" compare with an Intel or AMD running at 1.5GHz ? I would like to know how much work they can do (eg SPECspeed) and how much electricity they use (especially important in a laptop).
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Check this out, it should be pretty close:
https://youtu.be/3mhd98AGNXQ [youtu.be]
Framework's price is better than I was expecting.
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The cheapest option now is $299 for the board and antennas, the $199 boards are sold out. It's also only available to business and enterprise customers and impressions are under embargo.
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Here are some actual benchmarks: https://www.phoronix.com/revie... [phoronix.com]
Based on those the performance is much worse than recent ARM offerings, but as your video demonstrates it is still very usable for many basic computing tasks.
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The performance is crap. They really suffer from a lack of useful addressing modes. The only RISC-V CPUs that perform competitively are the ones from Huawei, but they use almost all the instruction set extension space adding addressing modes you need to handle common patterns efficiently.
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Indeed, RISC V is another one of those tragic situations of the worst design becoming the preferred standard. Hopefully some of the extensions become widely adopted.
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RISC-V shows how harmful capitalism is, yes. The only reason it even exists is that ARM is getting progressively greedier, and continually raising their licensing fees to cash in on popularity. That's a reasonable thing to do under capitalism, but it's harmful to The People.
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Performance is not the point of this mainboard.
This is primarily for developers that develop system software for RISC-V. This is perhaps the most attractive computer for a RISC-V developer to use.
For Framework, it is a pilot project, to gain experience that could be applied to future projects.
More info in this interview [youtube.com].
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How does this "a StarFive JH7110 processor, which is a 1.5 GHz quad-core chip featuring SiFive U74 RISC-V CPU cores" compare with an Intel or AMD running at 1.5GHz ?
To be perfectly honest, if you are asking this question then this isn't for you. This is for people who want to see RISC-V succeed in the the future and become a viable platform on all fronts. That can never happen without sufficient funding.
It's kinda like asking if it's cheaper to burn your trash versus having it recycled. Money isn't the point, the point is the clean air.
Familiar chip (Score:2)
Same model of CPU as my StarFive board. I should dump the source code and see where I went wrong.
But some memorable panics were had...
FYI, if you want to try RISC-V inexpensively .... (Score:3)
https://www.raspberrypi.com/pr... [raspberrypi.com]
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It's still only a microcontroller. You won't be able to run Linux on it.
However, the 32-bit "Hazard3" RISC-V cores are quite capable, with a nice instruction set. I think they could be a good starting point if you'd want to learn assembly language, and RISC-V in particular.
And they are faster than the ARM Cortex-M0 cores in the first Pico -- at the same clock-
BTW. They had been developed by a developer at Raspberry Pi, and are open source [github.com].
I wouldn't be surprised if Pico 3 would be RISC-V only.
Legacy, big Pi too (Score:2)
I wouldn't be surprised if Pico 3 would be RISC-V only.
That's actually a possibility.
Usually "legacy" is the biggest barrier to this type of shift.
But Pico2 is already a decent microcontroller, and Raspberry tend to guarantee very longterm availability. So for people who absolutely need backward compatibility with ARM code (legacy libraries?), Pico2 adn RP2340 are going to be available for quite some time (though I haven't managed to find what the current long-term availability promises of Raspberry are).
Also programming microcontroller has progressively becomi
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Now it's also possible that future iterations of the SBC also get some RISC-V sprinkled in
That's precisely what I am hoping far.