Milk-V Mars: RISC-V credit card size SBC • Hacker News Board

Re: Milk-V Mars: RISC-V credit card size SBC

#11

Post by freedomben » Tue, Jun 20, 2023, 7:23 PM UTC

synergy20 wrote: post #10

there are so many SBCs these days. if you use them for hobby projects, many of them are fine. if you ever want to convert your project to something commercial, I would still consider raspberry pi and beaglebone instead based on software maturity and community support and their ecosystem at large. I really like NXP's i.MX6/8/9 chips, I wish there are some i.MX SBCs as popular as RPi and Beagles, for both hobby and com…

I would tend to agree, but the supply limitations of the Pis has made me re-think that. I've heard with commercial agreements you can sometimes get Pis easier, but for launching a new product I'd be terrified that my growth would be hampered/limited by availability of the Pi

Re: Milk-V Mars: RISC-V credit card size SBC

#12

Post by xhrpost » Tue, Jun 20, 2023, 7:26 PM UTC

synergy20 wrote: post #10

there are so many SBCs these days. if you use them for hobby projects, many of them are fine. if you ever want to convert your project to something commercial, I would still consider raspberry pi and beaglebone instead based on software maturity and community support and their ecosystem at large. I really like NXP's i.MX6/8/9 chips, I wish there are some i.MX SBCs as popular as RPi and Beagles, for both hobby and com…

I feel like there are ton of SBC designs out there. Many are still in Kickstarter/Launch phase. Others are sold-out. And the few that aren't sold out are selling for much higher than their reference price.

Re: Milk-V Mars: RISC-V credit card size SBC

#13

Post by gh02t » Tue, Jun 20, 2023, 7:30 PM UTC

mandelken wrote: post #5

I wonder what graphics chip this is using?

Looks to be Imagination BXE-4-32 GPU, courtesy of https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/08/29/starfive-jh7110-risc... .

Re: Milk-V Mars: RISC-V credit card size SBC

#14

Post by RobotToaster » Tue, Jun 20, 2023, 7:39 PM UTC

synergy20 wrote: post #10

there are so many SBCs these days. if you use them for hobby projects, many of them are fine. if you ever want to convert your project to something commercial, I would still consider raspberry pi and beaglebone instead based on software maturity and community support and their ecosystem at large. I really like NXP's i.MX6/8/9 chips, I wish there are some i.MX SBCs as popular as RPi and Beagles, for both hobby and com…

>if you ever want to convert your project to something commercial

Surely at that point you would just treat the SBC as a reference design and fab your own boards?

Re: Milk-V Mars: RISC-V credit card size SBC

#15

Post by IshKebab » Tue, Jun 20, 2023, 7:41 PM UTC

Thickest credit card I've ever seen!

Re: Milk-V Mars: RISC-V credit card size SBC

#16

Post by parl_match » Tue, Jun 20, 2023, 7:43 PM UTC

RobotToaster wrote: post #14

synergy20 wrote: post #10

there are so many SBCs these days. if you use them for hobby projects, many of them are fine. if you ever want to convert your project to something commercial, I would still consider raspberry pi and beaglebone instead based on software maturity and community support and their ecosystem at large. I really like NXP's i.MX6/8/9 chips, I wish there are some i.MX SBCs as popular as RPi and Beagles, for both hobby and com…

>if you ever want to convert your project to something commercial Surely at that point you would just treat the SBC as a reference design and fab your own boards?

A lot of commercial projects based on SBCs are relatively niche. It's very common to see things like lighting controllers, hobbyist stuff, etc, that's in the run size of 500 at the very most, basically be a raspberry pi with a custom hat in a custom plastic case. That can sustain a medium sized business.

Designing and fabbing your own boards doesn't always make sense until you're on a version 2, or 3.

Re: Milk-V Mars: RISC-V credit card size SBC

#17

Post by squarefoot » Tue, Jun 20, 2023, 7:45 PM UTC

synergy20 wrote: post #10

there are so many SBCs these days. if you use them for hobby projects, many of them are fine. if you ever want to convert your project to something commercial, I would still consider raspberry pi and beaglebone instead based on software maturity and community support and their ecosystem at large. I really like NXP's i.MX6/8/9 chips, I wish there are some i.MX SBCs as popular as RPi and Beagles, for both hobby and com…

> if you ever want to convert your project to something commercial, I would still consider raspberry pi and beaglebone

Last time I checked, Broadcom forced you to integrate their compute modules into your product because there was no way they would sell their CPUs alone, no matter how many of them one would be willing to buy. That is not normal in the industrial world. As an example, the Allwinner H3 used in a lot of boards is $5 each for 1000+ pieces at Alibaba, or $10 at Olimex in the EU in single quantity. It's also well documented. https://linux-sunxi.org/H3

Things may be different with the RP2040, which is a very interesting part, but that chip has nothing in common, except the name, with the ones running the bigger Linux capable Raspberries.

Re: Milk-V Mars: RISC-V credit card size SBC

#18

Post by leonheld » Tue, Jun 20, 2023, 7:51 PM UTC

synergy20 wrote: post #10

there are so many SBCs these days. if you use them for hobby projects, many of them are fine. if you ever want to convert your project to something commercial, I would still consider raspberry pi and beaglebone instead based on software maturity and community support and their ecosystem at large. I really like NXP's i.MX6/8/9 chips, I wish there are some i.MX SBCs as popular as RPi and Beagles, for both hobby and com…

> I wish there are some i.MX SBC

You can buy a Toradex, Variscite or PHYTEC module and pop a binary distro like Debian in there very easily.

Disclosure: I work for one of the companies above.

Re: Milk-V Mars: RISC-V credit card size SBC

#19

Post by sschueller » Tue, Jun 20, 2023, 7:55 PM UTC

IshKebab wrote: post #15

Thickest credit card I've ever seen!

Yes, I am quite disappointed because I thought from the headline that it would actually fit in my wallet.

Re: Milk-V Mars: RISC-V credit card size SBC

#20

Post by PlutoIsAPlanet » Tue, Jun 20, 2023, 7:56 PM UTC

How does it boot?

Or is RISC-V going to follow the same problems as the ARM SBC system where each board has an obscure and unique boot process meaning images need to be carefully pre-built with who knows what installed for each board.