DeepComputing: Early Access Program for RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13
1–10 of 69 posts
Re: DeepComputing: Early Access Program for RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13
#2Took me a while to figure out that the actual pricing was $200 USD for a mainboard (you have to untick value-added services).
Definitely not the best pricing, but also not completely bad considering you get a 64GB microSD and case alongside?
Looking forwards to the next-gen mainboard they hint at in the "value-added package" as the JH7110 really is quite a weak chip (even by RISC-V standards)...
Re: DeepComputing: Early Access Program for RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13
#3This JH7110 is from 2021.
Some specs: https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/08/29/starfive-jh7110-risc...
1.5 GHz CPU core frequency, some old RISC-V cores while we're still waiting for cores with decent single-core performance to compete with modern desktop processors.
Sorry, but for me this board is dead in the water, unless you can't use ARM/x86 for political reasons.
Re: DeepComputing: Early Access Program for RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13
#4Took me a while to figure out that the actual pricing was $200 USD for a mainboard (you have to untick value-added services). Definitely not the best pricing, but also not completely bad considering you get a 64GB microSD and case alongside? Looking forwards to the next-gen mainboard they hint at in the "value-added package" as the JH7110 really is quite a weak chip (even by RISC-V standards)...
the price to functionality is pretty steep. 200 would seem about right for a dev board that supported rva23, but for a CPU without support for the extensions that the ecosystem is going to require it's hard to justify 200 for ~pi3 performance on an already outdated platform
Re: DeepComputing: Early Access Program for RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13
#5This JH7110 is from 2021. Some specs: https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/08/29/starfive-jh7110-risc... 1.5 GHz CPU core frequency, some old RISC-V cores while we're still waiting for cores with decent single-core performance to compete with modern desktop processors. Sorry, but for me this board is dead in the water, unless you can't use ARM/x86 for political reasons.
It's a dev board. Reason to buy it: you need a desktop that has RISC-V cpu inside.
Re: DeepComputing: Early Access Program for RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13
#6How mature is the RISC-V ecosystem for dev machines? VS Code and Jetbrains IDEs are probably not supported, but what about a setup with Fedora, Erlang, Elixir, Node, and maybe NeoVIM?
Re: DeepComputing: Early Access Program for RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13
#7This JH7110 is from 2021. Some specs: https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/08/29/starfive-jh7110-risc... 1.5 GHz CPU core frequency, some old RISC-V cores while we're still waiting for cores with decent single-core performance to compete with modern desktop processors. Sorry, but for me this board is dead in the water, unless you can't use ARM/x86 for political reasons.
It's a dev board. Reason to buy it: you need a desktop that has RISC-V cpu inside.
The problem is that it's a dev board that will likely be slower than QEMU, and is missing half of the Risc-V extensions that you want to test with. (and it supports a maximum of 8gb of ram, so good luck compiling LLVM on it)
Re: DeepComputing: Early Access Program for RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13
#8This JH7110 is from 2021. Some specs: https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/08/29/starfive-jh7110-risc... 1.5 GHz CPU core frequency, some old RISC-V cores while we're still waiting for cores with decent single-core performance to compete with modern desktop processors. Sorry, but for me this board is dead in the water, unless you can't use ARM/x86 for political reasons.
It's a dev board. Reason to buy it: you need a desktop that has RISC-V cpu inside.
If you want a desktop, the Pine64 Star64 is only $90 for the same spec. This is a laptop though.
Re: DeepComputing: Early Access Program for RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13
#9Took me a while to figure out that the actual pricing was $200 USD for a mainboard (you have to untick value-added services). Definitely not the best pricing, but also not completely bad considering you get a 64GB microSD and case alongside? Looking forwards to the next-gen mainboard they hint at in the "value-added package" as the JH7110 really is quite a weak chip (even by RISC-V standards)...
the price to functionality is pretty steep. 200 would seem about right for a dev board that supported rva23, but for a CPU without support for the extensions that the ecosystem is going to require it's hard to justify 200 for ~pi3 performance on an already outdated platform
The RVA23 spec has only just been ratified a couple of weeks ago. It will be a couple of years before there is hardware supporting it.
A suitable RVA22+V chip (SpacemiT 8 core) has only been out on dedicated dev boards for a few months. That's probably going to be their 2025Q2 main board.
Their 2025Q4 main board will be the first high performance RVA22+V one. If the chip happens ... it's struck some political (sanctions) problems.
JH7110 is the right chip for a first board to get the wrinkles ironed out. No one has ever done a 3rd party or non-x86 mainboard for Frame laptops before.
Re: DeepComputing: Early Access Program for RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13
#10This JH7110 is from 2021. Some specs: https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/08/29/starfive-jh7110-risc... 1.5 GHz CPU core frequency, some old RISC-V cores while we're still waiting for cores with decent single-core performance to compete with modern desktop processors. Sorry, but for me this board is dead in the water, unless you can't use ARM/x86 for political reasons.
> This JH7110 is from 2021.
First retail customer deliveries of mass-production JH7110 chip and board were February 2023. First laptops with it were at the end of 2023.
The CPU cores used (U74) were announced in October 2018. The first high-priced dev boards using essentially test chips (HiFive Unmatched $650, BeagleV Starlight unknown price, 300 were made and given away to developers) were mid 2021.
It is important to distinguish the dates of availability of RTL for a core, first tests chips of a complete SoC using it, and mass-production as there is usually several years between each stage.
You hear about all these dates in the RISC-V and Arm worlds where each thing (core, SoC, board) is done by different companies, each with a vendor-customer relationship with the previous stage company. You don't hear about them in the more vertically-integrated x86 and Apple worlds.