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BeagleV – An affordable RISC-V computer designed to run Linux

beaglev.seeed.cc

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Re: BeagleV – An affordable RISC-V computer designed to run Linux

#281

Post by richardcrossley »

wyldfire wrote: post #275
cjbconnor wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly all SD cards that I've used in Pis and other SBCs have died unpredictably in the past, so I've pretty much given up on using them

This seemed to be such a frequent problem that I have up on ARM SBCs (despite how cool they are). Bought a cheap NUC with a disk and a BIOS and it is working like a champ - boots every time. I probably paid a little more but it's enough for my needs - a simple login and (occasional) DLNA server.

I bought a cheap used ultra small form factor PC with an i5, 8GB of RAM, all for less than 200 USD. It even included a licensed copy of Windows 7 Pro, which I don't use.

Re: BeagleV – An affordable RISC-V computer designed to run Linux

#282

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

lovelyviking wrote: post #277
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the systems I can control, I do all work "disk-less". I strongly prefer it. I like to keep programs and data segregated. The basic setup on NetBSD is as follows, with endless variations possible therefrom. The kernel(s) and userland(s), along with bootloader(s), are on external media, like an SD card or USB stick, marked read-only. There's a RAM-disk in the kernel with a multi-call binary-based userland (custom-ma…

This is interesting setup. Do you know a good guide for such setup?

I actually came up with this myself just playing around with NetBSD. You will probably not find anyone advocating disabling swap. I do not run X11 anymore. I stay in VGA textmode. Doubt anyone would want to do exactly what I do. NetBSD users tend toward DIY and each has their own preferences. If you study how NetBSD's install media are created that will teach you almost everything you need to know. Happy to walk you through it though if you want to try NetBSD.

Chromebooks are claimed to be 100% safe from certain types of attacks. The developers came up with this silly "whitewash" gimmick. Their motivation for a disk-less-like system is to force users to store personal data in the cloud. Ugh. Well, the disk-less systems I have been creating for recreational use long before Chromebooks existed are just as safe. Probably safer because I do not use a graphics layer or a web browser with Javascript interpeter.

Re: BeagleV – An affordable RISC-V computer designed to run Linux

#284

Post by neop1x »

FullyFunctional wrote: post #179
giantrobot wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you want use these as build machines? It seems more efficient to just cross-compile on your fastest build machines. You get much faster CI feedback that way. Obviously you want to validate RISC-V code on native devices but using them as builders seems wasteful. I'm genuinely curious why that's desirable. Maybe I just misunderstand your comment and you want the RISC-V boards for validation i.e. make sure you…

I'm sure the Fedora builds aren't designed for cross compilation (which is far from trivial for most packages not designed for it). Also, man-power is the most precious resource so it would be a waste to spend time trying to cross-compile what could be built natively.

A Docker image with cross-compilation toolchain?

Re: BeagleV – An affordable RISC-V computer designed to run Linux

#285

Post by wyldfire »

paulcarroty wrote: post #278
wyldfire wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seemed to be such a frequent problem that I have up on ARM SBCs (despite how cool they are). Bought a cheap NUC with a disk and a BIOS and it is working like a champ - boots every time. I probably paid a little more but it's enough for my needs - a simple login and (occasional) DLNA server.

NUCs costs much more than Pi, even used.

It costs more upfront, but it's worth it because I don't have to spend my time investigating why it's not working.

Also, when comparing costs you should take into account things like enclosure, power supply, as card(s) etc.

I'd say I probably paid around $250 or so for the NUC and a SODIMM and I had a SATA boot disk already. I had previously owned ODROID, libre computer (le potato), and Pi(s). These were probably in the ballpark of $80-$120 each, when including all the necessary equipment.

Re: BeagleV – An affordable RISC-V computer designed to run Linux

#287

Post by imtringued »

blkbjhjkl wrote: post #192
cogman10 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I just wish there was a faster standard than SD. 100MB/s for solid state is just incredibly slow now-a-days. There's no reason you couldn't kick SD transfer speeds up towards SSD speeds other than the protocol doesn't allow for it.

I wish folks would stop conflating boot media and root media. There's no reason your SD card has to consist of anything more than u-boot. SD is fantastically simple, so that the boot rom can get at a bootloader without much effort (generally the bootrom just looks at a memory offset on the mmc device). Once you start speaking newer faster protocols, this simplicity is lost. You're not likely going to find a bootrom t…

>There's no reason your SD card has to consist of anything more than u-boot.

Oh, that's a nice idea! It would be nice if you linked to a guide or wiki page so that more people can replicate your setup.

Re: BeagleV – An affordable RISC-V computer designed to run Linux

#288

Post by imtringued »

bsder wrote: post #162
hajile wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A PI4 compute unit with 8GB of RAM instead of 1GB (faster, DDR4 instead of DDR3 too) and 32GB eMMC and a quad-core 64-bit CPU with much higher IPC while only costing $90 which is around $50 cheaper than a BeagleBoard AI (the same comparison exists for the Black too). You also get direct PCIe access to do what you want. Beagle just doesn't offer anywhere near the same value.

The Black compared with the older RPi3. And everybody was always "The RPi3 is cheaper". The conversations always went like this: "Cheaper? So, did you count the SD card you need for the RPi?" "But it's cheaper." "And the special power supply because the RPi power systems suck?" "But it's cheaper." "And the keyboard and monitor because it doesn't run headless over USB?" "But it's cheaper." "... Okay, boss, it's cheape…

I'm always irritated by people calling it a $35 computer when you can get complete systems for just a little more.

Re: BeagleV – An affordable RISC-V computer designed to run Linux

#289

Post by imtringued »

unwind wrote: post #250
brucehoult wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Existing and shipping at all is the first step. Low price comes later, with volume.

That makes sense and sounds logical, but (and I'm certainly no historian) didn't the Raspberry Pi debut at a low price?

The original Raspberry Pi was based on surplus stock of Broadcom's SoCs. It was a set top box chip that was produced in high volume.

Re: BeagleV – An affordable RISC-V computer designed to run Linux

#290

Post by imtringued »

numpad0 wrote: post #88
btreecat wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about _reliable_ storage needs?

SD in itself isn't technically unreliable. Lots of smartphones do just fine with eMMC, which is same thing as microSD card except in nonstandard IC chip form thus can't carry SD branding.

Technically it should be the same. In practice manufacturers make certain assumptions.

1. most SD card devices are battery powered

2. SD card failure is acceptable because they are replaceable

3. SD cards are not used as main storage for a computer

That leads to low quality SD cards.

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