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PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an open-source alternative to Raspberry Pi board

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Re: PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an open-source alternative to Raspberry Pi board

#41

Post by rkagerer »

lsllc wrote: post #37

If this is real ... sign me up! I have a couple of RISC-V Arduino clones, interesting but not that useful. I've ported software to RISC-V using the Fedora RISC-V port running under QEMU. It'll be nice to finally get inexpensive Linux capable hardware in hand! Of course, what would be really good would be a CHIP-Pro style module that is a complete Linux SBC suitable for inclusion in a IoT PCB design. Thus far, the CHI…

Didn't Next Thing Co, the makers of CHIP, go bankrupt? (I recall a Voder backer order I had with them that never materialized)

Re: PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an open-source alternative to Raspberry Pi board

#42

Post by snvzz »

batsigner wrote: post #15
ColanR wrote: post #2

Promising hardware, though this isn't looking like comparable hardware even to the Raspberry Pi Zero. Only has a quad-core 64-bit RISC-V (RV64GC) processor at 500+ MHz. RAM size not specified. If it was priced in the $5-15 range it would be more or less practical, but higher than that I'd be buying it solely for the architecture novelty.

A board competitive with the Raspberry Pi 1B (800 MHz single core) is not "incomparable."

rpi1b is still on sale, sure.

It would be up to picorio being more open than the pi (easy to do, but not if they fuck up by including a powervr gpu) and/or using less power.

Re: PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an open-source alternative to Raspberry Pi board

#43

Post by drmpeg »

ColanR wrote: post #2

Promising hardware, though this isn't looking like comparable hardware even to the Raspberry Pi Zero. Only has a quad-core 64-bit RISC-V (RV64GC) processor at 500+ MHz. RAM size not specified. If it was priced in the $5-15 range it would be more or less practical, but higher than that I'd be buying it solely for the architecture novelty.

I'm a little concerned that these RV64GC implementations all end up at about 500-600 MHz. There's plenty of 1.5 GHz ARM processors at 28 nm.

Re: PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an open-source alternative to Raspberry Pi board

#44

Post by rjsw »

byset wrote: post #32

Interesting that the group behind this is Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, which is sponsored by UC Berkeley as well as a major Chinese university and the Shenzhen government. China is quite interested in RISC-V gaining traction as trade and security barriers rise and they work to build up their domestic technology sector. Going into wild-ass speculation mode, if this board really is affordable, I wonder if it's…

I thought that the CPU in the original Raspberry Pi was designed for set top boxes not mobile phones.

Re: PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an open-source alternative to Raspberry Pi board

#45

Post by snvzz »

ansible wrote: post #28
m4rtink wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only is the SoC and board RPi uses open hardware, it has hardware DRM in place to prevent people using custom camera modules: https://mobile.twitter.com/marcan42/status/10884725497159188...

If you read a little further down in that thread, Eben Upton says that it is to prevent other camera vendors from just using the ISP tuning they developed for their official camera. You can still use some other camera with a CSI-compatible interface.

That's just PR talk. DRM is not ok.

Re: PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an open-source alternative to Raspberry Pi board

#46

Post by snvzz »

monocasa wrote: post #3

Oof, GPU by Imagination Technologies. Here's hoping their close brush with death opened them to the idea of open sourcing their code.

Oof indeed.

I'd rather unaccelerated graphics. Hell, take any display solution from opencores.

But don't give me proprietary garbage and especially not PowerVR. I'm OK with no graphics as an alternative. Hell, I could always use some USB display solution.

Re: PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an open-source alternative to Raspberry Pi board

#47

Post by stefan_ »

neilpanchal wrote: post #22
PedroBatista wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Foundation doesn't make the SoCs, Broadcom does.

Also, its not possible to write your own DSI/MIPI drivers for a phone LCD that you can buy on eBay, partly for not having the DSI/MIPI specification unless you pay upwards of thousands of dollars a year and Raspberry Pi doesn't allow access to the DSI/MIPI HAL layer - its part of the SOC which Broadcom controls. About the only way to make a device with an LCD is to use the built-in HDMI.

Nothing they can do about the specification. There is a DSI driver in the proprietary firmware, but there is also an open-source upstream version:

https://github.com/anholt/linux/wiki/Raspberry-Pi-and-other-...

This is a theme with the RPi. They generally implement new hardware in their proprietary firmware first, for lack of skills/time to do a proper upstream job of it (or the convience of copy-pasting some vendor code), then pay someone to develop an open-source driver. For example, here is a massive 80 patch series nearing merge for the new display pipeline in the RPi 4:

https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/series/73839/

Re: PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an open-source alternative to Raspberry Pi board

#48

Post by derekp7 »

rjsw wrote: post #44
byset wrote: post #32

Interesting that the group behind this is Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, which is sponsored by UC Berkeley as well as a major Chinese university and the Shenzhen government. China is quite interested in RISC-V gaining traction as trade and security barriers rise and they work to build up their domestic technology sector. Going into wild-ass speculation mode, if this board really is affordable, I wonder if it's…

I thought that the CPU in the original Raspberry Pi was designed for set top boxes not mobile phones.

I also recall that it was actually primarily a GPU chip which had an ARM core originally intended as a driver for the GPU (and not really intended as a primary processor). And they were leftovers from larger volume chip runs.

Re: PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an open-source alternative to Raspberry Pi board

#49

Post by mrlambchop »

derekp7 wrote: post #48
rjsw wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought that the CPU in the original Raspberry Pi was designed for set top boxes not mobile phones.

I also recall that it was actually primarily a GPU chip which had an ARM core originally intended as a driver for the GPU (and not really intended as a primary processor). And they were leftovers from larger volume chip runs.

The BCM2835 was originally a high volume shipping cell phone GPU for Nokia with a different part number (BCM2708) and the ARM core enabled internally. It was also stacked with DDR memory.

It shipped first in a STB for Roku, but that was happenstance vs any design intention.

The market for separate cell phone GPUs died off, but the die was manufactured still for the RPi.

Re: PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an open-source alternative to Raspberry Pi board

#50

Post by ArchD »

"even though the goal is to eventually have as much IP released under a BSD-like open source license"

What do people mean _exactly_ by 'IP' in contexts like this related to computing boards such as SBCs and FPGAs?

The only 'IP' I know is a term pertaining to legal concepts like patents, where 'IP' and 'patent' are almost synonymous. In the current context, what does it mean to 'release' this 'IP'? How do you 'release' a patent?

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