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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

#71

Post by jwandborg »

lsb wrote: post #63
mrweasel wrote: post #53

Is there something inherently complicated in adding a SATA/M.2 port to board like this? The RaspberryPi is also "disk-less", which to me is one of the major limitations. It's a super interesting little board, and I love that it's a RISC-V, that could really help getting the CPU in the hands of people. I just don't know enough about these things to understand why there are no storage connectors (other than an SD card…

You can get an SD card with 0.5TB capacity on it for USD$30, what storage needs do you foresee? Also these tend to be used where weight is an issue, so, why do you want to lug around a huge disk?

An M.2 SSD is not huge. In my experience, SD cards are way slower than SSDs for random access operations.

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

#72

Post by wiremine »

sradman wrote: post #67
basher wrote: post #13

Arstechnica coverage: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/01/seeed-and-beagleboar...

> Although the first hardware run will be entirely $140 / 8GiB systems, lower-cost variants with less RAM are expected in following releases. > The initial pilot run of BeagleV will use the Vision DSP hardware as a graphics processor, allowing a full graphical desktop environment under Fedora. Following hardware runs will include an unspecified model of Imagine GPU as well. Sounds like a direct competitor to the Rasp…

> Sounds like a direct competitor to the Raspberry Pi.

I would consider the Black and Green to be competitors too.

https://beagleboard.org/

Would be really interested to get a good analysis of the Raspberry Pi, BB Black, and this new board.

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

#73

Post by hajile »

lsb wrote: post #63
mrweasel wrote: post #53

Is there something inherently complicated in adding a SATA/M.2 port to board like this? The RaspberryPi is also "disk-less", which to me is one of the major limitations. It's a super interesting little board, and I love that it's a RISC-V, that could really help getting the CPU in the hands of people. I just don't know enough about these things to understand why there are no storage connectors (other than an SD card…

You can get an SD card with 0.5TB capacity on it for USD$30, what storage needs do you foresee? Also these tend to be used where weight is an issue, so, why do you want to lug around a huge disk?

I suspect they don't necessarily mean spinning platters. A SATA port also allows the connection of an SSD which is almost always a huge boost in usability over SD slots. The fact that you can add a large platter for a small NAS solution is just a nice option.

I'd far rather see a 2x PCIe port that could be used for whatever you wanted.

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

#75

Post by brucehoult »

pantalaimon wrote: post #3

What does affordable mean in that context? There is no price on the website. edit: CNX Software has some more info [0] - it's $119, still a far cry from a Raspberry Pi or Orange Pi [0] https://www.cnx-software.com/2021/01/13/beaglev-powerful-ope...

Raspberry Pi 4 with 8 GB RAM is $75, and that's not counting a power supply, SD card, or HDMI cable. Adding those at pishop.us (16 GB card) takes the price to $95.85.

We don't know whether the BeagleV price includes those necessary items or not but either way coming within a factor of 2 of Raspberry Pi price is pretty impressive at this stage. Up until now you've paid $3000 for a 1.5 GHz RISC-V setup with HDMI and USB etc, if you've got one actually in your hands (HiFive Unleashed plus MicroSemi HiFive Expansion board), or $665 for one that will start delivery in March (HiFive Unmatched). There is also the $499 Icicle which is quad core but only single-issue (like the HiFive Unleashed) and only 600 MHz.

Prices are plummeting.

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

#76

Post by asd4 »

jgjot-singh wrote: post #57
brucehoult wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CPU cores are comparable to the ARM A55, rather than the A72. It's more MHz and a better uarch than the cores in a Pi 3, so should outperform even the newer Pi 3+ on tasks that don't use NEON and don't use more than 2 cores.

Would this have any sort of meaningful impact on sound/music related processing? E.g I am thinking of vst applications running inside DAWs

On the list of features: "Dedicated Audio Processing DSP and sub-system".

The hardware might be there to do some good audio processing, but how it integrates with the OS is something I'm not experienced with.

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

#77

Post by mrweasel »

lsb wrote: post #63
mrweasel wrote: post #53

Is there something inherently complicated in adding a SATA/M.2 port to board like this? The RaspberryPi is also "disk-less", which to me is one of the major limitations. It's a super interesting little board, and I love that it's a RISC-V, that could really help getting the CPU in the hands of people. I just don't know enough about these things to understand why there are no storage connectors (other than an SD card…

You can get an SD card with 0.5TB capacity on it for USD$30, what storage needs do you foresee? Also these tend to be used where weight is an issue, so, why do you want to lug around a huge disk?

The SD card on the Raspberry Pi is 50 MBps max, if I recall. That's a little slow if you want to use it as a small desktop.

I don't want to lug around anything, I want it to sit behind my monitor. Also an M.2 drive isn't that big, it could fit in many existing cases.

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

#78

Post by jdkticom »

alkonaut wrote: post #40

Can someone explain the technical benefits of this architecture over the competition? That is should I be excited if I don't care about e.g. openness? Or is it simply an effort to create something that is a half-decent cpu alternative but open? Is there anything about RISC-V that is "better" simply because it is a later design than others? Is it likely to evolve faster because it is open or more modern?

One of the other replies points to the RISC-V extensions feature. I think for someone who "doesn't care about openness" would at least benefit from that in the architecture. It means the same compiler can be used to bootstrap things and simple steps can be added to greatly optimize specific types of code, like AI stuff. This board really stands out in AI performance.

Also, having things open means that the supply-chain can be more stable, with less chances of a single glitch in the system halting deliveries for any time. This is driving a lot of interest in RISC-V right now.

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

#79

Post by mrweasel »

hajile wrote: post #73
lsb wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get an SD card with 0.5TB capacity on it for USD$30, what storage needs do you foresee? Also these tend to be used where weight is an issue, so, why do you want to lug around a huge disk?

I suspect they don't necessarily mean spinning platters. A SATA port also allows the connection of an SSD which is almost always a huge boost in usability over SD slots. The fact that you can add a large platter for a small NAS solution is just a nice option. I'd far rather see a 2x PCIe port that could be used for whatever you wanted.

I would love to see a Micro-ATX og Mini-ITX board with an ARM or RISC-V CPU, with PCIe ports and storage connectors. There are ARM boards, but they're a little pricy.

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

#80

Post by tachyonbeam »

hajile wrote: post #73
lsb wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get an SD card with 0.5TB capacity on it for USD$30, what storage needs do you foresee? Also these tend to be used where weight is an issue, so, why do you want to lug around a huge disk?

I suspect they don't necessarily mean spinning platters. A SATA port also allows the connection of an SSD which is almost always a huge boost in usability over SD slots. The fact that you can add a large platter for a small NAS solution is just a nice option. I'd far rather see a 2x PCIe port that could be used for whatever you wanted.

I think it's just that most people want to use the Raspberry Pi for toy projects. They're trying to keep the cost down, and to keep the board small. If you want something like micro ATX ARM motherboard, that's a different use case. The large majority of Raspberry Pi users are fine with USB 3.0 ports for I/O.
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