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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

#91

Post by chaosharmonic »

simcop2387 wrote: post #10
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.

It's still a decent start, and I'm hoping future versions will begin open sourcing the rest of the chip core like the memory controller. It'd be nice to have a good DDR IP core for things like this. EDIT: Removed a bit of the comment from a misunderstanding from reading the article

Isn't Alibaba also in the process of open-sourcing the XT910 design?

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

#92

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

snvzz wrote: post #87
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm OK with no graphics as an alternative Then you'll be fine with the first version of this, since it's exactly that.

Yeah, I noticed. And hopefully by the time the 2nd version comes, they'll have understood who they're selling these to... or there'll be alternatives.

Yeah, I'm hoping that the delay before the second edition is enough that they can change course on it, too. Either way, better to have more riscv options than fewer:)

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

#93

Post by userbinator »

monocasa wrote: post #84
userbinator wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now, x86 needs one set of instructions for each SIMD data size. If you look at the encodings, many of them are actually the same opcodes as the original MMX, but with prefixes. In the proposed RISCV design, you wouldn’t have to. It would just work on all sizes. That doesn't make sense --- how would the code know how much to increment pointers by, how many times to loop, alignment, etc. ? Unless they added some…

> That doesn't make sense --- how would the code know how much to increment pointers by, how many times to loop, alignment, etc. ? You ask the hardware. The current vector width is a register that can be set and queried. https://gms.tf/riscv-vector.html

That is interesting... and actually feels a bit CISCy, but this

Configuring a grouping of 8 registers for a vector of 16 elements might look like overkill because 128 bit vector registers are sufficient and should be widely available. On the other hand, there might be a CPU with "V" support that just implements - say - 64 bit vector registers where we would need to group 2 registers. Since a grouping thus may be needed it really doesn't hurt to configure the maximum here.

...seems to imply that the generated code may still need to assume certain widths.

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

#94

Post by lsllc »

rkagerer wrote: post #41
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)

They did but the founder started up again with the same design. Only the price is much higher (can't blame them, the CHIP-Pro was a steal which I think is why they went under).

EDIT: The reboot was called Source Parts but it looks like they may have gone under also. Too bad, the CHIP-Pro was pretty nice.

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

#95

Post by CameronNemo »

ecesena wrote: post #88

What's the latest on a cheap, small board where you can run linux, with BLE & WiFi 2.4/5GHz? Rpi Zero W and the corresponding Banana Pi M2 Zero meet all criteria except the 5GHz. Beside these, I have a really hard time finding any cheap alternative. There's plenty of embedded devices for iot, from arduino to all others. But 100% of the iot I have in my apartment are actually powered and don't need a batter/extremely…

Is there an issue with using an external WiFi adapter?

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

#96

Post by zucker42 »

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.

The question is why is a charity organization devoted to education using DRM for protectionism rather than taking an approach where knowledge is more freely shared.

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

#97

Post by throwaway4good »

bydo wrote: post #77
monocasa wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we know the foundry? I like your idea because I could see the Chinese government doing this to help prop up SMIC too. The RPi4 isn't any smaller than 16nm, and SMIC needs 14nm customers. Shoot for the 500MHz target listed, which is achievable with Victorian era style over engineering. Next sell those more or less at cost after the government footed the bill for initial capital (probably paying back .gov.cn first).…

Image in the article says TSMC 28nm. https://www.cnx-software.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Pico...

That the US has gotten TSMC to boycot Huawei is quite recent. The deal for this was probably done before the latest sanctions.

TSMC has massive economies of scale and are just very hard for alternatives to compete with.

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

#98

Post by cellularmitosis »

nsajko wrote: post #17

Why is RISC-V even so hyped up/successful? Other open ISAs precede it, and AFAIK the code density that RISC-V allows is disappointing considering the designers had an opportunity to start from scratch.

are there any cheap risc-v sbc's yet? (or would this be the first?)

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

#100

Post by pabs3 »

Alupis wrote: post #61
ekianjo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Broadcom SoC is probably protected by a bunch of patents and/or trade secrets, which makes it impractical to open source. For example the whole boot process is a black box, which is why you have to use Raspbian and not regular Debian.

That's not really true anymore. Device Tree and other things help with this, although you do still require certain BLOB's to access the GPU and other features.

Since the GPU starts before the CPU, you need a blob to boot the GPU before you can start open code on the CPU. There is open GPU boot firmware being worked on but it isn't ready yet and relies on GCC support for the GPU, which isn't mainlined yet and the authors don't intend to mainline. So probably RPi will need blobs to boot for the foreseeable future.

https://github.com/librerpi/rpi-open-firmware https://github.com/itszor/vc4-toolchain/issues/7

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