Open Source CPU has arrived - RISC-V

[Lucap]

https://www.bit-tech.net/news/sifive-an ... hed-sbc/1/

I've seen talk of this for the last couple of years and it's finally arrived but they want $1,250 plus $40 shipping for it.

[BigEasy]

Money is nothing. What you will do with RISC-V instruction set after $1,250 plus $40?

[Lucap]

Money is nothing. What you will do with RISC-V instruction set after $1,250 plus $40?

Linus Torvalds - RISC-V Linux Port

https://github.com/riscv/riscv-linux

724,451 commits - latest 9 days ago.

[BigEasy]

Great! But from now it's not just a small deal left to do. However there is the good expectation - hardware prices will drops until that.

[Lucap]

The State of RISC-V Hardware & Software In Early 2018

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... Early-2018

Web Video presentation
https://video.fosdem.org/2018/K.1.105/riscv.webm

PDF slides
https://fosdem.org/2018/schedule/event/ ... M_2018.pdf

[mike acker]

interesting

[Portreve]

I have two completely different sets of thoughts on this.

The libre advocate in me is thrilled that clearly the point of this is to build a CPU and supporting componentry as open hardware. I cannot wait for the day when someone can build an entire computer using open hardware.

The long-term user in me feels the need to point out something: Apple put a freight train of time, effort, and money into RISC starting in the early 1990s, and was eventually forced to abandon RISC for Intel's x86-64 CISC by the mid 2000s. Notwithstanding the libre aspect of the thing, I am concerned this is little more than a rehash of what's come before, and motivating companies to switch to this is going to be nigh-unto-impossible given that the major players out there (Apple, Dell, etc.) have little to no true interest in libre licensing. They are only into whatever makes them money because of it being profitable; there is no philosophical concern whatsoever.

Now, that said, a company like Purism could in theory find this very appealing because they are actively producing a range of products (smart phone, tablet, laptop) and their earnest desire is to produce a fully open-hardware system. Having something like this project drop into their lap could surely only be the answer to a prayer. In principle, maybe System76 might care, but I have a hard time determining what business case can be made to pitch this to companies other than those driven by libre ideology (and genuine concern about freedom and safety and making money through selling products which inherently address those needs).

If RISC-V can truly address power consumption concerns and scale not just in size (though that is critical as well) but in clock speed, then it's possible this may have some legs. That said, however, if there is to be wide-spread interest in adopting this technology, then it had pretty much better leave ARM7, ARM8, and x86-64 in the dust, performance-wise without requiring some insane amount of power, and without requiring some insane amount of cooling, both of which were concerns with the PowerPC G5, which never had a laptop iteration made.

[whm1974]

I noticed that this SBC doesn't have any video ports, so how did SiFive managed to use this as a desktop computer?

[Lucap]

I noticed that this SBC doesn't have any video ports, so how did SiFive managed to use this as a desktop computer?

https://www.cnx-software.com/2018/02/04 ... wdfunding/

It's a developers board so most of the connection such as Video is currently via a FMC Connector

[Lucap]

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... -Benchmark

First benchmarks are not very good.

[mike acker]

but we could be on the right track here

in its current state modern digital electronics are generally insecure and not suitable for business purposes. we know they are being used for business purposes. and we also know there is a huge cost for loss due to theft of data as well as ineffective efforts to prevent that loss

the following was a rather revealing discussion of the need for "stateless" hardware:

Joanna Rutkowska at 32C3
Video discusses windows AMT and ME Management Engine

[Lucap]

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... l-Open-Yet

It Turns Out RISC-V Hardware So Far Isn't Entirely Open-Source

[Lucap]

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... ode-Coming

Things have changed so It will now be fully open source.

[Fox7799]

[b]Xubuntu 22.10 can run risc-v software so the next release of Linux Mint 21 probably will too.[/b]