RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13 is now available
RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13 is now available
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/25606049
We’re happy to share that DeepComputing’s DC-ROMA RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13 is now in stock and shipping in the Framework Marketplace. This is very much a developer-focused board to help accelerate maturing the software ecosystem around RISC-V, so we recommend waiting for future RISC-V products if you’re looking for a consumer-ready experience. We shared more detail on the Mainboard in an earlier blog post and video, but as a quick summary, this is powered by a StarFive JH7110 processor that uses the open source RISC-V ISA. The team at DeepComputing designed it to drop directly into a Framework Laptop 13 chassis or Cooler Master Mainboard Case.
Nice! I do like my AMD Framework though. But anyhow, nice to see there is a RISC-V option as well. Especially for early birds, that is for sure.
It is absolutely more of a development board than one meant even for early-bird adopters. The processing power is more on-par with a Raspberry Pi. Here's a review of another development board using the same processor: https://bret.dk/risc-v-starfive-visionfive-2-review-jh7110/#Geekbench-6
Compare the Geekbench 6 scores to the Ryzen 7040HS in the Framework 16: https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/4260192
As the review author explains, Geekbench 6 is a bit unfair to the JH7110 since it's missing some processor extensions, but even if we pretended it had a similar lead over the Pi 4 as it does on the Unixbench suite, it'd still be an order of magnitude behind the AMD processor.
You're not really gonna be gaming on this thing, and you might not have a great experience even with normal desktop productivity software. These boards are likely gonna be relegated mostly to compiling code and running tests.
If a future revision is a little more powerful though, it could maybe make for a decent netbook. At just $200 it could also be a pretty good value for the education sector, maybe as a dev board for systems programming courses.
Love what these guys are doing.
There's also a mainboard case, so you don't need the whole laptoppy thing at all if you don't want to
https://frame.work/gb/en/products/cooler-master-mainboard-case
By the time mine dies, this might be viable.
FOSS4life, ride or die!
Do keep in mind this is probably very underpowered. They even recommend waiting for future RISC-V products if you’re looking for a consumer-ready experience.
I'd love to see a (moderately) powerful ARM Framework, like one built on a Snapdragon X Elite or something in that vein
I hope texudo manages soon to get Linux running well on snapdragons!
I've got an irrational, non-evidence-based love for RISC dating back to the 90s PowerPC Mac era. Makes me want one.
Nice! I just bought an ARM laptop and installed Ubuntu on it, only to later learn that Ubuntu package support for RISCV is even more extensive than for ARM. I guess I'll go with RISCV for my next machine.