9 ms·
Balthazar Personal Computing Device, a 13” RISC-V laptop
- 1MachineElf 6y agoThe concept image indicates a red trackpoint at the center of the keyboard. Hopefully that makes it into the final product.
- petee 6y agoIt's worth pointing out that this is a NLNet Foundation funded project; they seem to back useful projects, from the ones I've seen personally
- duskwuff 6y agoIn case it wasn't clear to anyone: this is a product very early in the planning phase, to the extent that many of the features are unspecified (no processor has been chosen, they aren't even certain on whether it'll be RISC-V or ARM), underspecified to the point of being unintelligible ("detachable USB gender-changer dongle"), or outright ridiculous (SSH-based communications between the keyboard and CPU). I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a product here. This does not have the smell of success on it.
- ianai 6y agoLike seriously what would an ssh client running on the keyboard even achieve? Maybe they’re thinking of encrypting it. But keyloggers running at the OS level don’t care. Or is this to force people to only use their keyboards? Or maybe it’ll just add a billion to their SPAC buyout.
- striking 6y agoFor anyone else who wants to take a peek for themselves at the concerns raised in this comment: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://balthazar.space/wiki/Features https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:... Another thing that doesn't seem to line up with reality is the idea that they might convince Nvidia to make their stuff FOSS enough to be included in this project.
- CameronNemo 6y agoI assumed that when I read the words riscv and laptop, but then I saw nlnet was backing the project. I wonder what they are hoping to get out of the project.
- Hyp3rion 6y ago> While being versatile and robust it also follows CERN OSHL, GNU-GPL, FOSS, EOMA, ISA and even CC guidelines This is almost the most concerning part. They're treating FOSS like it's some kind of standard. It's not. FOSS just means software that is free and open source. Something is, or isn't FOSS. You don't follow some standard to deliver a FOSS product. I also couldn't find a single reference to CERN OSHL anywhere online other than on their website. The closest thing I could find was Out-of-school-hours learning... again, if that's what they meant this is doomed.
- mkl 6y agoI think by "CERN OSHL" they mean the CERN Open Hardware License: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN_Open_Hardware_License https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN_Open_Hardware_License There's no "Source" in the name.
- akadruid1 6y agothe acronym salad seems to support it being vapourware, but I think CERN OSHL is a typo for a real thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN_Open_Hardware_Licence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN_Open_Hardware_Licence
- arduinomancer 6y agoThere's gotta be some reasoning behind those but when you put it that way it sounds like some hilarious marketing speak. "We're putting blockchain technology in the trackpad" "Machine learning in the power button"
- nrp 6y agoThis may sound insane, but machine learning in the power button may be a thing already. Fingerprinter readers (often built into the power button) have moved from “match on host” to “match on chip”, and it’s possible some of them use ML-based matching.
- mhh__ 6y ago"We used a malleable logarithmic casing to construct the chassis of the laptop"
- turminal 6y agoLooks like the good ol' "Have you tried logarithms? " worked for them. https://xkcd.com/451/ https://xkcd.com/451/
- Conlectus 6y agoNote, the grandparent is not actually quoting the website, they are referencing the fictional Turboencabulator[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turboencabulator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turboencabulator
- NovemberWhiskey 6y agoYeah - clicked on this expecting to see vaporware; was not disappointed.
- mkl 6y agoYes. While it sounds impressive, it seems more like a fantasy jumble of every desirable feature they can think of than an actual plan. "Keyboard is QUERTY". How do you misspell "QWERTY"? Yet I'm hoping they did. They seem to be hoping for a Pixel Qi style screen (but self-developed?), but describe its reflective mode as: "A non-reflective - a button driven backlight “off” monochrome mode for very low-power use in sunlight" Confusion between trackpoint and trackball: "track-point ball"
- indigodaddy 6y agoPerhaps it’s just an English as a second language thing? Note, I have no idea the background of who is behind the project..
- floatboth 6y agoMy favorite is the GPU paragraph: > While NVIDIA would be technically possibly the best performance choice, issues arise with general attitude towards FOSS compatibilty. In any case we look and listen into NVIDIA and CUDA options, accelerating totally open documentation from NVIDIA's side. Also the NVIDIA's Jetson IoT and AI platform is researched for a compatibility with RISC-V architecture, ISA and FOSS Uh, surely they don't mean the retro ISA bus, right? :D On a more serious note if I could build a big (dGPU oriented) open laptop I would put an MXM slot in there, so that existing Radeon cards could be used.
- q3k 6y agoISA == Intruction Set Architecture.
- floatboth 6y agoOf course, but the way they use it makes no sense.
- duskwuff 6y agoThere's another level of WTF in that paragraph. "NVIDIA Jetson" is a marketing name used for a series of Tegra development boards. Tegra is an ARM SoC in and of itself. It isn't a discrete graphics solution.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- stan_rogers 6y agoWhat, exactly, is unintelligible about a "detachable USB gender-changer dongle"? A gender-changing adapter is one that has either a male connector at both ends or a female connector at both ends. They're used in damned near anything involving plugs and cables - or hoses, for that matter. It's not a mystery marketing term or anything. In this case, it would be female at both ends, providing a degree of physical security when not in place (as both the USB device to be plugged in and the dongle-less computer would have male connectors), and, as described, would also act as a security dongle when attached (the USB port needs to see the dongle and have it password-activated in order to use the USB port, so a simple passthru gender-changer won't give access).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- csense 6y agoAny fan of '90s JRPG's will tell you this product shares its name with an engineer who finished his masterpiece in the year 2300. The irony is strong.
- philipkglass 6y agoIt's getting hugged to death. Mirror: https://web.archive.org/web/20210205204013/https://balthazar.space/wiki/Balthazar https://web.archive.org/web/20210205204013/https://balthazar... Can it possibly be be used with Libreboot? It would be nice to have some newly manufactured hardware in laptop form that Libreboot can use.
- CameronNemo 6y agoCan libreboot target any ARM SoCs? It seems like u-boot with a verified boot path is not a common configuration, while the coreboot ecosystem has a number of security oriented payloads.
- philipkglass 6y agoThe Libreboot wiki lists one ARM based system as supported, a particular Chromeboook: https://libreboot.org/docs/hardware/c201.html https://libreboot.org/docs/hardware/c201.html
- spijdar 6y agoI think it's fair to point out libreboot is a fork off coreboot, and while libreboot is basically a dead project at this point, coreboot development continues. Chromebooks tend to use coreboot natively, and on some chromebooks, you can recompile and reflash coreboot, sometimes with no binary blobs. Google makes this (reflashing the firmware) surprisingly easy in many cases, although there are often many caveats to running linux/alternative firmware on chromebooks, to the point it's kind of hard to recommend buying one for this purpose.
- duskwuff 6y ago> Can it possibly be be used with Libreboot? No. Libreboot lacks support for any of the hardware under consideration by this project. Libreboot is essentially a dead project. It only supports a limited number of Penryn-era (roughly 2007-2010) Intel laptops, and -- strangely -- the RK3288C-based Chromebook C210.
- xiphias2 6y agoI'd happily buy a RISC-V laptop, but I think it's too early, mobile phones and servers will come first. Also the artist rendering is ugly, I would expect an ultra-light laptop from a low power architecture. I want to see how it competes with Apple's M1 processor in speed (especially that the web page writes that it's a fast laptop) and power utilization.
- m463 6y agoI think risc-v might work best as a server For phone/desktop/laptop a rough spot would be the GPU. And possibly perf/watt. The M1 meanwhile most likely has billions of dollars of development behind it.
- xiphias2 6y agoI don't see why RISC-V couldn't have billions of dollars behind it in 10-20 years. For Chinese phones I don't see any better architecture right now, as they can't depend on ARM forever, it's too risky for them.
- wk_end 6y agoIsn't China pretty heavily invested into MIPS with the Loongson? Is there any good reason for them to drop that for RISC-V?
- xiphias2 6y agoRISC-V has a huge effort behind it to run all available open source software. Even though there’s a MIPS Android port, it just doesn’t have the amount of backing that RISC-V is getting from hundreds of companies (basically all big companies)
- spijdar 6y agoI'd expect less activity around the MIPS port because it is, by and large, already fully functional and a first class citizen of Android, while RISC-V is still being fully bootstrapped. Further, software like Chrome/Chromium and V8 already have functioning MIPS ports, which will be (a lot of) additional work not currently being performed for RISC-V. Compared to RISC-V, almost everything in the Linux ecosystem should already "just work" on MIPS. I think it's fair to ask why there wouldn't be more development of MIPS, which is effectively a Chinese owned ISA at this point, since it's more mature than RISC-V, if not as "exciting".
- 1MachineElf 6y ago>For all children 9-99
- meowster 6y agoAh, the EOMA68. Everyone once in a while there will be an update, but I've pretty much resigned to the fact that I'll never see the items I backed.
- pabs3 6y agoSounds like EOMA68 are in the final stages of testing before they ship them out: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/100-a20-computer-cards-ready-for-testing https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/100...
- brucehoult 6y agoIt's only 4 1/2 years after it was fully funded, with an original shipping date six months later.
- pengaru 6y agoLooks like vapor. The MNT Reform 2 [0] already exists, shares common goals, and is entirely compatible with a future risc-v SoM with its modular design. [0] https://mntmn.com/reform https://mntmn.com/reform
- tempodox 6y ago> This page was last edited on 9 May 2020, at 21:42. Also, looking at some of the details, might this be the output of a vaporware hoax generator? I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this.
- sub7 6y agoThey sell a $280 Windows 10 Pro laptop in India that is not slow at all and has an ethernet port/hdmi port etc. I've found it much more useful than my $5k macbook pro 16
- supermatt 6y agoFrom the description it sounds like this will effectively be an SBC in a laptop case. Is anyone aware of such a thing? I would certainly be keen on a laptop "enclosure" for an SBC. EDIT: found a bunch here, but they feel a bit clunky to my eyes: https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articles/the-best-raspberry-pi-laptop-kits https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articles/the-best-raspberry-pi...