5 ms·

A RISC-V laptop or mini PC with Rockchip RK3588-class performance may be coming

18 points by watchdogtimer 4y ago

rbanffy 4y ago
At the moment, the best approach would probably be something like the DevTerm, with pluggable compute modules. The RPi 4 CM connectors are compatible with a number of different modules (RPi and Pine64 being at the top of my head) and the DevTerm has a carrier board for them. If the Pine64 folks decide to resurrect their laptop with one using a CM4 connector, it'll be immediately very upgradable. Extra points if it has an extra CM4 connector for a laptop-internal network. This way you could have RISC-V and ARM64 (or anything else) immediately available. On that, I heard someone is thinking about a replacement motherboard with a CM4 plug for the Framework laptop. I'd love that too.
- johndoe0815 4y ago
  ClockworkPi has already developed a RISC-V version of the Devterm - https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/devterm-kit-r01 https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/devterm-kit-r01 The module is pin compatible with the Raspberry Pi CM3 and is based on the Allwinner D1 SoC, so it’s constrained to 2GB RAM (only a 1GB version is available at the moment).
  - rbanffy 4y ago
    I love their stuff and the CM4 carrier board makes it a lot more powerful
snvzz 4y ago
If this has the ratified, 1.0 V extension, it is going to be awesome. Much faster (well over 2x) than a Raspberry Pi 4, similarly priced, and RISC-V.
mikerg87 4y ago
My needs are modest. I want a machine that could be a daily driver for development. either as a board you build as a kit or a full NUC style like an apple tv or the snapdragon kit Microsoft only sold in the US The Orateck Tofu/CM4 is the right idea. But I could do without so much jank in getting the thing to boot off the m.2 that complicates things and acts as a barrier to entry for new comers. The pi4 is fine but having to use a USB adapter to get reliable SSD storage seems to be an unnecessary complication and feels like being held back on purpose.
imtringued 4y ago
I am disappointed by the performance of a Linux desktop running in Termux on a snapdragon 888. It was easily 10 to 20 times slower than my desktop. According to geekbench the snapdragon is twice as fast. I am not looking forward to a 40x performance difference.

18 points by watchdogtimer 4y ago

At the moment, the best approach would probably be something like the DevTerm, with pluggable compute modules. The RPi 4 CM connectors are compatible with a number of different modules (RPi and Pine64 being at the top of my head) and the DevTerm has a carrier board for them. If the Pine64 folks decide to resurrect their laptop with one using a CM4 connector, it'll be immediately very upgradable. Extra points if it has an extra CM4 connector for a laptop-internal network. This way you could have RISC-V and ARM64 (or anything else) immediately available. On that, I heard someone is thinking about a replacement motherboard with a CM4 plug for the Framework laptop. I'd love that too.

johndoe0815 4y ago
ClockworkPi has already developed a RISC-V version of the Devterm - https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/devterm-kit-r01 https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/devterm-kit-r01 The module is pin compatible with the Raspberry Pi CM3 and is based on the Allwinner D1 SoC, so it’s constrained to 2GB RAM (only a 1GB version is available at the moment).
- rbanffy 4y ago
  I love their stuff and the CM4 carrier board makes it a lot more powerful

snvzz 4y ago

If this has the ratified, 1.0 V extension, it is going to be awesome. Much faster (well over 2x) than a Raspberry Pi 4, similarly priced, and RISC-V.

mikerg87 4y ago

My needs are modest. I want a machine that could be a daily driver for development. either as a board you build as a kit or a full NUC style like an apple tv or the snapdragon kit Microsoft only sold in the US The Orateck Tofu/CM4 is the right idea. But I could do without so much jank in getting the thing to boot off the m.2 that complicates things and acts as a barrier to entry for new comers. The pi4 is fine but having to use a USB adapter to get reliable SSD storage seems to be an unnecessary complication and feels like being held back on purpose.

imtringued 4y ago

I am disappointed by the performance of a Linux desktop running in Termux on a snapdragon 888. It was easily 10 to 20 times slower than my desktop. According to geekbench the snapdragon is twice as fast. I am not looking forward to a 40x performance difference.