3 ms·

I suspect the high expense/unavailability of the Rpi is a result of supply chain issues and would affect other sbcs as well, am I wrong?

bb88 4y ago
MCU's are basically locked to a vendor currently. You choose a chip, make your design around it, and hope there won't be a shortage from that vendor, and it's high enough on the vendor's priority list to not hurt your product. If there was a RiscV chip that met a particular standard (x voltage range, y clock speed, same supporting circuitry and software), then we'd have multiple chip vendors creating the same part, and hopefully it would turn into a jelly bean chip.
- numpad0 4y ago
  I don’t see a standardized pin definition coming soon in something as complex as a Linux compatible SoC with DRAM interface - that isn’t a thing sometimes even across a single sub-class of products from a same company. Maybe there will be a gold standard of RISC-V SoC like there was the Intel 8086, and bunch of clones could show up. That was close to happening with ATmega32U, but ultimately the clones disappeared.
  - a9h74j 4y ago
    More likely in an SBC with only a few buses emerging? Advantage there could be to do your high-density routing and PCB mfg with a smaller trace-width etc process.
- inferiorhuman 4y ago
  How is that different than with ARM? There are plenty of ARM MCUs out these days and it seems like ARM's defeated MIPS for the embedded space. But once you step away from the core ARM bits it's all proprietary.
mrandish 4y ago
According to public statements by the execs at Rpi, the availability issues are due almost entirely to unexpected new demand exceeding their planned production volume (which they claim was quite large and scaled up from previous gens). They report their suppliers have been delivering their parts orders on time and RPi is shipping the full volume of units they always intended for 2022. They are just getting bought up at a much higher rate than expected. They also say some of the issues in buying single units through online consumer retail channels is because RPi is prioritizing filling advance orders from volume integrators. I have no idea the accuracy of what they're saying but fulfilling advance commitments from volume integrators first makes sense as those are long-term customers who are counting on the orders to ship their own products. Shorting those orders would be fairly disastrous as it flag RPi as an unreliable supplier reducing future design wins.
- throwawaymaths 4y ago
  Thank you for the info. I had no idea!

bb88 4y ago

MCU's are basically locked to a vendor currently. You choose a chip, make your design around it, and hope there won't be a shortage from that vendor, and it's high enough on the vendor's priority list to not hurt your product. If there was a RiscV chip that met a particular standard (x voltage range, y clock speed, same supporting circuitry and software), then we'd have multiple chip vendors creating the same part, and hopefully it would turn into a jelly bean chip.

numpad0 4y ago
I don’t see a standardized pin definition coming soon in something as complex as a Linux compatible SoC with DRAM interface - that isn’t a thing sometimes even across a single sub-class of products from a same company. Maybe there will be a gold standard of RISC-V SoC like there was the Intel 8086, and bunch of clones could show up. That was close to happening with ATmega32U, but ultimately the clones disappeared.
- a9h74j 4y ago
  More likely in an SBC with only a few buses emerging? Advantage there could be to do your high-density routing and PCB mfg with a smaller trace-width etc process.
inferiorhuman 4y ago
How is that different than with ARM? There are plenty of ARM MCUs out these days and it seems like ARM's defeated MIPS for the embedded space. But once you step away from the core ARM bits it's all proprietary.

mrandish 4y ago

According to public statements by the execs at Rpi, the availability issues are due almost entirely to unexpected new demand exceeding their planned production volume (which they claim was quite large and scaled up from previous gens). They report their suppliers have been delivering their parts orders on time and RPi is shipping the full volume of units they always intended for 2022. They are just getting bought up at a much higher rate than expected. They also say some of the issues in buying single units through online consumer retail channels is because RPi is prioritizing filling advance orders from volume integrators. I have no idea the accuracy of what they're saying but fulfilling advance commitments from volume integrators first makes sense as those are long-term customers who are counting on the orders to ship their own products. Shorting those orders would be fairly disastrous as it flag RPi as an unreliable supplier reducing future design wins.

throwawaymaths 4y ago
Thank you for the info. I had no idea!