SiFive Rolls Out RISC-V HiFive1 Rev B Development Platform, $49 USD With FE310-G002 SoC

[phoronix]

Phoronix: SiFive Rolls Out RISC-V HiFive1 Rev B Development Platform, $49 USD With FE310-G002 SoC

SiFive has announced an upgraded Freedom Everywhere SoC as well as the HiFive1 Revision B developer board using this FE310-G002 SoC...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=SiFive-HiFive1-Rev-B-Launches

[uid313]

Rather expensive for what you get, only 32-bit, poor slow core. Then a Raspberry Pi is a much better choice. Even the Raspberry Pi Zero.
I hope to see one with 64-bit and video output, that would be nice.

[nomadewolf]

Rather expensive for what you get, only 32-bit, poor slow core. Then a Raspberry Pi is a much better choice. Even the Raspberry Pi Zero.
I hope to see one with 64-bit and video output, that would be nice.

If you look at specs alone, yes, this is very expensive, compared to other offerings.
But, for me at least, the value in this hardware is that it's an important step in offering completely open SoC.
We need this if we ever want a trully free computer.
Of course it'll be expensive, but for me, it's worth it.

[cbxbiker61]

Rather expensive for what you get, only 32-bit, poor slow core. Then a Raspberry Pi is a much better choice. Even the Raspberry Pi Zero.
I hope to see one with 64-bit and video output, that would be nice.

It's an Arduino type board, not a Linux type board. In the Arduino realm it is fast, not slow.

When you buy an "official" Arduino board you are investing in the development of the platform, whereas when you buy the cheapest clones you are not. This is the same idea...you are investing in the platform's development. So if you think Open Hardware is important, you are likely to invest in these early boards. I bought the first gen HiFive1 board for that reason. It's possible that 30 years from now it will be worth something significant, just like the first Apple One boards are now, but that's not a main reason to invest in the platform.

They've now implemented hardware I2C. That was a missing feature of the original board that made real-world implementation much more painful. Although at over 300MHz, software I2C performed just fine.

[schmidtbag]

Rather expensive for what you get, only 32-bit, poor slow core. Then a Raspberry Pi is a much better choice. Even the Raspberry Pi Zero.
I hope to see one with 64-bit and video output, that would be nice.

Uh... under what circumstance would you need 64 bit for an Arduino-like microcontroller? The vast majority of Arduino applications don't even need 32 bits. This platform, to my understanding, only has 16KB of memory.
EDIT: If you want an Arduino-like platform that is more capable, there are platforms like the Intel Galileo or the UDOO.
A RPi meets a different demographic.


The only problem I can see with the HiFive is that it runs on 3.3v instead of 5v, which makes a lot of Arduino shields incompatible. But, it seems Arduino is slowly transitioning in that direction anyway, when you consider stuff like the Due or Zero.

[microcode]

This actually seems pretty cool. This is about the fastest chip of its class, attached to an ESP32, with a native I²C. There are heaps of cool use cases for something like this.

[cb88]

This actually seems pretty cool. This is about the fastest chip of its class, attached to an ESP32, with a native I²C. There are heaps of cool use cases for something like this.

Indeed if it had a 32 cell CPLD or so making all the IO remappable, 5V / 5V tolerant IO, more ram or an external ram interface, IRDA on the UART etc... It would have the potential to be my goto chip. PIC32MX270 is where it's at for me right now.

[microcode]

Indeed if it had a 32 cell CPLD or so making all the IO remappable, 5V / 5V tolerant IO, more ram or an external ram interface, IRDA on the UART etc... It would have the potential to be my goto chip. PIC32MX270 is where it's at for me right now.

I'm with you on that, and I think we may get all of our wishes not too long from now. Microchip acquired Microsemi, and they know a hell of a lot about PLDs.

[cb88]

I'm with you on that, and I think we may get all of our wishes not too long from now. Microchip acquired Microsemi, and they know a hell of a lot about PLDs.

And ATMEL for that matter... with thier AT40k and AT6000, which notably are still 5V FPGAs... which is very useful often enough. It would be awesome if they could make an FPGA that did 0.8V - 5V range of IO selectably on each pin. You could eliminate tons of level conversion hardware.

[wizard69]

Rather expensive for what you get, only 32-bit, poor slow core. Then a Raspberry Pi is a much better choice. Even the Raspberry Pi Zero.
I hope to see one with 64-bit and video output, that would be nice.

This comment makes no sense. This is a chip intended for embedded work!!!!! 32 bits at 300 and some odd MHz is far more capability than many embedded uses will ever need.