The StarFive VisionFive 2 RISC-V SBC
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 1:16 am
I have long wished for a relatively inexpensive (think "Raspberry Pi") SBC that runs Linux and uses a RISC-V CPU. Recently, StarFive began producing the VisionFive 2 board (https://www.starfivetech.com/en/site/boards). It's *almost* what I'd been hoping for.
I purchased a unit (I seem to recall spending about $90 for it) and when it arrived I tried downloading and installing their variant of Ubuntu on it. After a day of downloads, dead ends, and other issues, I finally got an old version of their software working on it (enough to log in via SSH; the GUI was still crashing on me). Apparently, you need to update the firmware on the board in order to load the latest release of the software, but you can't update the firmware without having the software already running. Let's just say that this setup isn't quite ready for prime time.
I was able to (finally) download and install an older version of the software. Once I logged in (and compiled a small "Hello, World!" C program into RISC-V assembly language, and view the result), I sat the board aside because I needed to get back to work on other, more important projects. Someday, I'll download the firmware and see if I can get the unit functioning with the latest software.
The documentation is horrible. This board is really something a kernel hacker or system administrator type would be able to work with, but it's not quite ready for people who want a "plug and play" experience. For example, nowhere in the documentation does it mention how to power the board (you use the USB-C connector for this). It has two dip switches for supporting different booting options, nowhere to they mention that only one of the four combinations actually works. The RISC-V CPU is *very* slow. One the main problems I had getting the software to run is the fact that it takes about 20 second between applying power and having the little green "disk activity" light start blinking (it took so long, I thought the board was dead). No one is every going to replace a Pi with one of these things unless they are dead set on using RISC-V (my interest is learning RISC-V assembly language, so a Pi cannot replace it).
FWIW, the board I got came with 8GB RAM. Runs at (up to) 1.5 GHz. Contains 2 gigabit Etherports. Has a (I assume Pi-compatible) 40-pin GPIO header. In general, the features (other than the extra Ethernet port) are very similar to a recent Pi.
Someday I'll play with it again. However, the software is a bit more mature by that time.
Cheers,
Randy Hyde
I purchased a unit (I seem to recall spending about $90 for it) and when it arrived I tried downloading and installing their variant of Ubuntu on it. After a day of downloads, dead ends, and other issues, I finally got an old version of their software working on it (enough to log in via SSH; the GUI was still crashing on me). Apparently, you need to update the firmware on the board in order to load the latest release of the software, but you can't update the firmware without having the software already running. Let's just say that this setup isn't quite ready for prime time.
I was able to (finally) download and install an older version of the software. Once I logged in (and compiled a small "Hello, World!" C program into RISC-V assembly language, and view the result), I sat the board aside because I needed to get back to work on other, more important projects. Someday, I'll download the firmware and see if I can get the unit functioning with the latest software.
The documentation is horrible. This board is really something a kernel hacker or system administrator type would be able to work with, but it's not quite ready for people who want a "plug and play" experience. For example, nowhere in the documentation does it mention how to power the board (you use the USB-C connector for this). It has two dip switches for supporting different booting options, nowhere to they mention that only one of the four combinations actually works. The RISC-V CPU is *very* slow. One the main problems I had getting the software to run is the fact that it takes about 20 second between applying power and having the little green "disk activity" light start blinking (it took so long, I thought the board was dead). No one is every going to replace a Pi with one of these things unless they are dead set on using RISC-V (my interest is learning RISC-V assembly language, so a Pi cannot replace it).
FWIW, the board I got came with 8GB RAM. Runs at (up to) 1.5 GHz. Contains 2 gigabit Etherports. Has a (I assume Pi-compatible) 40-pin GPIO header. In general, the features (other than the extra Ethernet port) are very similar to a recent Pi.
Someday I'll play with it again. However, the software is a bit more mature by that time.
Cheers,
Randy Hyde