Lichee Pi 4A: Serious RISC-V Desktop Computing

[@Epsilonsama]

The fact that RISC-V systems are starting to become mature enough to be used for regular desktop use is huge. A couple of years ago that would have been considered a pipe dream.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Agreed.

[@TempoLOOKING]

Still no bios.

[@robertsmith2956]

my sun system is 25 years old and runs on RISK.

[@notNajimi]

@@robertsmith2956RISC CPUs aren’t new, but the RISC-V ISA is. Although it’s pretty sad that Sun’s SPARC didn’t make it big

[@YaySyu]

​@notNajimi These snapdragon and M series chips have certainly set the path for arm based desktops. It's so exciting. Windows 11 recall feature plus the EOL for Windows 10 is honestly going to drive many users to at least try linux, which is great for the community. Very uplifting near future for arm and linux fans!

[@ScoopexUs]

It's like being transported to a parallel universe where hardware and software engineers do things right!

[@ExplainingComputers]

:)

[@peterbrown6224]

Astonishingly easy, acceptably glitchy. I hope that your RISC-V week entices another 1,053K devotees. I'd love to see you reach 2M this year.

[@CCoburn3]

They've made significant process since your last RISC-V video. It won't be long before RISC-V gives ARM a run for its money. And if they keep making progress at this rate, Intel and AMD had better take notice.

[@CCoburn3]

@@wotzinator6282 Unless the economy collapses (as seems likely), I doubt you will have that long to wait. They seem to be making progress very quickly.

[@another3997]

It's really not that simple. The ISA is open, but individual, high performance chip designs using it, probably aren't going to be free or open. Just like Apple has done with their own ARM based CPUs, which aren't shared with anyone. ARM has had decades of development, it has a proven track record, and a huge infrastructure behind it. So does x86. Risc V has none of those yet. Will it ever? Only time will tell.

[@CCoburn3]

@@another3997 But even if the chip designs are proprietary, they must all conform to the same standard. And that provides a huge benefit for software development. Plus there is a huge incentive to develop chips that use the RISC-V standard because these chips won’t have to pay licensing fees.

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

@@wotzinator6282 What's wrong with Linux desktops with Intel and AMD CPUs at their heart? Or is there something wrong with those that stops you enjoying Linux now? Are you just another person I call "YARs" - "Yet Another Reason" to not do something to hide my own procrastination.

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

@@wotzinator6282 Sure, so am I - I currently run Gentoo Linux on Raspberry Pi's, 32-bit and 64-bit Intel and AMD CPUs, Xeon, and even a SPARC platform. And if another platform comes along that is interesting to try out, like RISC, then I may have a go on that also. But I am an engineer, I look at what's around now, I have too much to do without wondering too much about what is coming next. I just find that a strange way to think.

[@lmcalhoun]

How exciting! I am eager to see RISC-V rise as a viable, open-source alternative to the proprietary, closed chipsets. Can't wait for your week long experiment!

[@bingusbongus9807]

same! i love how this may allow things to be both cheaper and better in the future, and the potential to reduce the secrecy and possible back doors in modern processors

[@albertopajuelomontes2066]

only the ISA is open but the actual hardware is closed

[@hanifarroisimukhlis5989]

@@albertopajuelomontes2066 Depends, some people open their hardware as VHDL. You can literally load RISC-V on a FPGA and tinker with it. Others however sells design, usually with higher spec (like SiFive).

[@oj0024]

While it isn't open, the cpu is partially open sourced (openc910), afaik they only removed the pre ratification vector extension implementation in the part they open sources.

[@williamhorton9763]

Very exciting... indeed!

[@RocktCityTim]

Thank you, Christopher and a massive congratulations to SiPEED for delivering this excellent entry into the RISC-V ecosystem. Trying to get 2 into the lab here.

[@boydpukalo8980]

Wow I did not think Chromium had been ported to RISC-V yet! Nice to see the platform progressing.

[@derekfoulk4692]

Way better than LTT

[@GustavoMsTrashCan]

At this rate, RISC-V will catch up with ARM and even provide superior performance! How exciting is that!

[@davidg2861]

It would be interesting to compare joules per benchmark run, e.g running a prime sieve, a standard graphics test, etc. E.g compared to various RPi models. I presume that given it wants the fan it won't be group leader, but still... it would be an interesting comparison to see.

[@mwolfer1]

We'll run out of fruit pretty soon if the venerable Lychee (although under a pseudonym) has to be pressed into service; maybe the next wave of SBCs will be named after some solid veggies: Rutabaga Pi, Green Asparagus Tart, and so on.

[@ChuffingNorah]

Howsabout the Lemon? Oopsy, I forgot, that was the Armstrad E-Mailer!

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

Asparagus tart? Yucky. 😝

[@Colin_Ames]

Heaven forbid!

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

Lots more tropical fruits: starfruit, jackfruit, cempedak, papaya, rambutan, guava, mangosteen (jambu batu) as well as something called a “rose apple” (jambu air), durian (if you must) ...

[@robertsmith2956]

nahh. Time to go meats. Gator Pi, Moose Pi, and of course panda pi for the chinese.

[@MarquisDeSang]

Your channel is the only tech channel talking about the actual future of computing.

[@elixier33]

I doubt risc is the future of Computing

[@MarquisDeSang]

@@lurch789 Because normies are just interested in tomorrow (as in the next day) and gamers are stupid (when looking at the AAA trash they buy full of DLC and WOKE stuff).

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

You clearly need lessons on how to search KZbin - Chris has an excellent channel, but there are many others.

[@knerduno5942]

Holmes and Maleficent would disagree there is no future in RISC kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYHVhqCMnrOSa8U

[@lawrenceallwright7041]

@@wotzinator6282 ...and that's what is so great. Explaining Computers isn't always about generating views and revenue streams, allowing him to explore niche areas which won't appeal to the masses, but that's great for something a little different to the hundreds of shouty US channels. Sponsored by Balls, Balls, Big Balls, Small Balls Ball Bearing Factory.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

4:18 Fun fact: Imagination is what’s left of the company that used to own and license the MIPS architecture patents. As far as they’re concerned, that was yesterday’s business, and they have gone all in on RISC-V now.

[@SmokeGrinder]

It's always great to see that a SBC will work straight out of the box with the included Linux distro. It indicates a significant degree of care for the customers, present, future and repeat.

[@BrianRonald]

It has only now occurred to me, a couple of hours after watching, that this isn't, in fact, a SBC...

[@BruceHoult]

@@BrianRonald technically true. Sipeed make a lot of their boards this way e.g. see Lichee RV CM and Lichee RV Dock, M1s Module and M1s Dock.

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

I don't understand people that make comments like you have - SBCs are supposed to be aimed at hobbyists and makers who are used to messing around with hardware and software. As a member of such communities myself, I really could care less whether or not an SBC comes with Linux (or any OS) pre-installed, because I will install my own distro of choice (Gentoo) on it anyway. If you don't know how to install Linux yourself then, in my opinion, you really shouldn't be using it and stick with consumer-grade hardware that has the OS pre-installed for you and some kind of warranty that protects you from your own lack of skills - whether that's a Microsoft or Apple device, or a Steam Deck. SBCs are not consumer-grade devices and should not be treated as such - they are for people who know how to investigate hardware and configure Linux themselves to add to the knowledge of the community. Even this device is in its early stages, work clearly needs to be done on the desktop OS (there's clearly still some lag in Chris' video) and the video drivers themselves need work. Someone who expects Linux to be pre-installed would not be happy with the performance of this device, and just blame Linux for it.

[@darththuban00]

​@@terrydaktyllus1320totally on point. His comment has more than hundred votes.. What is happening to the world!

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

@@darththuban00 Each to their own, I don't see the number of comments as being a metric of the quality of a comment anyway - given that KZbin provides channels of interesting topics that naturally create echo chambers of themselves anyway. I have simply been around computers long enough to take an engineering perspective of any system, and try to look at it subjectively. I actively encourage everyone to become better informed when it comes to computing and I myself give workshops and free training to both younger and older people to that end. So I am not, in any way, trying to create a "niche community" or anything like that, but I think too many people get pulled in by "FOMO" without realising that a time and effort commitment needs to be made to get these non-consumer devices working well. But thanks for your comment, it is appreciated.

[@user-retrofit]

Finally, some RISC-V review again😃 Really excited to see development of open architecture.

[@EarnestWilliamsGeofferic]

I'm not first in the posts, but I'm first in your heart.

[@judsonleach5248]

Is it Sunday ALREADY, Sir?!? “ The older I get? The faster time goes!” -do you have a physics formula they can explain that, Sir?! Lol “ watching and learning, NOW!” :-) Cheers! - Judson & Buddy! - have a great day, everyone!

[@ExplainingComputers]

I know, the weeks seem to fly these days! I hope that you are both doing OK.

[@sbc_tinkerer]

Blessed Sunday greetings all!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings!

[@feliksszyszka]

Greetings indeed!

[@alanthornton3530]

Thanks Chris for sharing the excitement, this is obviously going to be a future desktop contender, competition for ARM & x86. I'm looking forward to how you get on with 'Using RISC-V' for a week. I looked away from the screen for a split second & thought the Daleks had arrived, would you be able to test headphones to see if that helps? Another happy Sunday afternoon :)

[@felicytatomaszewska]

Risc V is a game changing initiative and we all should actively support it in the sense that our next PC should a Risc V machine. I hope someone takes similar initiative for graphics card (GPU) so that we can avoid the premiums and shortage of GPU. The success of Risc V should facilitate more and more hardware becoming open source which is not only great for budget but learning as well.

[@flintfrommother3gaming]

*only great

[@Oktokolo]

Sorry, but if it doesn't support 4k gaming, it won't become my next PC. Those boards are most likely meant to make China less dependent on foreign components. And they are perfect for that as you don't need a beefy PC for most industrial and administrative applications. They are also nice for network appliances not needing too much throughput. I too hope that Risc V will eventually become a viable alternative for workstations or gaming. But that will most likely take a few more years...

[@maxxdahl6062]

@@Oktokolo SBC's would be the last place I'd look for hardcore gaming.

[@Oktokolo]

@@maxxdahl6062 Yep, that's what i said.

[@macicoinc9363]

How would RISC V help with GPU shortages? The GPU shortages were exactly that, shortages. Too much demand and not enough fab supply. Switching architectures wouldn't help.

[@saintuk70]

Thank you - wonder if we'll find out which is tastier.... the Lichee or the lychee?

[@johncundiff7075]

Wow, I love your enthusiasm with this new SBC! I cant wait to see Risc week! Love this!

[@Graham_Rule]

What's it like for building software on? For example, compiling downloaded source code or even rebuilding the operating system.

[@ExplainingComputers]

The only source code I've downloaded and compiled was for SuperTuxKart, which I did a few days back for my forthcoming "RISC-V Week" video. It took about an hour, and it worked! :)

[@shaunbrowne3963]

My Sunday morning is now complete! Christopher, your enthusiasm for Risk-5 hardware, particularly this Lichiee board, is infectious, and motivating this dyed-in-the-wool Mac user running now unsupported OS, with a strong sence that it's time for a complete OS update! Thank you!

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

Things we have learned from this video... - RISC-V continues to make great progress! It's very impressive that, first off, we now have an SBC that comes pre-loaded with a desktop Linux distro that works just nice right out of the box and, second off, they're now working on a RISC-V laptop! - Chris would still sound like the friendly fella that he is if he were a Dalek. (see 17:05) I look forward to seeing how the RISC-V Week turns out very soon!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings!

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

@@ExplainingComputers Oh, hi! I am very late responding so I apologize for that, but anyway, this was another great video as always. :)

[@hg-sx5nk]

EX PLAIN MI NA TE!

[@DS-pk4eh]

I do not remember you being this excited for a new product. Me too, cant wait for some RISC-V based system that could be in the range off maybe amd 2200g

[@happy_apple]

i think risc 5 is the future of computing because it is open sorce

[@happy_apple]

also am i first

[@CNWPlayer]

@@happy_apple gg

[@happy_apple]

if someone sees this please check on it later

[@ExplainingComputers]

KZbin makes you third -- bronze metal for you today! :)

[@happy_apple]

@@ExplainingComputersthankyou for answering

[@merthyr1831]

RISC-V is improving so incredibly quickly. This is amazing progress. Just a year ago this kind of performance and user experience would have been unheard of! I'd love to get a RISC-V mini system at some point to play around with

[@stephensu4371]

i already got one, btw lichee is a kind of a tropical and sub-tropical fruit, it similar to longan, they are from the Sapindaceae family fruit, this 2 kinds of fruits are widely plant at southern area of China, they taste similar, very sweet and juicy.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings! I wondered what a lichee was like -- I knew it was a fruit, but new nothing about it.

[@stephensu4371]

@@ExplainingComputers it very similar to longan sweet and juicy, because they’re a juicy fruit, so they needs to transport carefully,

[@kelargo]

What is their taste compared to other fruit or berries? 😊

[@horseradishpower9947]

​@stephensu4371 They are also a little weird to eat, they are firm, with a slight rubbery texture to the touch. But are quite nice to eat. For those who do not know, do note that you need to peel the skin off, and there is a stone in the middle of the fruit.

[@saintuk70]

@@ExplainingComputers the lychee is very tasty, almost firm grape type fruit with a single seed. We can get them here in the UK .

[@dfs-comedy]

This is great; I'm glad to see a RISC-V board that seems pretty fast with a good user experience.

[@Marshall1914]

Will you be doing a review on the Star64 soon?

[@ExplainingComputers]

As far as I'm aware, the Star64 remains vapourware. It's certainly not for sale. :) It was announced as basically a VisionFive 2 from Pine 64 (it uses the same StarFive SoC as the VisionFive 2).

[@Marshall1914]

​​@@ExplainingComputersI was just curious, because I had seen on the Pine64 store that you are finally able to buy them now and they are currently in stock.

[@BruceHoult]

@@ExplainingComputers Star64 is not at all vapourware, but Pine64 have a policy of only taking as many pre-orders as there are machines in the current factory production run, and these have been selling out very quickly after a each batch of orders opens, so most of the time it is "sold out". I got my order in for the 2nd production run on May 5 and the board was delivered to my rural New Zealand letter box on May 16. I also have received a PineTab-V, which is pretty much a Star64 in a tablet with dockable cover / keyboard / trackpad. I just checked and both 4 GB and 8 GB Star64 are available to order at the moment, but the two PineTab-V models are currently sold out.

[@davelowe1977]

Hands up all those that remember RISC the first time around.

[@ExplainingComputers]

All ARM, and the new Apple M1 and M2 processors, are RISC. RISC never went away! RISC-V is just another, specific RISC implementation.

[@call_me_stan5887]

@@ExplainingComputers true :)

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

If you look in the Top500 supercomputer list, you will see machines based on IBM’s POWER architecture - another RISC-class system. Also China has its home-grown high-performance “Loongarch”, which some say is reminiscent of MIPS - also RISC.

[@jierenzheng7670]

I really hope Intel hasn't given up on RISC-V and perhaps work on a new RISC-V architecture. Google is looking at RISC-V as well. Great to see how RISC-V has been developing.

[@gloiloidn5752]

RISC-V development is progressing impressively. 7 days with RISC-V would be an awesome video!

[@Cyberbeni]

@@lurch789 If you want a cheap low-power basic PC, Intel is much better for that. Both Amazon and Chinese sites are full of mini PCs with J4105, J4125, N5105, N100, etc. processors. It would've been nice to see what other stuff can this board do instead of just showing the connectors and then doing a basic desktop usage showcase.

[@lesliedeana5142]

I wish that it had RPi GPIO, but other than that, fantastic

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings Leslie! :)

[@maxdiamond55]

Great video Chris, thanks. Missing the ducks though 😢 Can't wait for your week-long daily driver athon .

[@horseradishpower9947]

This is astounding, when you look at it. This is a massive move forwards for the architecture, and will only inspire more development from others. I suspect in five years time, the processor type is going to be far more commonly adopted, and could even stand as a decent competitor to X86 and ARM. Thanks for the video.

[@BruceHoult]

Note that these C910 CPU cores were announced in July 2019 -- it just, as always, takes about four years to get from a core to mass-produced hardware. Imagine what has been started since 2019, and is still in the pipeline, but inevitable. Well .. we don't have to imagine. We'll have A76 (e.g. RK3588) class machines maybe by the end of the year but certainly early next year. And Apple M1-class chips are coming in a couple of years.

[@horseradishpower9947]

@@BruceHoult I fully accept what you are saying, but I remember the scepticism of the architecture being at this level for a few more years yet. There is clearly a huge amount of development going on, and this is exciting to me. I want this processor architecture to succeed, and help to widen the options. Thanks for the information, by the way. It is appreciated.

[@BruceHoult]

@@horseradishpower9947 computer SoCs are like a pizza ... you put the toppings on a base and put it into the oven , then have to stand around for ten minutes until it emerges from the far end of the oven. It takes a while, but there is essentially zero doubt that it WILL come out. It's just that with SoCs you wait around for about four years, not ten minutes. While there are certainly many skeptical voices all over the internet (many with a conflict of interest, by the way), anyone who keeps informed knows what is currently in the oven. I can't tell you what will be in 2030 or 2040 ... but the next three to four years? It is written. Pre-ordained. Inevitable. Skepticism about that time period is totally unwarranted. And in that time frame is 2020-level (or even a bit better) x86 and M1 performance. Which will still be a viable PC in 2026 or 2027.

[@CnCDune]

As someone whose programs (Ansys, CATIA, SolidWorks, 2000-ish games) are Windows-only and 32- or 64-bit, I can't see that happening for enough people in the most influential branches. Not until Windows-EXE support works out of the box because who has the patience to set-up and trouble-shoot Wine...

[@deineroehre]

@@CnCDune Companys programming Windows-only software will be dead in 5, latest in 10 years. Even Microsoft supports Linux in professional field (like MSSQL, OK,not professional, but it works). If you don't like Softmaker Office as a professional alternative for MS Office, you can still use MS Office Webbrowser based clients. That is roughly 80% of the use case in Companys. AutoCAD came from Unix, so there is no problem in developing that for Linux, Games work with steam flawlessly. Any important server runs on Linux anyways. I don't see any important usecase for windows-based computers in the next 10 years onwards, every operating system has its time, some lazy admins will eventually try to stick with it until retirement, but these will be replaced by skilled people and then complain for their own fault of getting stuck in the 90s...

[@anothergoogleuser]

Thank you for sharing. I don’t like the idea that they named it the “Pi 4” at all. In fact, I think it’s rather cheeky. Try being original.

[@CCoburn3]

The Lichee Pi is OK for showing fish, but the important question is whether it is good at showing ducks.

[@ExplainingComputers]

So true!

[@MaxGoof]

Now I can't wait to see the RISC-V week video! Thanks for another fantastic video, Chris! I hope you can get the HDMI audio fixed. Perhaps it's in one of those newer releases? So many questions that I imagine will be answered when you spend a week with the computer.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I've just finished RISC-V week -- a very interesting experiment. I plan to post the video two weeks today. Unfortunately, the Chromium HDMI issue remains in the newest (as I write this) Debian release. But I found a solution during RISC-V week . . .

[@xpavpushka]

16:55 Welcome to Explaining Galactic Calculations, Earthling! 🤣

[@t.w.3]

RISC-V will be a gamechanger for laptops and tablets. I look forward to the "RISC-V week" video.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for this. My "RISC-V Week" video posts next Sunday (September 3rd).

[@Ollital]

RISC-5 Week sounds like a great risk. 😉

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

I feel that some RISC-y business will be going down. ;)

[@fewerlaws]

Dang. Just discovered this. What a cool guy and channel! Love his work and his crisp Queen's spoken English!

[@SB-qm5wg]

Amazing. RISC-V is happening.

[@DougRansom1]

The various fruity or doggy RISC-V boards look great with the 4TOP NPUs. Can you do a video on running Frigate on one of these?

[@TempoLOOKING]

Or android

[@sergevereecke680]

It's like looking to those good old BBC educational programs from the eighties which explained things so clearly .🙂

[@DFX2KX]

That is a surprisingly nice unboxing and end-user experience for an SBC, especially a RISC-V SBC.

[@mashiniwami]

I would like to see a video where your previous Raspberry Pi projects demonstrating Python programming using pushbuttons, LEDs, actuators, etc. are migrated to this and other boards. TIA

[@newbtop]

Excellent review. It is clear that numerous semiconductor design firms, especially Chinese organizations, aspire to adopt the open-source RISC-V chip architecture, hence avoid the high expenses associated with proprietary systems. Good work.

[@nopadelik9286]

copy&paste from a news-article from early august: "The RISC-V open instruction set architecture got a boost today after it emerged that five chip giants are coming together to jointly invest in a company to develop reference architectures based on the standard. The new entity will be formed in Germany with investment from Infineon Technologies, Qualcomm, NXP Semiconductors, Bosch, and Nordic Semiconductor, with the aim of speeding up "the commercialization of future products based on the open-source RISC-V architecture." If this sounds a bit vague, it is because the company's formation is subject to regulatory approvals in various jurisdictions, and so at this stage the founding corporations are unable to add any further detail about how much investment is involved, when it is expected to begin operations, or even what the company will be called. What we do know is that this will not be a chip manufacturing operation, but will focus on the creation of reference designs to help increase the adoption of the RISC-V architecture. The aim is to establish the company as a single source for developing compatible RISC-V-based products. Given the involvement of NXP and Infineon, it is perhaps not surprising the initial focus will be around automotive applications, with an eventual expansion to include mobile and IoT ecosystems."

[@newbtop]

@@nopadelik9286 Thank you for providing this information. I look forward to seeing more RISC-V products in the future.

[@privateagent]

Again the Chinese propaganda?

[@maltoNitho]

It’s almost boring because it works. Which is great!! RISC V sure has made good strides quickly. Thanks for the video

[@armisis]

Just got my Sipeed Lichee Book 4A RISCV Linux Debian14 Inch Laptop today, gets a little laggy playing youtube so far and chromium crashes.

[@AMDRADEONRUBY]

Oh nice a new PC board you're the best for this kind of video the reference too have a nice week

[@Antti_Nannimus]

The Register has an article entitled "Faulty instructions in Alibaba's T-Head C910 RISC-V CPUs blow away all security", that specifically includes this Lichee Pi 4A SBC (which apparently uses the vulnerable RISC-V chip) in its affected computer warnings. If this report is true, it is probably a BFD regarding this computer's (and certain specific other's) potential vulnerability. It is NOT, however, a vulnerability in the general RISC-V architecture, but rather in the extensions implemented by this chip vendor.

[@PeterJasper]

The Lichee Pi 4A is a great step forward for a RISC-V SBC. The development appears to be going ahead at pace. I look forward to further developments and software support. Good luck with surviving the week on RISC-V ...

[@flowqi212]

Awesome 😎. Will you do any benchmarks comparing it to a Raspberry Pi 4? 🙂

[@ExplainingComputers]

I will -- coming up in the "RISC-V Week" video. :)

[@RoboNuggie]

A great review Chris, of a board that seems very nice.... looking forward to the Risc-V week! Your voice @17:05, well, it confirms that you are an A.I - the secret is out.... :-)

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for your support. :)

[@judsonleach5248]

“ meanwhile on the front edge we find lots of good computery Stuff”!! - Lol - is that a new “technical term“, Sir?!? - “I LOVE IT!” :-)

[@montecorbit8280]

Once you got the problems with the audio in chromium, I wish you hadn't tried another web browser.... Maybe Firefox?? Possibly another chromium-based browser?? Are there any others for RISC-V?? Thank you for the video; Monte

[@allmac7504]

Is this already a better option than ARM? It looks a lot more advanced than I expected

[@ExplainingComputers]

It is more advanced than I expected too! :) I've another video coming (as I discuss at the end of this video) where I doa lot of RISC-V use and testing -- and this board does outperform a Raspberry Pi 4. But for general use, an SBC is still a better get, as there is limited application support for RISC-V right now.

[@BruceHoult]

Hardware-wise it's very similar to a Pi 4, better in some things, worse in others, but Raspberry Pi has had 10 years for the software selection to be filled-out, while it's only since the VisionFive 2 came out in February that most people have had any reason to develop or port software to RISC-V, or access to suitable hardware. Also, the Pi 4 isn't the best Arm hardware now, with the RK3588 boards considerably faster. Those have been out just over a year now, and the RISC-V world will catch up to them in the first half of next year.

[@BharatMohanty]

Greetings sir.... have a nice day.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings!

[@autohmae]

This is amazing at this price, it has better maybe slightly better specs and performance probably not that different from the 2012 ARM Chromebook with Samsung Exynos 5 and MALI GPU... which was Euro 300. Also used to only run 720p KZbin video, I had installed a more regular Ubuntu desktop on it...

[@OhHeyTrevorFlowers]

I’m happy to see another RISC-V board though for my uses I wish it had an M.2 connector for a SSD.

[@No-mq5lw]

The base TH1520 SOC might not actually have the capability to directly add any M.2 storage at all. There's schematics on Sipeed's repositories of the carrier board and there's basically nothing on it implying any level of PCIe support. Also, Sipeed said that they are going to add storage via the USB 3.0 ports for their laptop. Even the Evaluation boards don't have anything related to storage at all.

[@newq]

Hey, just a question, Chris (can I call you Chris?) - have you ever tried the h.264ify browser plugin (available for both Chrome and Firefox) on any of these low-end boards? It forces KZbin to use h.264 video rather than VP8/VP9. VP8/9 usually isn't GPU accelerated but h.264 usually is and sipeed's webpage for this board says it does h.264 up to 4K at 75 fps. Most of these boards you review, even the RISC-V ones, boast similar specs with h.264, so this could be an absolute GAME-CHANGER for the desktop SBC world since most people's use cases are such that KZbin is the killer app for desktop. KZbin might be slow on these systems due to them being forced to render video on their CPU rather than using their hardware acceleration which is more than capable of doing HD or even 4K video. I use this plugin on my old ThinkPad laptops which keeps them functional as my daily driver in 2023 despite being more than fifteen years old! Worth looking into, no? Love your channel. Peace. ✌️

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for this. I always test to see if h.264-ify makes a difference. So yes, I've been "looking into it" for years. :)

[@newq]

@@ExplainingComputers Glad to hear it! I just had to make sure.

[@rs.matr1x]

Your voice in chromium revealed your true Dalek form

[@JohnMacedoJr]

I honestly thought it was going to be Alpha RISC processors back in the day. Cyrix and others thought they had a chance too.

[@seguramlk]

I am astounded by Chris' astonishment 😂

[@solifugus]

I have one of these and love it. The only downside is no 2D graphics acceleration. So, desktop performance is not visibly good but actual performance under the hood really is exceptional. I was interested in the RISC-V architecture but even more so the parallel compute extensions for audio and AI.

[@briankleinschmidt3664]

Hearing your jingle always brings me joy. Hearing it with the distortion was pretty cool. - Like a heavy metal remix. Great show. Thanks.

[@gaptastic]

I don't buy from aliexpress, too many bad experiences. Hopefully we have more non-Chinese implementations. I suspect that will not happen. And so at some point I'll be buying something I don't want to buy cause I'm curious.

[@pandacongolais]

Thanks ! Added to my list of Kodi box replacement, should my nVidia Shield die (again, I'm talking about the second one)

[@tomlynn1000]

Chris, you sounded just like a Dalek!

[@Fred_le_lorrain]

Risc V begin to be a serious alternative to x86 and ARM. It must be optimized before to replace our computers. It's young system, wait and see.

[@technoWZ5598]

If you were experiencing video problems in Chromium, perhaps using Firefox or another browser might fix the issue. I'm amazed to see SBC's become a great alternative to a desktop PC, even though you can't upgrade or repair them, which is my only concern when it comes to thinking about buying an SBC, I have been considering getting one, however, I think a traditional desktop is better if you plan to change parts, upgrade it, or going full custom! Great video, please continue making fantastic content, we really appreciate it. I also want to see more videos on Linux and SBC's, since I'm getting into them a bit 😁

[@IraQNid]

At 6:17 are the GPIO pins bent? A number of years ago you spoke openly about having to get a biopsy for skin cancer on your chest. I was wondering what were the results of the test? Or was that something you didn't publicly disclose? I tried searching for it on your channel but couldn't find it.

[@BeefIngot]

Depending on the price, I would sooo buy a little risk 5 surface like tablet/laptop just to dink around with, even knowing next to nothing would work XD

[@flowerpt]

Well hotdamn, I just ordered one with a box. That miniitx backplane is siick! What a great idea to make the SBC a module carrier. These guys are *smart*. Xen dom0 looks really close to usable. Can't wait to turn off my Xeon vm server.

[@Mario1vsSonic1]

This is so exciting! Sure, I can go on and complain about the proprietary parts, since I highly doubt the wifi or wifi firmware is open. But this is a huge step in the right direction!

I'm really surprised Chromius support so many HW acceleration features already. This is not a given on many ARM SBCs. Very impressive.

[@_robespierre]

i have a very special interest in these risc systems, or should i say two. can they handle drawing tablets like the cintiq 24 or one of these cheaper ones from asia. and can they handle audiodata produced with daw software like ableton, renoise or so with quite a few plugins runnin.

[@martinsmith5028]

Hi Chris, It's impressive to see an SBC perform so well as a desktop and I look forward to sering the results of your test week. I think the performance issues will be ironed out. Personally, I hope this leads to other OSs having to reduce the bloat.

[@arxaaron]

Thanks for continuing explorations and updates on the RiscV world! Very exciting progress indeed!

[@radeksparowski7174]

as windows 12 is around the corner it is time to find an alternative for lots of folks that want to escape the closed source pay monthly for surveillance, hope risc-v as hardware and some dumbproof linux will offer an affordable way out

[@Netkous]

I use an orange pi 5 as a media PC for streaming. I would love playback information to be included 😢.

[@Mbro-dq2do]

Ya Knoiw.... Shit doesnt get real until Mr Scissors comes in naked with a cocktail in his hand. LOL

[@ConfuSomu]

This is an exciting board and promises an exciting future for RISC-V!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Agreed!

[@volvo09]

Lots of improvements with risc-v hardware and software, this is indeed a nice little board!

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

17:08 So, you have discovered the secret recipe for the Dalek sound. Now we must ex-termi-nate!

[@ianide2480]

The only thing missing on this board is NVME or SATA support. I would also be highly interested in testing the GPIO header. Does SPI work as expected, how about the other pins? I'd love to support these types of endeavors but I refuse to purchase any board without standard storage options. I do agree that it is promising to see the advances so far. Milestones are always a good thing.

[@johnjakson444]

Dearly like to see some benchmarks to pin this to an equiv x86 or ARM competitor.

[@joeyscleaninglady2877]

requiring active cooling is a no go hopefully not an issue with the laptop or tablet. Once you go to a passive cooled system its hard to go back to fans

[@anurasenarathna1703]

As always a good video. Glad to see that RISC-V is progressing and this is certainly good news for for SBC enthusiasts. All the best for your RISC-v week.

[@8bit711]

Woohoo! Yet again another awesome vid and Cheers. The lichee is looking like my 42;)

[@ianperkins8812]

This is really exciting. I did note that there is an OpenWRT build, so my nefarious plan for a travel router may still be possible!

[@drummindog]

“…Lots of good computery stuff.” You kill me, Chris. Love your videos.

[@drummindog]

You now grace my text tone collection for my phone, sir. Don’t ever change, sir. You educate and entertain.

[@devinpike1324]

Looking forward to risc v week

[@allmac7504]

Me too

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

Same!

[@ffieditor]

that a very respectable SBC. made the top 100 and was after get shower done first!

[@JG-xd7wk]

Quite a comprehensive review, Chris. The drop-in modular soc card is interesting as presumably enhanced future core/GPU designs should give a nice upgrade path, within the V/Wattage limitations.

[@merthyr1831]

17:04 👽wElcome to eXplaiNing cOmpuTers👽

[@digital_underground]

I might get these once that unit that allows 7 units on one board is available. I want to play around with the neural processing units.

[@YupKim1]

Chris, thanks ! Considering where it was made and came from, have you tried to run any security check? I am unfamiliar with RISC-V security tools, but like Kaspersky of sort, perhaps? Thanks again!

[@freeculture]

Nah, paranoids would just wipe the distro entirely but you need to watch out first what this distro is using so you can add it to yours. BTW your attitude is correct, mentioning an unworthy windows program from Russia is not. This is Linux here, not some lame Windows thing, if you want to be paranoid, be paranoid of everything, no matter where it comes from. A Chinese device isn't worse than American device, all you are changing is what spy agency gets your data. If you are paranoid, you wipe and use a source based distro and compile everything yourself, preferably taking the time to inspect every line of code. Surely some institutions do, just to make sure...