HiFive Premier P550: Powerful SiFive RISC-V Development Board

[@JeffGeerling]

Glad you've gotten time with this board. I would very much like to test one next year! It's great to see the Linux development for RISC-V over the past couple years.

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

Hi, Jeff! :)

[@OmarDoc1000]

Please put a GPU in this 😅

[@DrunkDelilahBrewery]

Hope you are well sir !

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings Jeff! :) It's a nice board, and it's really nice to have up-to-date regular Ubuntu on a RISC-V board.

[@seguramlk]

Absolutely 🐧👍

[@EmmaTheDearest]

"This is the most powerful RISC-V hardware i've reviewed so far" is my favorite sentence to hear from your channel :)

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks. And the great thing is, I will hopefully get to say it again in a future video!

[@Grandwigg]

"Welcome to another video from Explaining computers. . . . ," is a great one, too. Hardly feels like a Sunday afternoon without it, hahaha.

[@CenturionKZ]

The man is such a legend, he has 1.07 million subscribers and he still reads and smashes the like button to our comments. It's a blessing to have you on KZbin, sir!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for watching. :) Appreciated.

[@Playingchess49]

Its wild to think you only have 1 million subscribers. No fancy editing just good guy telling you everything you need to know about something.

[@PC4USE1]

I like the fact that Chris does not accept remuneration for any of his reviews. That doesn't mean that others are biased but it does ensure that his is NOT a biased review.

[@rdhunkins]

I most admire he has not submitted to putting out shorts. Those are the most useless things ever.

[@sbrazenor2]

It can still be biased. In order to keep a positive relationship with manufacturers, access itself is sometimes as important as compensation. (Not saying Chris is corrupted by this, but you see this kind of thing all the time in PC parts and audiophile channels.)

[@danielpicassomunoz2752]

I'm afraid he has the bias of an enthusiast, as we all do

[@laurencefraser]

@@sbrazenor2 indeed, though it's still a step down in terms of bias from actually being paid to advertise the thing (in cash or product). If nothing else, it's the line between being a paid advertisement or not in many cases.

[@shawnvines2514]

Having creators that can be trusted is the greatest thing ever.

[@TAP7a]

Every step forwards for RISC-V increases the potential for a more positive future of computing, thanks Chris for the review and showcase!

[@PeteVanDemark]

Pricey, partially complete, with promising performance improvements. I think I will continue to watch this pioneering, free, and open source architecture from a distance. Pioneers generally have an expensive, difficult journey.

[@SchoolforHackers]

It’s for developers.

[@PeteVanDemark]

@@SchoolforHackersOkay.

[@BruceHoult]

SiFive's own boards are never the cheapest as they are intended for use by their industrial customers -- companies licensing the (in this case) P550 cores to build their own chips. Several other companies have announced boards with the same SoC. The Milk-V Megrez should be shipping this month (they started taking orders on November 25) with their 16 GB Mini-ITX board running at a higher 1.8 GHz selling for $199. Sipeed and Pine64 have also said they are working on boards (Lichee Pi 5A, StarPro64), but without price or availability information yet.

[@AlseyMiller]

I have a couple of Allwinner-D1 boards and it's been an absolute letdown. The performance is garbage. A Pi Zero Armv6 is a better value, and if you want a cheap Linux CPU just get the F1C100S Armv5 chip.

[@BruceHoult]

@@AlseyMiller independent tests usually show the C906 about 15% faster than the Pi Zero. The D1 is a pretty old (2021) and expensive way to buy a C906 core, at around $17 for a Lichee RV, but you can get the dual core C906 CV1800B SoC Milk-V Duo with 64 MB RAM for $5 or a 512 MB RAM SG2002 version for $10.

[@RoboNuggie]

Merry Christmas Chris 🎅 Hope Santa gives you what you wished for 🙂

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings my friend, and thanks for your support.

[@proteque]

My favourite content. RISC-V! I am cheering for this and I think it is very close to time to get myself one!

[@suki4410]

Please dont get too excited. It needs much more work, to be snappy, like older systems.

[@dougr.8653]

It’s always good to see new platforms in the market. Merry Christmas 🎄.

[@d.barnette2687]

Thanks!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for your support, most appreciated. :)

[@jpmyers6950]

This time next year we'll probably have a RISC-V board that could be a daily driver. Great video Chris.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I agree.

[@KameraShy]

But at what price?

[@godnyx117]

​@@KameraShy Bingo! Try 5 years for a good value. Unfortunately, my cycle to build a new PC comes next year so... Everyone that can wait, have fun!

[@MeinDeutschkurs]

Dear Chris, thx for your endless efforts and patience! Love from Austria! Merry Christmas and receive some virtual hugs!! 🤗

[@ExplainingComputers]

Merry Christmas!

[@AMDRADEONRUBY]

Ah good old risc-v board i love them so much thanks for doing videos about them

[@alanthornton3530]

Thanks Chris for an interesting RISC-V video. I’m looking forward to seeing future developments & solid software support from SiFive, hopefully!

[@-iIIiiiiiIiiiiIIIiiIi-]

Man, it's getting so close. Once we reach zero dropped frames at 1080p, I'm all in.

[@desktorp]

I've installed Linux on some pretty low end machines in my day and I've never seen GRUB visibly draw on the screen like that.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Me neither!

[@saszab]

I've installed recently the latest Ubuntu on LicheeRV (a very small Risc V SBC with 1-core CPU and 512MB of RAM), and I saw how graphic desktop visibly draws on the screen with a speed like it's a BBS back in early 90s accessed with 2400 baud modem! :-)

[@gern0tk]

GRUB runs before the Linux kernel so it’s drawing using some compat. BIOS/UEFI routine and not any video driver. On some firmwares this seems to be really, really slow. I experienced a similar issue on an Intel laptop running Ubuntu 22. So it‘s got nothing to do with RISC-V per se but rather with the interop between Grub and this board‘s specific UEFI firmware.

[@iandron7119]

Brilliant Chris, RISC-V and Egyptian geese in the same video. Have a great Christmas!

[@Kw1161]

Thanks C hris for another exciting RISC-V board overview as it is nice to see how far the RISC-V development has come in 2024. Merry Christmas and looking for the last video of 2024 next-week already...time does fly! Have a great week!

[@MrYungilike]

Hi Chris, thanks for your effort within one more fruitful year. Pls stay safe and healthy, and more of your contents are expected all over this planet. ✨

[@montecorbit8280]

I think it'd be a hoot to watch Chris opening Christmas presents!

[@legojenn]

It's Stanley the knife and Mr Scissors time to shine.

[@SuperDavidEF]

Maybe a good idea for his other (self-named) channel!

[@AJB2K3]

Have a good seasonal break and keep doing these the way you always do.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks. :)

[@crashtestopa]

Thanks, loved this video. Always exciting videos about riscv boards.😊

[@sbc_soc_tinkerer]

Ooooo, RISC-V! Will need to watch this later after the family leaves. Blessed Sunday greetings all!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings!

[@karllelliott681]

Excellent content Chris! I have been watching your videos for a short while now and whilst a decades old enthusiast myself, I must say I just love your approach. A hybrid of sesame street (Stanley the knife and Mr scissors) & open university presenter with the look of a hitman distributed occasionally and menacingly :) Much better than I could do I am sure. If anyone ever needs a no no nonsense, accurate and fun introduction to 'all things computing' then I would definitely recommend your channel going forwards to them! Keep up the good work please, Oh and happy new year!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for this -- and a Happy New Year!

[@rdhunkins]

It's good to watch your videos. I always get something, even if it's just keeping up the technology, and even newer terms. I never encountered SOM before, so I looked it up, and hopefully I've kept myself from falling further behind in computer tech knowledge.

[@cjh0751]

Getting a new computer is like Christmas morning. You can't wait to get into the wrapping to expose your new love. 💕

[@ExplainingComputers]

So true!

[@cjh0751]

@ExplainingComputers I'm so happy you feel the same. Wonderful videos Chris. I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

[@Catnap_5774]

Yoo Chris! Merry Christmas and may you be happy and be blessed.!

[@dang48]

Chiming in late. Thank you for another great and informative video. Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas.

[@Jonathannew-cp7fj]

Very exciting and even had Duckies ❤can't wait for future products to come down in price and be more compatible it is all looking very promising... Happy Christmas Chris, keep up the excellent work!! ❤

[@eglintonflats]

I did not see any duckies although I have seen geese and goslings.

[@anasevi9456]

RISC-V is so exciting, and nice to see it finally get some consumer grade cpu's with some real ooompf for normal desktop use.

[@d.barnette2687]

Greetings from across the pond near Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Merry Christmas to you and yours and all your super-groovy supporters. Dang, that's another max-groovy video -- well done, sir! I'm starting to get VERY excited about RISC-V as it seems to be progressing faster than expected. Keep going, SiFive -- we are all behind you! Still a ways to go before I personally jump in. As some have already mentioned, needs NVME slot, ZIF socket for processor, ability to upgrade RAM. Can CPU be overclocked? Great that it has DDR5 memory, and not DDR4 like many (not all) mini-PCs. Ethernet ports need to be increased to at least 2.5 Gbps. DSI and CSI ports need software support muy pronto. Looking forward to an SBC in the near future so I can cluster several of these together and do some more parallel computing with Computational Fluid Dynamics and OpenMPI. That would be groundbreaking in the domain of computational science. Heavens to Betsy, it's a great time to be into computer science!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Love your last sentence. I very much agree!

[@paulgallant8115]

It's impressive where it is already. Would love to switch to this full time sometime in the future.

[@iNireus]

Great video! The “change password immediately” approach, without considering accessibility options, creates significant hassle for users like me. Perhaps allowing a placeholder like “null” or “111” as a temporary solution could work, letting users set a secure password later with the help of a password manager. It’s high time developers and configuration teams started considering the diverse needs of the entire user base. Personally, I manage everything remotely from my phone, which means initial setup after boot is always a challenge. I doubt these decision-makers ever stop to reflect on the difficulties they cause for others-but one can hope they’ll face similar frustrations one day and gain some perspective.

[@ExplainingComputers]

A very good point.

[@Darkk6969]

It's great to see active development on the RISC-V platform. Software support is getting there. Still some ways to go but it's definitely an improvement over two years ago.

[@legojenn]

It is impressive at how quickly RISC-V is developing. I look forward to the day where software support approaches the level of x86, so we can open up a new front in the distro wars. Seriously though, I prefer Mint, so it would be nifty to install Mint on ARM/x86/RISC-V and abstract the interface to the hardware away so that hardware choices are down to the best fit. Thanks again for another review. While I use legacy x86 computers or Raspberry PIs for projects like my Pi Hole, file server, media centre or chicken coop streamer, it's good to have the back pocket idea to move uses away from power intensive devices that just idle a majority of the time to more efficient platforms.

[@SchoolforHackers]

Chicken coop streamer! Brilliant - I’m using this.

[@wingchong68]

we got another one Radxa Orion O6. this one looks awesome also. happy New year 🎊

[@ExplainingComputers]

Yes, the Orion looks very good. :) A Happy New Year!

[@cdl0]

I am glad to see this progress with RISC-V. FYI, using a five year old laptop running Debian Bookworm, Xfce, on an AMD A6-9225 @ 2.6 GHz (two cores) plus 16 Gb RAM, the Gimp lava benchmark takes slightly under 11 s, even with a load of other stuff open. It has a Crucial MX500 SATA SSD, which returns a fairly consistent 435±2 MB/s for the hdparm test (average over 6 runs). There are normally no dropped frames for 720p KZbin videos. The power consumption is similar.

[@schlickit628]

Thanks for including the power usage

[@CARLiCON]

Great vid, thanks for sharing the knowledge, & happy x86-mas!

[@wanyman]

Fabulous video. Being at the pioneering stage of RISC 5 is pretty exciting.

[@ExplainingComputers]

:)

[@sorphin]

Happy CHRIStmas., Chris. May Tech Santa leave many new exciting SBCs under your tree.🎄

[@ExplainingComputers]

Merry Christmas! :)

[@rogierx]

YAY that is so great, this board will fit in my fancy Ncase M1 ! (12,6 liter)

[@w0ode198]

Loving the scope probe mounts.

[@BruceHoult]

Yup, this is an industrial board. The Milk-V Megrez Mini-ITX board with the same 16 GB RAM (but even faster 1.8 GHz CPU) is half the price at $199. They started taking orders on November 25 with promise to ship within 30 days.

[@Geenimetsuri]

Merry Christmas Chris! Excellent job at keeping us up to date with the RISC V development. That board...just add functional GPU acceleration & a fast M2 connection, and I could see it as a living room comp. Especially if it had emulation capabilities.

[@no-one3795]

RISC-V chips are getting more and more powerful as time went on. Now we just need better software support and RISC-V should be as capable as the x86 counterpart.

[@rj7250a]

Yep. This board have the first out of order CPU in risc-v space, wich is a hige step. Now just need to add vector instructions to match ARM.

[@blablamannetje]

I've got a Banana Pi F3 with Spacemit K1/M1, and Bianbu OS on it (based on Ubuntu) is perfect & complete.

[@BruceHoult]

@@rj7250a The quad core TH1520 (Lichee Pi 4A, BeagleV Ahead) and 64 core SG2042 (Milk-V Pioneer) SoCs use a 3-wide OoO CPU core quite similar to this one, and have been available for 1 to 1.5 years. They also have a high performance OoO vector processor, though not using the official RVV 1.0 spec (they were developed 2 1/2 years before thatr spec was released).

[@MrPitki]

Wonderful improvements on risk-v. I hope one day it will be a reasonable option for a daily drive system

[@squelchstuff]

This looks very promising indeed. The IO on the carrier seems like it has some odd omissions, but overall, the whole platform outlook is exciting. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Christopher.

[@horseradishpower9947]

RISC-V is getting very exciting in terms of its development. I reckon in a couple of years, we will joke about whether a RISC-V board can play Crysis, while secretly hoping it can. This is going to shake things up, in a much needed way. Competition breeds innovation and creativity, which the computing world desperately needs. I am really excited for the day I can try one out as a desktop computer, because I reckon we are on that tipping point for usability. A little more time, and it will be feasible, by my reckoning.

[@LivingLinux]

The developer of Box64 (ptitSeb) has a Milk-V Pioneer (64-core RISC-V system) with AMD RX5500 GFX-card. The original Crysis should be no problem. I saw a video with a first test of the Witcher 3 on RISC-V.

[@jandrews377]

Could come faster than we are expecting. Let's see how ugly the 'Qualcomm vs ARM' legal saga gets. We could see the market pivot if ARM appears to be unreasonable and throws their weight around.

[@alanturner1184]

Interesting topic as always thank you Chris. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all

[@johncundiff7075]

WOW, nothing but faster RISC-V coming up, it truly will be exciting watching this platform fully blossom and mature!! Is this the way of all future computers?? Who knows!!! Great video Mr. Barnatt!!!

[@obr2021]

Thx! Great video! Just need to wait for the GPU and NPU support! ❤👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@ferdousazamkhan9840]

Great, we are progressing toward better future

[@izzieb]

A full size PCI-E slot 👀? Perfect for a GPU, though I imagine there's no drivers. Perhaps a certain Jeff would he interested.

[@JeffGeerling]

Milk-V has already demonstrated some older AMD cards on RISC-V, so I'm hopeful for this board.

[@niceride]

RX550 / RX580 / RX590 are well-known to work

[@BruceHoult]

The open source Radeon driver has been working and working very well on RISC-V since 2018. The "nouveau" driver for Nvidia boards has been available just as long, but unlike Radeon does not have the support of the GPU maker. The newer RNDA 2 AMD GPUs have been supported since the 6.10 kernel. Here is LTT showing an AMD PCIe video card running on an earlier HiFive board in 2018. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gmnNonqFnKisa68

[@tracyrogers397]

Thank you from ATL.

[@IEnjoyCreatingVideos]

Nice video Chris! Thanks for sharing with us' and Merry Christmas!💖👍😎JP

[@ExplainingComputers]

Merry Christmas! :)

[@IEnjoyCreatingVideos]

@@ExplainingComputers Thank you Chris! Merry Christmas!😎

[@budiardjo6610]

really love this board

[@PS_Tube]

Greetings. Glad to have watched this video.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings! Thanks for watching.

[@sid_gm1949]

Merry Christmas and Happy New year in advance 🎈💐💐🎈❤❤🎉🎉🎉 Greetings on an exciting Sunday.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings!

[@Brinslade]

Great comparison. Merry Christmas

[@CocolinoFan]

This is so exciting! Can't wait to put a RISC-V CPU in my machine!

[@cobanzoso1472]

Love the Linux and Risc V content ❤. 2025 will be a great year for Risc V !!

[@ypat90]

What? A RISC-V SBC is an early Christmas for Chris! Merry Christmas to all the EC community and beyond.

[@ppdan]

This one starts to be interesting and usable.

[@MrEsabadi84]

I want to wish merry christmas to u and team.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks, and Merry Christmas! :)

[@marie-noellebaechler1433]

Thank you very much, this was fascinating

[@Colin_Ames]

Great video, as always. Merry Christmas 🎄

[@perrymcclusky4695]

Another impressive RISC-V board with impressive performance. Definitely exciting developmental hardware. I have Ubuntu running on a couple of my older laptops. The board that you’ve tested runs Ubuntu pretty well in comparison. Not bad at all. Looking forward to your next RISC-V video, whatever the content is! Nice to see your test rig in use. Hopefully, after you’ve used it several times, you’ll give us your thoughts on how well you like it.

[@SigEpBlue]

Exciting times, indeed!

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

This is a powerful RISC-V board indeed. Very nice. :) Also, I bet it was great to not have to deal with the I/O shield for a change. And finally, yaaaaay, duckies!!! This is the best Christmas ever. 🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆

[@alanthornton3530]

Hi Ford no I/O shields were harmed or cursed at in the making of this video. And we got to see lots of duckies, nice! Only three sleeps to go!

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

@@alanthornton3530 Hi, Alan! Yup, no I/O shields getting called swines and lots of ducks to go around. And alas, one or two more sleeps until I start slaving in the kitchen. 🥹😆

[@ExplainingComputers]

Yes, I avoided the I/O shield challenge!

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

@@ExplainingComputers I bet that made things less stressful. :)

[@TheOleHermit]

Merry Christmas! Ho! Ho! Ho!

[@gregholloway2656]

Cool new board, Chris! When running your zip test, if you start the command line with “time” ($ time zip test.zip), Linux will time how long the command takes to run. Merry Christmas!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Very useful, thanks. I will remember this -- it will save me time!

[@BruceHoult]

@@ExplainingComputers very diplomatic!

[@tippytiddler1377]

Great video. Merry Christmas

[@ExplainingComputers]

Merry Christmas!

[@richardmoore5371]

2025 the year of the RISC-V Linux Desktop ;)

[@SchoolforHackers]

Oh fun- a perfect board to try out on your 20x20 open rig.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Agreed! :)

[@liontuga155]

It’s a really impressive board, especially considering its power consumption. Hope they get all the drivers ready, so that the hardware becomes usable to its full potential. 🤞

[@nocheaven8427]

Herzlichen Dank für die Informationen 😊😅😅

[@sid_gm1949]

This video is going to my custom pc building guide 🎉

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks. :)

[@SusanAmberBruce]

Greetings Chris and Merry Christmas 🤶

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings Susan, and a Merry Christmas to you too! :)

[@FrancoisBothaZA]

Thank you for pronouncing Ubuntu correctly 🙏🏼

[@Pallidus_Rider]

I like the old school microphone and headset/speaker jack. I can dust off some older components and reuse them. 😅

[@Terran.Marine.2]

I didn't recall the color codes to tell the difference between microphone input or line level input.

[@Remigrator]

Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn Bro 😱😱😱😃

[@Remigrator]

This merits a High-V 😏

[@alfredosalza6328]

Nice video champ! Love your channel!

[@williama29]

I am excited to see Risc-V architecture come about in the open ISA form and it seems to be excellent as well I am wondering where this will be useful and not useful

[@asan1050]

Thank you very much!

[@voneschenbachmusic]

Wow - it seems like progress is happening at an observable pace. I hope that we can get some US/EU-based RISC-V SBCs in the sub-$100 range that perform at this level or better over the coming year.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I think this is quite likely.

[@ianhaylock7409]

8:47 I don't think I've ever seen the grub boot screen load so slowly. Reminds me of the old DEC VT100 terminals from the 90's.

[@PerNilsson1]

Great video!

[@rickharold7884]

Love alternatives!! So juicy!!!

[@godnyx117]

Thanks for the review! RISCV's progress is looking amazing! Solely based on GIMP's benchmark, P550 seems to be about 125% slower than RK3588, while drawing a little bit less power. That might seem terrible (and it is) but considering how much new RISV is compared to ARM and the fact that the later has a big company backing it up, I think the progress of RISCV is impressive! Maybe in 5 years the top RISCV and ARM CPUs will have a gap as small as 20-30%, with RISCV drawing less power.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I totally agree with what you write here.

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

I sure hope that RISK 5 rivals ARM, and even X86 soon! This kind of competition can mean a lot, and go a long way if there's some market fracturing into smaller pieces involved.

[@johngangemi1361]

Risc V has come a long way.

[@terryashley4674]

Very good, Chris! 😃

[@YouT-DJ]

Very good - Would like to see the NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super. Happy holidays.

[@ZaCaptain1229]

Please look at the Milk V Mars. I love that little board

[@LockonKubi]

It might be worth noting that the SOM approach looks to be a first from these guys, casual browsing of their website shows the other/older offerings they have had everything soldered to the board. But assuming that SOM connector is as open as the rest of the spec that'll open some interesting opportunities down the line.

[@innstikk]

Hope you have a nice 2025!

[@ChipGuy]

4:07: I wish you would have mentioned if the mounting hole distances of a Mini-DTX board are the same as those on Mini-ITX board. Anyway, Wikipedia tells that the board would fit.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Yes, the mounting holes are identical to Mini-ITX. The board is just wider on the PCIe card slot side (so that it can have a second PCIe slot).

[@darssmare915]

In future episodes, could you say more about who designed and who manufactured each SoC?

[@blablamannetje]

ESWIN EIC7700X SoC, made by ESWIN Computing, from Beijing, China.

[@SergiuszRoszczyk]

Nice! It’s beginning to look like 🎄, RISC-V on every store 😀. My curiosity is around power consumption - those 15.7-16.0 seems like idling around this level. I’d like to see readout during zip compression, either those cores consume almost no energy or there is no power management 🧐

[@thevintagecomputer]

Thanks for the review! Looks like it's at a point now where it's fit for everyday use.I wonder though why the 4 x 1.4Ghz outperform 8 x 1.8 Ghz - is the eswin 7700 a so much more efficient RISC V implementation? Would be great if you could talk about that in one of your next videos.