VisionFive 2: RISC-V Quad Core Low Cost SBC

[@ExplainingComputers]

USB PORTS UPDATE! Today StarFive have released a new datasheet for the VisionFive 2, indicating an upgrade to the specification. All four USB ports are now USB 3.0 (rather than two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0). So all of the ports are correctly coloured. The new datasheet is at: doc-en.rvspace.org/VisionFive2/PDF/VisionFive2_Datasheet.pdf

[@JeradBenge]

That's exactly what I was hoping to hear! I've been waiting for some time to play with RISC-V hardware, and this board seems like the perfect opportunity to get involved.

[@BilisNegra]

While you were detailing the board's specifications I was wondering if that color mismatch might be one of the early bird / early revision quirks. It made no sense it would stay like that. But it's good things have been sorted out the best way, that is, upgrading to 4 USB 3.0 ports instead of just correcting the wrong color coding.

[@davidlloyd1526]

Yay - congratulations on being the first SBC reviewer who actually talks about software/driver support. Even if it is "it's not in Debian yet, and there are *problems* that we don't know how long it'll take to resolve, and no chance with Ubuntu or anything else for the foreseeable future". Better than pretending that there is support when there is none, like every other SBC review I watch.

[@davidlloyd1526]

@@ytfeelslikenorthkorea For me, I just need to know things like: "have the drivers and firmware made it into the real Linux Kernel repositories?" This board has an Imagination GPU, so I simply assume it's going to cause problems. There's no point buying something that boots to a blank screen, except when used with a hacked together "Engineering release" of Debian (presumably no-one is supporting that medium term). Maybe they'll get the drivers merged upstream... ...or maybe they won't. That they are shipping the boards, and the (already-two-years-old GPU) drivers are *not* upstream yet is an obvious red flag, so I'll wait until (if?) drivers are functional in standard Debian... you know just in case it never happens!

[@davidlloyd1526]

@@ytfeelslikenorthkorea Yes - to be fair, Imagination have promised to deliver Open Source Linux firmware and drivers, as opposed to just supplying Android modules for phone manufacturers to wire in. When that happens, and if this fairly old GPU is included in their promise, we will have a great RISC-V SBC. I suspect it will work out (otherwise StarFive messed up quite a bit)!

[@JeffGeerling]

Thanks for this great review; I'm hoping to get my first RISC-V board this year and hope to see Debian get wider support-a lot of the UI slowness and quirks will go away once it can take advantage of the GPU. Fingers crossed 2023 is when we finally see RISC-V as a viable alternative not just for developers or early alpha testers!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings Jeff -- and agreed! :) I have already imagined you doing a video on the Lichee Cluster 4A (see lower down this page): sipeed.com/licheepi4a/ Now what would you do with 28 RISC-V cores . . .

[@JeffGeerling]

@Good Ol' Slappy McGee I had planned on it, but honestly the 2nd half of 2022 was a bit of a blur since I kept going in and out of the hospital :( Ah well, I still have an Orange Pi 5 on the way, and I did order a VisionFive 2, but it probably won't come until February. It's okay though because I have plenty of other fun projects to kick off the year!

[@nexusyang4832]

Time for RedShirtJeff to recompile for RISC. :)

[@STORMFIRE07]

@@nexusyang4832 except that it’ll probably gonna take a fraction of the time required compared to ARM as RISC-V is completely open source

[@TheOleHermit]

Very relieved to see you returning to health, Jeff. Best wishes to you and your family for a better 2023. 😎

[@andymouse]

I am excited too because that is a proper DEV board !....cheers.

[@RhoTrepaan]

Awesome, this might be a new favourite for me! Also, many thanks for the explanation at the end about why this is such a great development 👍

[@JohnMiller-mmuldoor]

8:09 Oh man that was a perfect opportunity to make a pun “Risk it on RISC 5”

[@buhnux]

Nice early review of the starfive board. Looking forward to getting mine in Feb!

[@fakecubed]

I appreciate all this RISC-V content on your channel. I'm a big cheerleader for RISC-V and the more people getting the word out and tinkering with these boards, the better.

[@michaeldonoghue9015]

Came for the news, stayed for the huge Hello!

[@ArniesTech]

Super excited to see RISC V on the rise 💪😎

[@jonathanleach3914]

Fascinating. It will be interesting to see how this develops. Thanks

[@zodiacfml]

Exciting! I'm not even into SBCs! Checking out RPI moments ago, the prices and stock are ridiculous! I hope for RISC-V quick success. Even Arm is embarrassing vs x86.

[@oneilchung]

I grew up on British TV goodness during the 80s. Top form, impeccable command of the language and a deep regal flair to the presentation. Amazing channel, a wonderful host and a blast from a more refined time. Thank you good sir and do keep up the good works. Will be cheering you on.

[@freakinccdevilleiv380]

Indeed.

[@IanTheCat]

The absolute most exciting computing news I'll likely hear all year

[@dizwell]

Can I just say I appreciate the degree of care you take with your nails!

[@juliusfucik4011]

Instead of going on holiday, I decided to spend my holiday money thanking my favorite KZbinrs. Please, feign excitement 😄 Love your videos, sir!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Certainly excited! :) Thanks for your generous support.

[@SISSYPUSS]

@@ExplainingComputers KZbin colored the background brick red for his comment & your reply, that's pretty cool! 😅😅

[@brucefrizzell4221]

I really like the online support of visionfive . It is clearly written and useful . Very rare these days .

[@ExplainingComputers]

Agreed. They are really trying to help users.

[@leandrotami]

Glad to see that there's someone making these boards with low cost as a priority! The Rpi used to be like that but then features creeped in and costs starting going up. It's specially good in countries like mine where tech is already way too expensive

[@vizionthing]

Two network ports is just genius - looks like this will be my next firewall

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

What a nice board! I think it's pretty wild that we've gone from an 8 gig $179 board to a board with three different RAM options at double-digit prices in around nine months. And with the prices and RAM options alongside the addition of GPIO and all those storage options, this could really have the potential of competing with the Raspberry Pi and introducing more and more people to RISC-V. One more thing, by the way; your closing segment triggered my Google Nest Mini. 🤣

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings on another Sunday, and thanks for your support. Sorry about the Google trigger!

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

@@ExplainingComputers Hi, Chris! You're welcome. And you're very much okay; I thought the Google Nest Mini getting triggered and telling me what the weather is outside was funny! I should've recorded it but alas, I had to get ready for the day... It's not the first time this sort of thing happened.

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

Don't forget, that RISC 5 will allow for huge amounts of cores too (some Computer architecture professor in japan made one with 1012 cores!), and special computing devices like rendering engines, AI accelerators and more, all up to the hardware developers to use the RISC V architecture in any configurations and using any interconnects they see fit! The hard part of course is designing it all, as it is wicked complicated making micro architecture stuff and getting the clocks, temperatures, power supply and control... right and everything in sync. Plenty of room to make many rejects before finding the "secret sauce"!😅

[@dennisfahey2379]

Its really all about the players accepting lower margins to drive volume. The RISC V core itself is tiny. Someone could pop the cap on the chip and see the layout/blocks. Really be interesting to see some traditional benchmarks. The interesting thing about embedded design is it is bound by different requirements that traditional server, workstation, desktop computing. Things like battery life (multiple sleep modes), lots of IO and feature peripherals (counters, timers, interrupt structures) come into play. You prefer or may mandate fanless operation, etc. I hope they have a roadmap for some AI cores. The AI revolution is not trivial - it solves a major problem in the adoption. The AI stuff dates back to the early 1980's as well (Neural Nets) and is finally getting its day in the sun.

[@crystalsheep1434]

Verry nice to see a low cost RISK V

[@GertBoers]

Exciting times for the Open Source enthusiasts (like me)! At this price range, I think we're going to see an increase in momentum for Risc-V. Especially with Pine being involved, I think. Thank you for this interesting video!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Agreed. The price is so important here.

[@GeekBoy03]

I thought the price for the first RISC-V single board computers was insane. The RISC-V is open source so you are not paying extra for the licensing costs of ARM, so it should of been much cheaper. It finally is now.

[@GertBoers]

@@GeekBoy03 It's not only licencing costs that makes a price.. The price had more to do with the development costs. And early adapters usually have to spend more.

[@ExplainingComputers]

@@GeekBoy03 It is indeed good that prices are now falling. But how the first board have been been much cheaper? Low- and first-run fabrication is never low cost -- licensing costs (or lack thereof) have nothing to do with it.. The first VisionFive SBC was very cheap compared to the RISC-V development board launched a few years earlier, which cost $1200. :)

[@STORMFIRE07]

@@ExplainingComputers from $1200 to only $51 today, the development speed of RISC-V SBCs is amazing, and i am all in for it

[@fredflickinger643]

Great perspective on RISC-V!

[@stephenmiller8196]

The speed at which riscv development is progressing is incredibly exciting. Its only a matter of time before it seriously rivals arm and hopefully x86

[@MarkTheMorose]

An encouraging upgrade from their earlier board. Decent I/O (but I'd be taking a black marker pen to those USB 2 ports in disguise!) and storage options, and affordable too I hope it meets with the success it deserves.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I suspect that the blue USB 2.0 ports may be because this is "super early bird hardware" -- and/or due to supply issues (ie they used what was available).

[@STORMFIRE07]

There's a new update btw, they changed the data sheet and corrected that that board is indeed using 4 usb 3 ports instead of what they suggested before that it was 2 usb 3 and 2 usb 2

[@ExplainingComputers]

@@STORMFIRE07 Yes, this is good news -- see the link in the pinned comment or video description.

[@wolfcrossing5992]

Looking forward to more reviews as the software catches up to the potential of the board. Again, thank you for your reviews and comments.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I will certainly be returning to this board -- and benchmarking against other SBCs -- once the software is final.

[@ristopoho824]

We cannot give an estimation on when the software is working. Because the problems have NEVER been encountered before. It's not often you hear that. I like completely new architectures. Literally. Never before seen problems. And never before seen solutions. This is going to be a good year for the nerds and enthusiasts.

[@RocktCityTim]

Glad to see that their pricing has reached a hobbyist level!

[@NobodyYouKnow98]

Their pricing is nothing but pie-in-the-sky hopes and dreams. You won't be buying this board anytime soon, and certainly not for the $51 they claim.

[@1974UTuber]

Competition is always a good thing. I'm sure the Linux community will get behind Risc-V in a big way since it is open source. The lower price point will also help keep X86 and ARM prices more honest as well in the future. At least for boards with comparable specifications

[@trajectoryunown]

My dream is to have an entirely open source computer, hardware and all. The current paradigm does not allow for this. I wait with eager anticipation a RISC-V system with desktop-worthy performance, and it's getting there. I'm considering a pre-order just to tinker. Hopefully it will get there in the next 2-3 years.

[@alifelessrock48]

open source is gonna have a tough time, but with all the developments so far, I share the same opinions as you guys

[@mytech6779]

They have been behind risc-V for years. The problem here was the gpu driver, which is not Risc-V

[@autohmae]

@@trajectoryunown well, in practice it's only open source for chip makers. And at the moment it's pretty much impossible to verify that the hardware you ordered is what you wanted: Wednesday 11 00am Keynote Address Impedance Matching Expectations Between RISC V and the Open Har

[@harshbarj]

"The lower price point will also help keep X86 and ARM prices more honest" Only if it gains serious market share. Which I have to say is unlikely. I know to many of the open source diehards feel the openness of the platform is a positive, in reality it's not going to have that much of an impact. I'm a massive fan of Linux and use it as my daily driver os but not really a fan of open source in general. To me it's more important that it works than if I can see the sorce.

[@smile768]

When the first RiscV boards were coming out I thought it was a bit of a joke, but could be good in a decade. The pace of development has been extraordinary and at this rate rate I fully expect desktop performance very soon. At present it's in the same bracket as many Arm boards- ie almost there but not quite yet. Thanks Chris for being at the forefront of this computing milestone.

[@chubbymoth5810]

I think you underestimate the impact of the destruction of Huawei has had on the industry. Being open source, it is not beholden to any IP imports/exports. A nice safe bet for chipmakers.

[@redwillrise]

@@chubbymoth5810 There is no question that import/export bans, restrictions, and tariffs will apply on RISC-V hardware once it's advanced enough. Remember that only the ISA itself is open source, not its actual implementations. This mitigates in part the effects of software ecosystem fragmentation that arise through trade wars, but hardware development in itself still still suffer.

[@GeekBoy03]

@@chubbymoth5810 Huawei has been banned from the open source Android project. However, they did fork it and made their own ecosystem.

[@turanamo]

Perfect timing since VisionFive 2 is being delivered hot to all the backers at Kickstarter. Pioneering moment in history as opensource software fuses with opensource hardware.

[@ExplainingComputers]

:)

[@STORMFIRE07]

Truly a match made in heaven

[@DoublesC]

Ths is really exciting for the future of SBC !

[@LeeZhiWei8219]

I can't wait to get this. Its a whole new architecture from X86 and Arm.

[@darkerm76]

This really sounds great. We need more open sources things for a better competition

[@WalterW]

RISC-V is exciting stuff! I’ve been a RISC fan since the early 90s and have been disappointed that the technology never overtook x86 in the consumer market. Thanks for the video!

[@paullandry6573]

Excellent video. Thank you Chris for an excellent review. I have the first board and am looking forward to this one as well, even though it looks like there is plenty of work SiFive still has to do. I am sure I am not the only person who appreciates your efforts in testing, reviewing, and reporting on this technology!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks Paul.

[@markconger8049]

I am excited! This board has incredible specs. I’m especially happy about two (2!) DSI connections. I’m not terribly thrilled about the 1.5GHz speed, but I’m willing to overlook it because of the obviously big investment StarFive has made in the SoC. If StarFive is reading my comment, thank you for what you’ve built. I want one!!

[@starfivetechnology5735]

Thanks

[@johncundiff7075]

Great video as always mate!! It's my Sunday morning ritual watching Explaining Computers!!!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great ritual!

[@PS_Tube]

With passing time RISC - V devices are growing into good dev boards. Seems like good times are ahead for the open architecture and open technologies, hopefully. 🤞 Informative video.

[@andrew8293]

Another major step in the right direction for RISC V. Maybe I'll pick one of these boards up at some point this year if the software gets more usable on the desktop. If this architecture continues to advance at this rate I can definitely see it being a third pillar to x86 and ARM.

[@Spyd77]

I'm happy that at last Risc-V is both at a correct price and with enough software compatibility to start being a real competition against ARM based SBCs.

[@DigitalProphet]

I have high hopes for the future. I want to see lots more RISC computers coming on the market.

[@alanthornton3530]

Thanks Chris for an excellent Sunday video I'm glad the Risc V 2 board turned up in time, you've made my day!! The future of this board looks quite promising & once it's matured it'll be good to have some healthy competition, that'll put the cat among the pigeons for x86 & arm devices.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for your support Alan, most appreciated. I was very surprised indeed when the VisionFive 2 arrived last Tuesday. I thought I'd just be handed a package containing an Orange Pi 5. And I started scripting for that! Then I opened the box . . . :)

[@Techmagus76]

Thanks for the nice overview of the actual status of this very interesting piece of hardware. My thoughts go in the same direction as yours that they make impressive progress at the moment and for sure as we can say for now taking fast steps in the right direction. Especially having already control of the GPIO pins shows they really have a plan and know which kind of people they have to get involved as early as possible.

[@honestgoat]

I'm very excited about RISC-V moving forward Chris. Did you hear that Google is now starting to develop Android to move to R5 within a few years. Their plan is to eventually move their Pixel line into R5 and away from ARM. The open source Android project was also updated back in September to start to support R5. Support is extremely limited currently as very few Android apps work on R5 at all, but it is still very exciting. I think that such a large company developing for R5 will make the industry in general start to move in that direction. And with open source options being available, devices should start to get cheaper as ARM licensing wont be an issue. EDIT: Due to Googles layoffs practically obliterating their open source departments, I am no longer optimistic about Googles role and contributions to the Android and Linux open source communities moving forward. And the EU's new proposed 'Cyber Resilience Act' could also contribute to the blow to the open source industry. I still think that Google taking on RISC-V will bring much needed attention and increase development for the ISA.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I share your excitement! I saw that Google wants to make RISC-V a Tier 1 platform -- for others: arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/01/google-announces-official-android-support-for-risc-v/ I suspect we will see RISC-V application beyond embedded and microcontrollers accelerate in the next year or two.

[@honestgoat]

@@ExplainingComputers Exciting times ahead.

[@honestgoat]

@Good Ol' Slappy McGee Sweet, have fun with it man. Yeah, I think I will have to get me one o these as well.

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

Too bad Google appropriated Linux in order to make their Android spyware platform! If they where genuinely into open source they would have just contributed to Linux and helped make it better, no "Android" needed, but that is not at all what they have in mind! They are using "open source" as a shield to keep up their agenda and get away with it easier. I don't trust them nor Microsoft for a second! Hopefully RISC 5 will open the door to way more open source software and hardware, and break dependence on companies that lock shit down and make people pay for being tools they can spy on, track, influence, and indoctrinate at will!

[@honestgoat]

@@Bob-of-Zoid Android IS open source dude. Google doesn't own it. What Google owns is the Play Store app. Google does have their own flavour of Android that they use on their devices, but so does Samsung and most of the other companies that ship devices with Android. And yes, they do inject "spyware" into their flavours of Android. And Google does contribute heavily to both Android and Linux projects as well as many other open source projects. It is in their interest to do so as all their devices rely on this software. Both Android and Chrome OS use the Linux kernel. So by supporting both Android and Linux projects they reap the rewards of those projects advancing, innovating and becoming more secure and stable. We also get to reap the rewards as we get to use the software for free. It is win/win. Literally hundreds of operating systems use the Linux kernel across billions and billions of devices. From Android and Chrome OS through all the brands of Linux you've heard of like Debian, Fedora, Mint etc to most firmware that runs on routers and IOT devices. The whole point of Linux is to be free and open source to allow for innovation and competition against Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and now Apple as well. Google has every right to use the RISC-V ISA as it is open source. But as such, they must abide by the open source license. It is a good thing when big corporations adopt open source products as it increases market share and by extension brings funding and support to the projects. I don't know what you mean by 'Google are using open source as a shield to keep up their agenda to get away with something'. So I'll just say this: Yes Google and Microsoft are evil. As is Apple and the majority of the worlds largest corporations. Yes these companies infringe on the intellectual property of others. Look at what Microsoft is doing with code from GITHub at the moment. And Google did totally rip off parts of the Java API which is owned by Oracle. Apple totally ripped of BSD to make MacOS. I'm not saying these companies aren't pieces of crap, but Google cannot achieve some grand evil plan by adopting open source products. Well other than saving money on licensed products I guess. As well as I suppose RnD on developing new ones. But that is technically just good business. So I don't really understand what your point is over all. I mean, I'm right there with you against spyware, tracking, data collection, locked down ecosystems and indoctrination and all that jazz. But I think you are perhaps not well enough informed about how open source works, as your statement is not accurate and doesn't really make sense. Google adopting RISC-V absolutely IS a good thing, regardless of how much of a piece of crap company Google is. It means that development for the ISA will go through the roof. Especially as Google adopts R5 for their mobile devices. Android has a market share of over 80%, which means that there will be a great deal of incentive for developers to accommodate R5. Especially as the Open Source Android Project is already adopting R5 support. Which is what devs use as the foundation for their flavours of Android. EDIT: Meant to say this as well: If you want a mobile device that doesnt have spyware or tracking and is privacy based, but still have the experience of a flagship OS like Android, go check out Graphene OS. IT IS AWESOME AND I LOVE IT!!!!!

[@srtcsb]

This board looks promising indeed. Thanks for the comments about the expectation of a growing support/community... That does make all the difference. Thanks for another great video Chris.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings Steve.

[@bitwize]

Price is coming a bit higher than Raspberry Pi without supply-chain issues, but it's great to see RISC-V boards get affordable, RISC-V is gonna change everything.

[@nahimgudfam]

Yes, RISC is good.

[@deepfakescoverychannel6710]

no. RISC flops/Watt is worse. Also many cool things are already patented by intel/amd and risc cannot use them.

[@leechps]

Have been hearing of RISC-V news for quite a while. First time seeing a RISC-V SBC in action. Thank you for the great reviews.

[@Razor_Burn]

I first became aware of RISC-V from viewing your previous reviews and appreciate your mission to educate your viewers onto the viable alternatives to ARM and X86 so well done. Its still early days but the improvements and price point make the Vision 2 a vast and something tells me we should expect to see more RISC-V content in 2023!!! Thanks from Australia 👍

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings -- and yes, there will be more RISC-V content here in 2023. :)

[@perrymcclusky4695]

I find the RISC-V technology fascinating and hope that there is enough interest in this particular board to have a follow-up video on it. Looking forward to your next video!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings Perry. This board will certainly appear in more videos. Not least, when there is final release software, I will benchmark against a Pi 3 and Pi 4. :)

[@perrymcclusky4695]

@@ExplainingComputers Wonderful, looking forward to that future video! (edit) videos!

[@fearlessmangoose3118]

I haven't been this exited for a new SBC in my entire life ! I hope I can get my hands on one soon !

[@ExplainingComputers]

You are clearly a pioneer!

[@myg63]

My comment under your riscv 1 board was: "the future starts here". Now with this development of Sifive board 2 I say: "the real future starts here". 😄😳🖖 Thank you for your work. The channel is becoming more exciting every time. 🌈👍😎

[@ExplainingComputers]

:)

[@Doobie3010]

Really intresting developments, more options and choices are a very good thing to have. Good vid man!

[@crusaderACR]

This is huge news. Even Pine is getting in the RISC-V business now. Future is looking brighter and brighter.

[@legojenn]

Thanks for the review. I'd love to see a follow up in six to nine months to see if other distros get involved and if the missing support issues like NVME and video playback. It's great to be aware of this architecture so early in its development.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Hi Jen, and I will most certainly be doing this. I plan to return to the board when at least one final release distro is available, and to run benchmarks against a Pi 3 and a Pi 4. And I am still planning a "RISC-V Week" video -- probably in the second half of 2023 -- when the software is more refined and stable. :)

[@JeSuisUnePatate]

Very interesting to see the huge evolution of this RISC-V SBC within only a year ! Price drop of this 2nd version will also helps a lot to grow up the community of this board wich will helps for doing more exciting things in the future. Thank you very much for this early demo. It could be interesting to see it again in a few months as the performances will get improved. 👍

[@lesliedeana5142]

Having GPIO with *actual* control is SO VERY IMPORTANT! For me, I don't really care if there are pins on the board from manufacture if you can't do anything with it! One can buy Motherboards for all types and sizes, but the ability to 'sense the world AND talk back to it is the entire point of of development, in my humble opinion!

[@ExplainingComputers]

We are, as so often, in agreement! :) I was very pleased to be able to install and test GPIO control. StarFive already have a pdf guide to using GPIO on the board, so are clearly going to support the maker market. I think a lot of people will want to experiment with a RISC-V project board, especially when Raspberry Pis remain in limited supply.

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

Erm, have they not been doing what you describe with the Raspberry Pi for over a decade already?

[@lesliedeana5142]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 And I have been a Pi fan for years. It's just tough to build new projects when you can't obtain the hardware to do it on! 😛

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

@@lesliedeana5142 But, with respect, that's not what you originally said. You said "I don't really care if there are pins on the board from manufacture if you can't do anything with it" - which, of course, is not correct for Raspberry Pi as the pins are both functional and well-documented. That's the point I was responding to. Sure, I accept there's a supply problem with the Pi and that people are looking for alternative boards instead - I entirely get that and it's why I build Gentoo Linux on my types of boards including Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi, Orange Pi, NanoPi Neo, some Olimex boards and even the Atomic Pi based on Intel Atom architecture. But you've now decided to answer an entirely different point that what you originally stated and, with respect, "Telepathy over TCP/IP" hasn't been invented yet - so I can only respond to words that you write, not the thoughts in your head. I do wish more people would stay on topic in these discussions!

[@paddle_shift]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 With respect, you are the one not on topic. Leslie was talking about a non PI board and others like it. Leslie agreed with your not on topic comment about PI SBCs, but her original comment was about the presentation of non PI boards with or without GPIO pins.

[@kjakobsen]

Happy New Year Chris. The M.2 slot is neat. Hope the next big Raspberry Pi includes faster disk I/O.

[@jeffdingle9677]

I know it's early days, but it'll be interesting to see how it develops over coming months and years - particularly with the addition of wifi, bluetooth, youtube viewing improvements, printing and linux software development. Looking forward to 2023/24 - it's looking good.....

NIce push for RISC-V systems. ARM was nearly bought by NVIDEA and we all feared what that might entangle. Companies gobbling up all Rasperry PI's for 3 years will make this option more attractive. The Raspberry guys have already shown us where their priorities are.

[@dezmondwhitney1208]

What a promising new SBC , great price and with bags of potential too. Most Encouraging. Thank You for this informative upload.

[@rickharold7884]

Yeah, that’s awesome, great to have alternatives to existing architectures

[@MrCommodorebob]

I actually got the first Vision 5. It is pretty good. Currently it is being used as a small webserver. I will probably have to pick up one of these.

[@CCoburn3]

Hello Stanley! Except for the disappointing lack of wireless connectivity, this looks pretty good. I think RISC-V will take off in the next couple of years. This is a very good start.

[@MarquisDeSang]

It is a step back, because Nezha Sipeed Risc-V had wifi and blutooth included and working out of the box.

[@MarquisDeSang]

@Tony And a blutooth dongle also, with only 2 usp that means I need a hub and all of this won't be working out of the box. This is why Apple has destroyed Windows, they have the stuff that we need working out of the box.

[@kevgermany]

@user-gs4vx3bg3w I think he meant two left after two dongles. Sad I have to explain it to such a helpful person

[@MarquisDeSang]

But all the other Risc-V SBC have this feature. I don't know anyone who still plug something in their computer. NO ONE.

[@MarquisDeSang]

@Tony You must be american, we in civilized Canada use only Wifi in our homes and industries.

[@davidglenn6468]

Great video Chris. I’m still only marginally interested in RISCV, but more so now than when you reviewed StarFive 1 board. Still can’t see me laying out any cash for one, but I can now see a time coming when I will be ready to. I agree that the speed of development & price cuts are impressive & I am excited to see what happens next. Thanks for covering this.

[@aw34565]

Two things on this board that would greatly improve the Raspberry Pi 4 are the full size HDMI connector and the fan header.

[@patpliley5535]

Good job. Getting the info out there is very important. Thank for looking out for the people looking into wanting to work with what is new and useful.

[@CXensation]

YES ! News from my favorite SBC channel. AS usual very informative - thanks !

[@robertbox5399]

I said something critical of this famed site and regretted it immediately-ish, for good reason. Take it or leave it! This Nottingham based don is a legend.

[@josephregallis3394]

Getting an 8 GB RAM board for under $100 seems like a good value. I would have liked to see a video as to see what the GPU can do. Also having Wi-Fi and Bluetooth would be good additions.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I could not get video playback in either a browser or locally. I did manage to install VLC media player, but it would not run.

[@ThomasBrisco]

"I'll run it again, and feign excitement" - love your sense of humor! This looks compelling - currently selling at (considerably) less than the RPi equivalents. I have to admit the graphics seemed ... eh, slow - but hoping for the best with the software updates and graphics support. I'd looked at the first StarFive, and it's very exciting to see how the price has come down so dramtically. Looking forward to getting my first one!

[@patdbean]

It would be good to run some benchmarks against ras pi 3 and 4 to see how the actual CPU performance stacks up against cortex A53 and A72.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I will be making a video doing exactly this once we have final software for the VisionFive 2. Right now the software is not good enough to run reasonable comparative tests.

[@patdbean]

@@ExplainingComputers true, I guess you would be testing the compiler and OS more than you would be testing the hardware.

[@johndododoe1411]

@@patdbean Well, all benchmarks tend to reflect the compilers and performance libraries rather than the CPUs themselves, but CPU architects tend to aggressively optimize those together. Deeply optimized libraries and compiler strategies are often produced for important operations such as linear algebra (vectors and matrices), compression, encryption etc. And architecture independent benchmarks tend to encourage their use.

[@patdbean]

@@johndododoe1411 true, but those very compilers that are used to compile the benchmarks are ALSO the compilers that will the used to compile the application people will use.

[@johndododoe1411]

@@patdbean Exactly.

[@gregholloway2656]

Thanks for the look at this board, Chris! I’ve been eagerly awaiting it. I noticed, in your intro, that the Custard Pi got an upgrade for 2023. Happy New Year. 👍

[@ExplainingComputers]

Now that is a good spot in the intro. I updated the titles when I did my channel update in early December 2022. But I decided I was not happy with the colour scheme I used for the Custard Pi. So those new titles did not last very long -- and were updated for this video as you noticed! But they will revert back and forth a couple of times, as some uploaded content (like next week's video) still has the old new titles.

[@gam85191]

These sbc are proving to be taking over the world. Good video as always , Chris!

[@rxmas7234]

I can't wait to get one of these! I was a Solaris fan in a past life and really liked the RISC system.

[@esra_erimez]

This is really interesting! What a time to be alive. After ARM shot themselves in the foot by pulling an AT&T and suing Qualcomm/Nuvia, essentially killing hopes for ARM desktop, I'm eager to see how SiFive and Intel Horse Creek SoC on the HiFive Pro P550 performs.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I agree, exciting times -- with a lot of new RISC-V hardware to check out in the relatively near future!

[@radscientist]

ARM and RISC-V are the future of embedded and portable systems. I can't wait to see the day they both become as (or more) common and as powerful as their desktop counterparts.

[@StingyGeek]

Impressive. Curious to see where software support goes in time. The two NIC board opens up some really interesting home network options, with software support.

[@DallasHerrmann]

This looks really promising for my homelab setup, particularly with the m.2 support.

[@gooner_loomer]

its great to see more RISC-V boards, hopefully it gets the software support needed to truly make it a raspberry pi competitor

[@ExplainingComputers]

That is my hope too. The hardware and price are now there.

[@markusklingsiek2366]

Mine should arrive today. I'm so excited to try it out! Thanks for the review! As always, your professionalism is outstanding.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Good luck with your new board!

[@SergiuszRoszczyk]

Good to see more Risc-V activities and price drop to reasonable levels. And speaking of this board I'm not disappointed by not working features, this time it is a completely new territory and it is up to OSS community if it will adopt or reject Risc-V in general. Still I expect huge efforts from manufacturer to bring kernel level drivers up to reasonable quality.

[@oceania68]

I am looking forward to getting frisk-y with risc-v 😆 in the near future.. It is these new and exciting ventures that make it worth while tinkering and learning as you go.

[@_Epictetus_]

Can't wait for more powerful boards!

[@teamtechworked8217]

Personally I am generally impressed with how well everything was working on Risc-V. Optimistic about the future.

[@deterdamel7380]

Nice to see good progress on Linux/Risc-V. Even after a final release of this board, I think it's for active RV Linux/RV-developers. I guess the next SOC could be a big success.

[@ianperkins8812]

OOO This is exciting. I am also very happy to see dual GBE interfaces. Thanks for posting this!

[@Remigrator]

RISC-V ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@slincolne]

Great review - this is quite an exciting piece of hardware, and makes the RISC-V platform very approachable (thanks VisionFive !). The data sheet is interesting reading, especially the block diagram showing the various peripheral chips on board. The inclusion of dual gigabit Ethernet is very interesting - It would be interesting to see some benchmarks showing this board's network throughput when configured as a firewall/router. Thanks for this - a great video !

[@sotosoul]

I’m guessing there are numerous users from the Eurozone and it’d be great if you could also include prices in euros, where possible, of course! Your content is fantastic and you’re the one who introduced me to the world of SBC - I’m very happy about that!

[@michaelgkellygreen]

Nice video Chris. Potentially a great SBC but lots of work to be done on development and as usual availability. Still nice to get a first look

[@Chris.Brisson]

"I'll get it in eventually. You know I will." -- And so she remained hopeful.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I think here I said "into it . . ." :)

[@Chris.Brisson]

@@ExplainingComputers I should add, kudos for this brilliant overview. I learned not just about an SBC, but also the not-ready-for-primetime state of the RISC-V marketplace.

[@extremelydave]

Chris, you wild trailblazer, this was a verrrrrrry cool video. When the initial proverbial dust has settled, I hope to join the RISC fray.

[@aleksanderhr.fredro8407]

Very cool board, I'll wait for some details on Star64 and then maybe buy both. I like that they have decent ram amount, m.2 and dual eth, this makes these boards more than just a dev board, they could be used as a router/nas with low power consumption probably

[@lendara40]

I got the same on Kickstarter this week! perfect timing. Excited to play with this board!!!

[@bella_ciao4608]

I think it'd be really neat to see this go further. I also like the whole Pico ITX thing. How neat would it be if there was a smaller PCIE standard for boards like this? Mini PCIE cards? It'd be awesome

[@DigitalJedi]

There are some very small PCIE 4.0 x8 connectors that are designed for use inside of a server chassis. You could hook those up on a board like this as long as you have some extra support for the connector as the pins are very small as is.

[@jmr]

I'm excited for Risc 5. We recently got a pledge from Google for Android support. Everything I see says this is going somewhere big.

[@spencerallen323]

Yes! I love it when we go and take a closer look.

[@roysigurdkarlsbakk3842]

I'd like to see a performance comparison between that and the Pis to which you were comparing it. Clockspeed doesn't necessarily say much in terms of real performance and there's a lot of benchmark software out there that can be easily used for this.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I will make a Pi 3 and Pi 4 vs VisionFive 2 benchmarks video when final software is available. Right now, benchmarks would be mostly meaningless . . . but soon! :)

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

Just glad to see RISC 5 being used and coming of age! We need more competition in the market, and RISC 5 opens the doors to anyone with the where with it all to get in on making computers, especially the open source community! I wonder where the kernel team is with it, as well as Arch Linux; My favorite. One can never have enough devices capable of running Linux!🐧 Stanly needs a new blade, or a sharpening will do too!🙂

[@another3997]

Great video. I've never seen Chris so excited about anything on his channel. Towards the end, he's positively animated, at least in his own, rather understated way. 😉 Even Stanley the knife looked excited. 😁 It seems as if Risc V is starting to make good progress, although it's "Open Source" status is still somewhat misunderstood. Will it become a true competitor to ARM in the long term? Will Chris ever be this excited again? Will he ever wear a different colour shirt?

[@ExplainingComputers]

:)