@@ExplainingComputers Could you do videos on open hardware that don't require binary blobs to boot? Unlike licheepi, bananapi, orangepi etc. OS choice doesn't matter much if the hardware and firmware works against you, or is backdoored.
@@johnm2012 The obvious ARM stock holder is obvious. I've been around to see the rise of ARM and the sad fall of MIPS. I'm glad to see a viable alternative reappearing, even if you're not.
I find RISC-V fascinating. Looking forward to your video on Linux Distros for RISC-V. If you, for some reason, cover this SBC again, I would like to see you try out the four buttons on the board along with the added USB connector and speaker connection. With that being said, I did enjoy your connecting all the drives to it. Very cool! Looking forward to your next video!
@@ExplainingComputers Is there a benchmark of the Risc-V against e.g. Raspberry Pi 5 somewhere? Yes, it's awfully reductive, but it's also a useful shorthand for seeing how the Risc-V SBCs are progressing.
Great review! It's very interesting to see the progress of the RISC-V architecture. I also noticed that you now place the notes a little higher on the screen, so that the captions don't cover them. Thanks!
Great video - and thank you for keeping us up to date on Risc-V (I've not worked on RISC systems, since ... Sparc?). I'm looking forward to the day that RISC-V becomes a full-on alternative to existing instruction sets - and it's exciting to see it improve over time! I'm looking forward to your review of OS that support RISC, with your usual terrific delivery!
I really like the idea of putting the SOM on a SODIMM module. It's not exactly future proofing, but if another Ghost Write flaw is revealed you can swap in a new processor and RAM module without necessarily discarding the rest of the board.
Really interesting how that module plugs into the carrier board. Maybe that is the new way to go. Get a really decked out carrier board and then you can try out all kinds of modules, totally cool. Great comprehensive video Chris, thank you!
To be honest, it isn't anything new. It is used in industrial applications for a long time. The oldest one I know used Intel PXA 255 processor. Nowadays NXP iMX series are used for that. One of the companies making modules is Toradex. Of course, we have to mention RaspberryPi Compute modules, which also used the SO-DIMM form factor (for example CM4S). :)
I appreciate it a lot that you show the failing OS upgrade to all viewers instead of pretending that everything was hunky dory. 'Hunky dory' can become very frustrating very quickly :-)
Again, many thanks for a professional review. You will probably like to read that the GPU inside this RISC-V chip is of British technology: It is based upon a PowerVR design, and PowerVR is a division of Imagination Technologies, which is a British company. I remember having a PowerVR GPU inside my desktop pc on a Hercules video card. It was well known for the special way in which it generated a 3D image, called Tile-based-deferred-rendering. Not sure if this more modern GPU is still a tile-based-renderer though. There is a nice Wikipedia page about the history of PowerVR. But so, British GPU-technology inside a RISC-V chip. 🙂
Excellent as usual, looking forward to the OS review for risk v I'm very tempted...btw thanks for admitting the update error and how you fixed it, most UA-camrs wouldn't, this is why i ❤ this channel... Keep up the great work and thanks for making my Sundays ❤
Greetings. This one's a good preview of Lichee's efforts with promoting RISC - V and definitely interesting is the fact that Lichee OS is running Wayland.
I keep hoping RISC-V can do what MIPS sadly wasn't able to do in the end. Keep alternatives to ARM viable. So every time I see progress, I'm happy about it. AND Once again, another well done video, Chris.
It looks cool, but the problem I have with many SBC manufacturers is the poor quality of their software. IMO, this is where Raspberry Pi shines... the hardware might not be cutting edge, but the software is very good and very well-supported with a great development community. The upgrade glitch you encountered is typical (in my experience) with a lot of non-Raspberry boards.
you are right, i dont see the benefit of doing the system like this, nvidia idea copied that benefits no one and serves no purpose the secondary board has the ports but storage, ram, gpu, cpu is on the sodim board, it is and it is not a sbc, like a compute module, it is weird lol
@@arch1107 I personally much prefer these modular boards, it's so much more flexible than a true single board computer. You can switch from a nas build to a router build to an IO based build all without buying new expensive compute sections just by swapping out the carrier. Or you can build your own carrier without having to mess with all the fiddly CPU and ram connections. It can just do more.
Another thoroughly enjoyable video on the exciting developments in RISC-V boards! Went by in a flash, whereas some other circa 20 min videos could make me yawn. Great stuff Chris!
Wake up, Buddy! Our hero is on! My 58th birthday is November 2nd. I've been saving my pennies for a year, Sir! I'm soon to be the proud owner Of my 1st Ras Pi 5 !!!! (Don't EVER be POOR! - You'll regret it! Lol) Cheers! - Judson & Buddy! - Have a great week Everyone!
Happy early birthday, and I hope that you will enjoy your Pi 5. It is a very capable board. My 58th birthday is just a couple of months after yours. :)
Interesting SBC, good to see that you can watch youtube 1080P videos without lags, if the target of this SBC is to replace a desktop PC then video hardware acceleration with the GPU is important, speed of SATA/M.2 storage is decent, enough for most users. Next step would be to use passive cooling instead of this little (and probably noisy) fan.
Finally some exciting SBC in a world where most of them are just copies of RPi 5. That naming scheme makes little sense to me. The more powerful is 3A and the less powerful without M.2 slots is 4A... Logic would suggest that it should be other way around. Full sized HDMI is great though. I would still like USB-C 3.0 and higher with video out so you have option to add one more video out with additional ports.
Thank you for that loud banner at the end. I don't know why but I sometimes doze off and this wakes me back up. I like your speaking style though so don't change anything. It's my own fault if I can't keep my eyes open.
Excuse me for being late this morning/afternoon, I needed some extra sleep! Anyway, part of me was expecting you to mess around in the object detection program again. I wanted to see if it would still recognize good old Mr. Scissors as a toothbrush! 😅 With that said, that was a smooth, quick first boot for Bianbu OS but a huge shame about upgrading to a newer version of the OS being a pain in the you-know-where. As for the SBC, it's always interesting to see one with a SoM.
Cute little SBC, give risk-V a few years, and we will proberly start to see more of them in stuff like routers,NAS boxes etc etc Would have liked to see more about power consumation idle/load....
I'm always happy to see new computer technology I like that there is NVME slots and EMMC included by default. I don't like that the highest resolution supported is 1080P- Not sure why it is that limited as even the Pi 4 can do 4K/60Hz. The OS upgrade failure is kind of worrying makes me wonder how much software pain would come from using one. Also, the cost is about the same as a Pi 5... but raspberry pi has amazing SW support, even for some of the really old pi models the SW just works. That is a huge time saver! If I wanted to play with RISC-V, I could see getting one but I'm not seeing a great reason to choose the Pi 3A over other SBCs if you don't care about the details of the CPU.
I suspect this is all due to the security flaw issues with the SoC on the 4A, meaning that a new board was launched before the 5A and it needed a name. But I could be wrong.
I enjoy your weekly videos! Thank you. (Nottingham Uni alumnus here, also enjoying that connection). And I’ve become RISC-V curious. I wonder, though, how I could use one to try and understand the different instruction sets on ARM vs RISC-V vs X86-64 if I got one. Do you know what tools could be used for that? Not Solitaire, obviously… Perhaps I should just find a use for my new Raspberry Pi 5 first… 😅
The best way to appreciate the different instruction sets is to learn about each platform's assembly language - resources for all three that you mention are available on line - and write a non-trivial program for each. But if you're just going to program them in high level languages or use applications that someone else wrote then the differences don't really matter.
Faith? hm... not for me. Show me the logs. But this is really really cool. I feel too that it's like we're on the edge of a frontier with RISC-V. Thanks for another great vid.
An interesting video about RISC-V & the Lichee Pi 3A board excellent. The board is well served with plenty of connectivity, what about future expansion/upgrades? Another happy Sunday with Chris :)
I'd love to see a video about any projects one could use these for. Maybe a small media machine or some such. I know they are early dev boards but still sounds fun to try.
Thanks for this. I built a NAS using the Banana Bi BPI-3 RISC-V board (and the same or better could be done with the Lichee Pi 3A): see ua-cam.com/video/UpOy9ydKmPs/v-deo.html Back in 2023 I managed to do a week's computing in RISC-V -- ua-cam.com/video/Na6PT4npsMg/v-deo.html -- so tried out loads of stuff. I expect to repeat this experiment with an even wider range of applications in early 2025 . . .
Can't see the resemblance tbh , look nothing like him! However , that hairstyle of yours , its always perfectly groomed , as a near baldy myself in your age demographic- I am kind of jealous! Is it really - dare I say it real ??
Chris is way more intelligent and charismatic then major!!!! May I suggest spec savers? You may have made Stanley the knife very upset!!! Just saying watch your back 😂
Hi Chris! Best channel on UA-cam. I finally thought about commenting. Risc-v is evolving quite fast, but we really do need european, or at least american product developement and manufacturing. Are there any risc-v boards that are not chinese, haven't seen any? This is the only thing holding me back. Maybe folks at Raspberry would do something with risc-v in the future...?
Thanks for your kind feedback. There are US RISC-V boards, like those from SiFive under their HiFive range. But they cost a lot more (c.$300 to $600). It will be interesting to see if Raspberry Pi get involved . . .
Nice to see RISC-V SBCs hitting the market but I don't think I'll invest yet as I'd like to see 2.5GB Ethernet on quite a few boards and a lot of stable Linux distros for RISC-V.
As RK3588 is not yet supported in Armbian we are dependent on the manufacturerer to update the OS. Is there any „native“ Risk-V Linux distribution, and is K1 natively supported or have we to trust a chinese manufactuerer to update in a regular bases even when the board is no longer available in 5 years?
Great to see yet another RISC-V SBC and for it to perform quite well and to have nice options for storage devices (perhaps even being useful as a mini NAS)! Woukd you consider trying the FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Haiku RISC-V ports on this and other future RV SBCs?
@@ExplainingComputers Wonderful! I will certainly watch out for that video... I also see that Redox OS and SerenityOS ports for RISC V are in progress, and tge Apache NuttX Real-time OS has RISC V support... as does Plan 9 apparently. Edit: And... an Oberon port.
I have the same board that i got to try and port some apps to riscv. I do wonder if the LM5A module will be able to be used on the LM3 base board... Anyway, yeah i had the same problem with the Bianbu OS refusing to work after the attempted upgrade... i think everyone had that problem. My biggest complain about Bianbu OS is that the source is on some Chinese site that i need to register to clone, and im really wanted to recompile the kernel to get the modules for nvidia and radeon gpus. As for the IMG gpu is not really supported yet, BUT, they are working on it and i read they plan to start pushing patches into mesa soon. I think they want to support Vulkan, and OGL over Zink.
Hey Mr_Scissors!?! You're Like A New Age Boffin, Aren't You? You Get A Little More Excited When You Do RISC Stuff. What About Case Options? By The Way, That Wallpaper Blows! I Saw OpenGL So I Have To Ask, Can It Run Crysis? Thank You. (Comment #255)
Any chance you might run the Geekbench 6 preview for RISC-V? An idea of their single thread and multi-thread CPU performance would really help put these SBCs in context.
Chris, Thanks for another entertaining and informative video! I have a question which may be somewhat dumb: It seems are nearing the point where RISC-V based systems can do pretty much all the same things that ARM-based systems and with somewhat equivalent performance. Also, I've seen videos which show that programs for both CPU types can be compiled with basically the same tools and with similar results. So the question is, what is the point of RISC-V? Since the ISA is open, no royalties are paid for its use in comparison with ARM. But are RISC-V systems a lot cheaper? It seems like these SBCs are about the same price regardless. So what is the actual advantage of using RISC-V?
Thanks for this. RISC-V is still developmental for end-user computing -- there is no end user hardware available, so currently no reasonable comparison can be made between end-user RISC-V and Arm (and x86) boards. As I noted near the start of the video, the Lichee Pi 3A is a RISC-V development boar for those who want to develop for RISC-V, or to experiment with RISC-V, to do so. And right now that is the only point of this hardware. But a couple of years down the track I expect that we will see end-user RISC-V (and server) hardware -- inc mini PCs, laptops and tablets -- that is cheaper and more power efficient than Arm for the same performance level. But this can only occur if developers and pioneers have something to work with! :)
I have to ask, because it appeared to me from what you said that the security vulnerability with the Lichee Pi 4A was with the carrier board, and then I am not clear AT ALL on where the Lichee Pi 3A graphics processor is -- SO-DIMM or carrier board -- so I am left wondering if the owner of a Lichee Pi 4A can buy the carrier board for the 3A, and avoid the known security vulnerability, gain the newly-added NVME connectors, and still have the 4k graphics capability? Or, is the security vulnerability in the Lichee Pi 4A SO-DIMM itself, the 4k graphics on the Lichee Pi 4A carrier board, and the processor SO-DIMMs are specific to the carrier boards instead of being . . . more versatile?
The security problem with the 4A was with the SoC -- specifically it's CPU cores -- so is not with the carrier board. A Pi 4A owner can replace their SoM with a 3A SoM and keep their carrier board.
@ExplainingComputers: It would be highly appreciated if you could run a couple of (at least simple) performance tests to be able to see how different SBC compare. Until now, unfortunately, renting a VPS w/ eight Xeon cores and using QEMU is still faster than using a native RISCV SBC as a build machine - but it would be nice to know when this changes …
Early days still for RISC-V - but the basics are there. Boot basic Linux, have acceptable GPU, devices. Guess in a year or two we will start seeing if there is going to be a real future for RISC-V.
Quite interesting, that hardware is utilised quite well - it will be quite interesting to see the HiFive Premier P550, when that one arrives. When the RISC-V catches the RK3588, we really have got something. Then we just need a european manufacturer.
Yes, the HiFive Premier P550 will be interesting, but I think it is over-priced. About $600 as I understand it -- and the first ones do not even have a functional display connector.
@@ExplainingComputers That is quite steep, for something that looks like being a Maybe it's just my cup of Earl Gray talking, but my feeling is that if the P850 delivers even half of what they promise, Arm is in serious trouble. Maybe that's why they want to produce processors again and have "updated" their license terms, to get a bigger piece of the pie, and now pulled Quailcomm's license (Actually not sure what to think of that, but lets see what the court in Delaware says).
What is the best board to use for a photogrammetry booth, where we would require about 100 boards with a camera connected to each, then to a main computer to control all the the cameras, and download all photos to the main computer for uploading? Thank. you, Jeff
Thank You for this video and for your work! Could you please do a video on fydeos 19 with all the new things and integrated ai ? Thanks again and Keep Up the Good Work!
The nvme ssd got a read rate of 608.97 MB/sec. In comparison, my nvme ssd on my AMD-based Framework 13 running Gentoo Linux got a read rate of 1813.78 MB/sec. I cannot wait to get a RISC-V cpu in my Framework, but I will wait until there is hopefully a board with socketed ram and storage, and near-desktop speeds.
What do you tend to do with these boards after you're done using them for making video content. Do they get put on a shelf or re-sold or something else?
They indeed go into my store (ie shelf!), and sometimes re-emerge for other videos projects. For example, I'm about to shoot my "Top 5 New SBCs of 2024" video. And I imagine Lichee Pi 3A any other hardware will be used when I make a video about the state of play in RISC-V OS, and for various other more general RISC-V videos I have planned. My SBC collection now includes about 73 different boards, and I increasingly expect to draw on it as a video making resource. :)
Sorry, my bad on the typo. :( I cannot remember the temperatures, but they were more than fine. I think mid 40s C at load. A heatsink and fan is overkill for a K1, so the provided cooling is more than adequate (I have run the Banana Pi BPI-F3 with the same SoC with just a small heatsink and no fan long-term with no issues).
Ohhhh so many Pi computers ... Let's bake them in the oven and eat them up 😊 . Like always tho an amazing video . Thanks for sharing. Lets see how AI technology moves on with these sbc down the road 🛣️... Possibilities are now more then endless
your one of the few reliable youtubers left on the web the rest is desperate for money or is full of sponsorships keep making these great videos 🎉
Thanks, this is appreciated. You will see no sponsorships and related messages in the videos on this channel. :)
@@ExplainingComputerslegend!
@@ExplainingComputers Could you do videos on open hardware that don't require binary blobs to boot? Unlike licheepi, bananapi, orangepi etc. OS choice doesn't matter much if the hardware and firmware works against you, or is backdoored.
@@ExplainingComputersso glad you are not a politician😂
@@ExplainingComputers the closest you get to sponsorship is with "Stanley the Knife" ;)
I love seeing progress on the RISC-V front.
I am WAY more excited watching RISC-V evolve than I ever was with 🤮 ARM.
Agreed.
why?
Me, too, though I understand almost nothing of the tech'.
From your comment I find it difficult to believe you were even around at the beginning of ARM's evolution. The puking emoji is especially childish.
@@johnm2012 The obvious ARM stock holder is obvious. I've been around to see the rise of ARM and the sad fall of MIPS. I'm glad to see a viable alternative reappearing, even if you're not.
One of best YT channels that doesn't throw sponsorship or advertisements in your face. Just always focused on the subject ExplainingComputers!
I want to find a wife that loves me the way Chris loves Single Board Computers
You will one day!
😅😅
Kinky!
@@dazedandconfused698 🤣🤣🤣
Loves you, then loves someone else?
These Risc V SBCs are quickly becoming very usable!
Watching risc-v progress is fun
More RISC V goodness. Very nice. Thanks for another great video Chris.
I find RISC-V fascinating. Looking forward to your video on Linux Distros for RISC-V. If you, for some reason, cover this SBC again, I would like to see you try out the four buttons on the board along with the added USB connector and speaker connection. With that being said, I did enjoy your connecting all the drives to it. Very cool! Looking forward to your next video!
Finally! Kept hitting refresh to get the latest video.
Looking forward to the Lichee Pi review.
Here we are again! :)
@@ExplainingComputers It's always such a pleasure
@@ExplainingComputers Is there a benchmark of the Risc-V against e.g. Raspberry Pi 5 somewhere? Yes, it's awfully reductive, but it's also a useful shorthand for seeing how the Risc-V SBCs are progressing.
So the old one is called 4A and the new one is 3A? Not confusing at all!
They are trying to keep us on our toes! :)
Yep, strange but at least it's not USB and their bizarre antics.
@@reggiep75 or HDMI!
@@itanasoaie or nvidia, intel, amd, vesa HDR, pci-sig, etc, etc :)
Great review!
It's very interesting to see the progress of the RISC-V architecture.
I also noticed that you now place the notes a little higher on the screen, so that the captions don't cover them. Thanks!
Whoa, how awesome! I didn't notice this
Great video - and thank you for keeping us up to date on Risc-V (I've not worked on RISC systems, since ... Sparc?). I'm looking forward to the day that RISC-V becomes a full-on alternative to existing instruction sets - and it's exciting to see it improve over time! I'm looking forward to your review of OS that support RISC, with your usual terrific delivery!
I really like the idea of putting the SOM on a SODIMM module. It's not exactly future proofing, but if another Ghost Write flaw is revealed you can swap in a new processor and RAM module without necessarily discarding the rest of the board.
Thank you for educating and showing cool tech without sponsors, it's very appreciated!
Risc-V is always fun to watch when you makes videos about them
Really interesting how that module plugs into the carrier board. Maybe that is the new way to go. Get a really decked out carrier board and then you can try out all kinds of modules, totally cool. Great comprehensive video Chris, thank you!
To be honest, it isn't anything new. It is used in industrial applications for a long time. The oldest one I know used Intel PXA 255 processor. Nowadays NXP iMX series are used for that. One of the companies making modules is Toradex. Of course, we have to mention RaspberryPi Compute modules, which also used the SO-DIMM form factor (for example CM4S). :)
I may never have any use of a RISC-V thingy, but damn, I love to see how this is growing more and more everyday =)
Indeed. And I bet it will not be long before we are all accessing some web content from a server with a RISC-V processor . . .
I appreciate it a lot that you show the failing OS upgrade to all viewers instead of pretending that everything was hunky dory. 'Hunky dory' can become very frustrating very quickly :-)
Again, many thanks for a professional review.
You will probably like to read that the GPU inside this RISC-V chip is of British technology: It is based upon a PowerVR design, and PowerVR is a division of Imagination Technologies, which is a British company.
I remember having a PowerVR GPU inside my desktop pc on a Hercules video card. It was well known for the special way in which it generated a 3D image, called Tile-based-deferred-rendering. Not sure if this more modern GPU is still a tile-based-renderer though.
There is a nice Wikipedia page about the history of PowerVR.
But so, British GPU-technology inside a RISC-V chip. 🙂
Pretty cool little machine. Reminds me of the old Raspberry Pi compute modules that plugged in with a dimm. 👍
We're getting there slowly but surely.
Thanks Chris!
Good Morning from Flower Mound, TX Mr. Barnatt!! Another superior performance on an interesting RISC-V SBC!
another top video very well presented , enjoy this channel , allen milliyard and a Japanese carpenter who makes stuff
what a nerd !!!
Thanks 👍
Excellent as usual, looking forward to the OS review for risk v I'm very tempted...btw thanks for admitting the update error and how you fixed it, most UA-camrs wouldn't, this is why i ❤ this channel... Keep up the great work and thanks for making my Sundays ❤
Greetings. This one's a good preview of Lichee's efforts with promoting RISC - V and definitely interesting is the fact that Lichee OS is running Wayland.
It's nice to see more RISC-V
I keep hoping RISC-V can do what MIPS sadly wasn't able to do in the end. Keep alternatives to ARM viable. So every time I see progress, I'm happy about it. AND Once again, another well done video, Chris.
your channel is extremely valuable, thank you so much for what you're doing
Enjoyable, as always, even though I’m not in the market for such a board right now.
It looks cool, but the problem I have with many SBC manufacturers is the poor quality of their software. IMO, this is where Raspberry Pi shines... the hardware might not be cutting edge, but the software is very good and very well-supported with a great development community. The upgrade glitch you encountered is typical (in my experience) with a lot of non-Raspberry boards.
All true. Although I think RISC-V is doing better than Arm on the software frontier at a similar stage in its develoment.
@@ExplainingComputers Oh interesting... I've yet to take the RISC-V plunge. Maybe in a couple of years.
Thanks to you, we are informed of advances in the RiscV field.😎
**
Grâce à vous, nous sommes informés des avancées dans le domaine RiscV.😎
Cannot wait for other distros testing and some bug correction and testing ❤
Nice progress, I´ll keeping looking forward the RISC-V progress.
Excellent video, Chris. Thanks for sharing.
Nice to see 2 SATA ports. Fingers crossed for the Pi CM5 I/O board.
Technically speaking, that is not a SINGLE board computer.
you are right, i dont see the benefit of doing the system like this, nvidia idea copied that benefits no one and serves no purpose
the secondary board has the ports but storage, ram, gpu, cpu is on the sodim board, it is and it is not a sbc, like a compute module, it is weird lol
@@arch1107 I personally much prefer these modular boards, it's so much more flexible than a true single board computer. You can switch from a nas build to a router build to an IO based build all without buying new expensive compute sections just by swapping out the carrier. Or you can build your own carrier without having to mess with all the fiddly CPU and ram connections. It can just do more.
@@jblack3761 afik, the mdule will not work on other cards, so it is flexible, but with other same model boards
Another thoroughly enjoyable video on the exciting developments in RISC-V boards! Went by in a flash, whereas some other circa 20 min videos could make me yawn.
Great stuff Chris!
Thanks for the video Chris. The march of risc. What could possibly stop it, I wonder.
Great video. Thank you for the information and wonderful presentation
Wake up, Buddy! Our hero is on!
My 58th birthday is November 2nd.
I've been saving my pennies for a year, Sir!
I'm soon to be the proud owner
Of my 1st Ras Pi 5 !!!!
(Don't EVER be POOR! - You'll regret it! Lol)
Cheers! - Judson & Buddy! - Have a great week Everyone!
Have a ton of fun with your Pi, and Buddy!
You have everything you need?
Happy early birthday! I hope you and Buddy have fun with the Pi 5 once you get it. :)
Happy early birthday, and I hope that you will enjoy your Pi 5. It is a very capable board. My 58th birthday is just a couple of months after yours. :)
Sempre trazendo novidades né rsrsr.
thank you
Interesting SBC, good to see that you can watch youtube 1080P videos without lags, if the target of this SBC is to replace a desktop PC then video hardware acceleration with the GPU is important, speed of SATA/M.2 storage is decent, enough for most users. Next step would be to use passive cooling instead of this little (and probably noisy) fan.
Very interesting as always thank you
Thanks a lot for sharing!
Another nice video Chris and an interesting new board 😀
Thanks! 😀
Finally some exciting SBC in a world where most of them are just copies of RPi 5. That naming scheme makes little sense to me. The more powerful is 3A and the less powerful without M.2 slots is 4A... Logic would suggest that it should be other way around.
Full sized HDMI is great though. I would still like USB-C 3.0 and higher with video out so you have option to add one more video out with additional ports.
Thank you for that loud banner at the end. I don't know why but I sometimes doze off and this wakes me back up. I like your speaking style though so don't change anything. It's my own fault if I can't keep my eyes open.
Sleep is always good.
>gets single board computer
>opens up
>two boards
Indeed! But the LM3A is an SBC, if creating a DBC system! :)
Excuse me for being late this morning/afternoon, I needed some extra sleep! Anyway, part of me was expecting you to mess around in the object detection program again. I wanted to see if it would still recognize good old Mr. Scissors as a toothbrush! 😅
With that said, that was a smooth, quick first boot for Bianbu OS but a huge shame about upgrading to a newer version of the OS being a pain in the you-know-where. As for the SBC, it's always interesting to see one with a SoM.
Greetings! :)
@@ExplainingComputers Hi, Chris! Here I am alive and better off than I was last weekend. 😅☺️
Cute little SBC, give risk-V a few years, and we will proberly start to see more of them in stuff like routers,NAS boxes etc etc
Would have liked to see more about power consumation idle/load....
I'm always happy to see new computer technology I like that there is NVME slots and EMMC included by default. I don't like that the highest resolution supported is 1080P- Not sure why it is that limited as even the Pi 4 can do 4K/60Hz. The OS upgrade failure is kind of worrying makes me wonder how much software pain would come from using one. Also, the cost is about the same as a Pi 5... but raspberry pi has amazing SW support, even for some of the really old pi models the SW just works. That is a huge time saver! If I wanted to play with RISC-V, I could see getting one but I'm not seeing a great reason to choose the Pi 3A over other SBCs if you don't care about the details of the CPU.
Saugeil!
so the 3A is newer than the 4A and the next one will be 5A? are they deliberately trying to be as confusing as possible?
I suspect this is all due to the security flaw issues with the SoC on the 4A, meaning that a new board was launched before the 5A and it needed a name. But I could be wrong.
What is the great thing about the RISC-V progress so many mentioned, it's going faster than ARM SBC progress of the past.
I enjoy your weekly videos! Thank you. (Nottingham Uni alumnus here, also enjoying that connection).
And I’ve become RISC-V curious. I wonder, though, how I could use one to try and understand the different instruction sets on ARM vs RISC-V vs X86-64 if I got one. Do you know what tools could be used for that? Not Solitaire, obviously…
Perhaps I should just find a use for my new Raspberry Pi 5 first… 😅
The best way to appreciate the different instruction sets is to learn about each platform's assembly language - resources for all three that you mention are available on line - and write a non-trivial program for each. But if you're just going to program them in high level languages or use applications that someone else wrote then the differences don't really matter.
Faith? hm... not for me. Show me the logs. But this is really really cool. I feel too that it's like we're on the edge of a frontier with RISC-V. Thanks for another great vid.
An interesting video about RISC-V & the Lichee Pi 3A board excellent. The board is well served with plenty of connectivity, what about future expansion/upgrades? Another happy Sunday with Chris :)
Hi, Alan!
@@Praxibetel-Ix Hi Ford, a happy Sunday afternoon with Chris or should I say morning? ;)
@@alanthornton3530It sure is! I will admit, I was late to the party this morning because I needed some extra sleep, but better late than never.
Greetings both! Sleep is always good.
@@ExplainingComputers Sure is, especially when you're getting over an illness. :)
I'd love to see a video about any projects one could use these for. Maybe a small media machine or some such. I know they are early dev boards but still sounds fun to try.
Thanks for this. I built a NAS using the Banana Bi BPI-3 RISC-V board (and the same or better could be done with the Lichee Pi 3A): see ua-cam.com/video/UpOy9ydKmPs/v-deo.html Back in 2023 I managed to do a week's computing in RISC-V -- ua-cam.com/video/Na6PT4npsMg/v-deo.html -- so tried out loads of stuff. I expect to repeat this experiment with an even wider range of applications in early 2025 . . .
UA-cam is playing games again. After 2 hours waiting, I had to go looking for the video.
This is not good. But I'm glad you found it! :)
Hi, is the chap who hosts this channel related to John Major? Genuinely asking, not making fun, as it's an excellent channel 👍🏾
Not to my knowledge, but when he was PM, some people made the comparison! :)
I went to school with a very clever guy who Chris reminds me of very much :)
How dare you!
Can't see the resemblance tbh , look nothing like him!
However , that hairstyle of yours , its always perfectly groomed , as a near baldy myself in your age demographic- I am kind of jealous!
Is it really - dare I say it real ??
Chris is way more intelligent and charismatic then major!!!! May I suggest spec savers? You may have made Stanley the knife very upset!!! Just saying watch your back 😂
@ExplainingComputers Chris, Can you do a video on NPUs? Specifically, adding a Coral to one of the PCI slots on that Lichee board?
Noted. I have had a note for some time to make an NPU video.
I wonder how well some full featured desktop environment like KDE Plasma 6 runs on this hardware.
Hi Chris! Best channel on UA-cam. I finally thought about commenting. Risc-v is evolving quite fast, but we really do need european, or at least american product developement and manufacturing. Are there any risc-v boards that are not chinese, haven't seen any?
This is the only thing holding me back. Maybe folks at Raspberry would do something with risc-v in the future...?
Thanks for your kind feedback. There are US RISC-V boards, like those from SiFive under their HiFive range. But they cost a lot more (c.$300 to $600). It will be interesting to see if Raspberry Pi get involved . . .
But can it emulate an Atari ST?
Nice to see RISC-V SBCs hitting the market but I don't think I'll invest yet as I'd like to see 2.5GB Ethernet on quite a few boards and a lot of stable Linux distros for RISC-V.
That REC button is probably recovery, to flash a new image.
Ah yes, that makes far more sense! : My bad.
Imagine if you are 12 years old, and you get one of these for Christmas, how exciting.
:)
Fedora on RISCV - wow!
I see that as en endorsement for RISC-V - very interesting moment in ISA history...
As RK3588 is not yet supported in Armbian we are dependent on the manufacturerer to update the OS.
Is there any „native“ Risk-V Linux distribution, and is K1 natively supported or have we to trust a chinese manufactuerer to update in a regular bases even when the board is no longer available in 5 years?
Bianbu is a dedicated RISC-V Linux distro, from the manufacturers of the K1.
Great to see yet another RISC-V SBC and for it to perform quite well and to have nice options for storage devices (perhaps even being useful as a mini NAS)! Woukd you consider trying the FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Haiku RISC-V ports on this and other future RV SBCs?
Thanks for this. I intend to try every RISC-V OS I can get running in an upcoming video.
@@ExplainingComputers Wonderful! I will certainly watch out for that video... I also see that Redox OS and SerenityOS ports for RISC V are in progress, and tge Apache NuttX Real-time OS has RISC V support... as does Plan 9 apparently.
Edit: And... an Oberon port.
Will you be doing a top 5 pi, chip on board pc etc videos for Christmas?
I will indeed soon be posting my "Top 5 New SBCs 2024" video. :)
@@ExplainingComputers awesome
I have the same board that i got to try and port some apps to riscv. I do wonder if the LM5A module will be able to be used on the LM3 base board... Anyway, yeah i had the same problem with the Bianbu OS refusing to work after the attempted upgrade... i think everyone had that problem. My biggest complain about Bianbu OS is that the source is on some Chinese site that i need to register to clone, and im really wanted to recompile the kernel to get the modules for nvidia and radeon gpus. As for the IMG gpu is not really supported yet, BUT, they are working on it and i read they plan to start pushing patches into mesa soon. I think they want to support Vulkan, and OGL over Zink.
I know it's a dev board but any vendor testing of that upgrade would have revealed it doesn't work.
Hey Mr_Scissors!?! You're Like A New Age Boffin, Aren't You? You Get A Little More Excited When You Do RISC Stuff. What About Case Options? By The Way, That Wallpaper Blows! I Saw OpenGL So I Have To Ask, Can It Run Crysis? Thank You. (Comment #255)
Any chance you might run the Geekbench 6 preview for RISC-V? An idea of their single thread and multi-thread CPU performance would really help put these SBCs in context.
Chris,
Thanks for another entertaining and informative video! I have a question which may be somewhat dumb:
It seems are nearing the point where RISC-V based systems can do pretty much all the same things that ARM-based systems and with somewhat equivalent performance. Also, I've seen videos which show that programs for both CPU types can be compiled with basically the same tools and with similar results.
So the question is, what is the point of RISC-V? Since the ISA is open, no royalties are paid for its use in comparison with ARM. But are RISC-V systems a lot cheaper? It seems like these SBCs are about the same price regardless. So what is the actual advantage of using RISC-V?
Thanks for this. RISC-V is still developmental for end-user computing -- there is no end user hardware available, so currently no reasonable comparison can be made between end-user RISC-V and Arm (and x86) boards.
As I noted near the start of the video, the Lichee Pi 3A is a RISC-V development boar for those who want to develop for RISC-V, or to experiment with RISC-V, to do so. And right now that is the only point of this hardware. But a couple of years down the track I expect that we will see end-user RISC-V (and server) hardware -- inc mini PCs, laptops and tablets -- that is cheaper and more power efficient than Arm for the same performance level. But this can only occur if developers and pioneers have something to work with! :)
I have to ask, because it appeared to me from what you said that the security vulnerability with the Lichee Pi 4A was with the carrier board, and then I am not clear AT ALL on where the Lichee Pi 3A graphics processor is -- SO-DIMM or carrier board -- so I am left wondering if the owner of a Lichee Pi 4A can buy the carrier board for the 3A, and avoid the known security vulnerability, gain the newly-added NVME connectors, and still have the 4k graphics capability?
Or, is the security vulnerability in the Lichee Pi 4A SO-DIMM itself, the 4k graphics on the Lichee Pi 4A carrier board, and the processor SO-DIMMs are specific to the carrier boards instead of being . . . more versatile?
The security problem with the 4A was with the SoC -- specifically it's CPU cores -- so is not with the carrier board. A Pi 4A owner can replace their SoM with a 3A SoM and keep their carrier board.
How does it run with the stable 6.11 kernel or with 6.12?❤
To me, RISC-V system is way more interesting than ARM systems
I agree! :) I like the frontier.
@ExplainingComputers: It would be highly appreciated if you could run a couple of (at least simple) performance tests to be able to see how different SBC compare. Until now, unfortunately, renting a VPS w/ eight Xeon cores and using QEMU is still faster than using a native RISCV SBC as a build machine - but it would be nice to know when this changes …
❤❤
I would love see a RISC-V board with Dual Display Ports instead of it ALWAYS being HDMI.
Great ❤
Early days still for RISC-V - but the basics are there. Boot basic Linux, have acceptable GPU, devices.
Guess in a year or two we will start seeing if there is going to be a real future for RISC-V.
Quite interesting, that hardware is utilised quite well - it will be quite interesting to see the HiFive Premier P550, when that one arrives. When the RISC-V catches the RK3588, we really have got something. Then we just need a european manufacturer.
Yes, the HiFive Premier P550 will be interesting, but I think it is over-priced. About $600 as I understand it -- and the first ones do not even have a functional display connector.
@@ExplainingComputers That is quite steep, for something that looks like being a
Maybe it's just my cup of Earl Gray talking, but my feeling is that if the P850 delivers even half of what they promise, Arm is in serious trouble. Maybe that's why they want to produce processors again and have "updated" their license terms, to get a bigger piece of the pie, and now pulled Quailcomm's license (Actually not sure what to think of that, but lets see what the court in Delaware says).
What is the best board to use for a photogrammetry booth, where we would require about 100 boards with a camera connected to each, then to a main computer to control all the the cameras, and download all photos to the main computer for uploading? Thank. you, Jeff
I was expecting far more dropped frames for 1080 playback. What a leap in performance.
Thank You for this video and for your work!
Could you please do a video on fydeos 19 with all the new things and integrated ai ?
Thanks again and Keep Up the Good Work!
17:40 thats exactly the speed of PCIE 2.0 x1, i belive the m.2 to two sata connectors used here is pcie x1.
👍
Would love to know CPU benchmarks relative to other common processors
This sounds like a good idea for a video. Noted! :)
Sunday Morning A Little Risky EC
The nvme ssd got a read rate of 608.97 MB/sec. In comparison, my nvme ssd on my AMD-based Framework 13 running Gentoo Linux got a read rate of 1813.78 MB/sec. I cannot wait to get a RISC-V cpu in my Framework, but I will wait until there is hopefully a board with socketed ram and storage, and near-desktop speeds.
Hi, is possible to run LUKS on this RISC-V boards ?
What do you tend to do with these boards after you're done using them for making video content. Do they get put on a shelf or re-sold or something else?
They indeed go into my store (ie shelf!), and sometimes re-emerge for other videos projects. For example, I'm about to shoot my "Top 5 New SBCs of 2024" video. And I imagine Lichee Pi 3A any other hardware will be used when I make a video about the state of play in RISC-V OS, and for various other more general RISC-V videos I have planned. My SBC collection now includes about 73 different boards, and I increasingly expect to draw on it as a video making resource. :)
@5:41 There's a typo. It is 4 x Type-A USB 3.0 instead of 2 x Type USB 3.0.
Anyway, how is the thermal? Is the fan and heatsink adequate?
Sorry, my bad on the typo. :( I cannot remember the temperatures, but they were more than fine. I think mid 40s C at load. A heatsink and fan is overkill for a K1, so the provided cooling is more than adequate (I have run the Banana Pi BPI-F3 with the same SoC with just a small heatsink and no fan long-term with no issues).
Good Morning my friend........
Greetings!
Ohhhh so many Pi computers ... Let's bake them in the oven and eat them up 😊 . Like always tho an amazing video . Thanks for sharing. Lets see how AI technology moves on with these sbc down the road 🛣️... Possibilities are now more then endless