Sub-$10 linux-capable risc-v board \ stacker news ~bitcoin

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Sub-$10 linux-capable risc-v board www.pine64.org/2022/10/15/october-update-an-ox-no-bull/

568 sats \ 7 comments \ @rijndael 16 Oct 2022 bitcoin

119 sats \ 4 replies \ @k00b 16 Oct 2022

Admittedly, I don’t keep up with The space, but pretty surprised to see raspberry pis being competed with. I always imagined the margins were too small and hardware too expensive/hard to develop.

253 sats \ 0 replies \ @rijndael OP 16 Oct 2022

Same, but I’m thrilled to see it. Cheap stuff gets really cheap, affordable stuff gets cheap, expensive stuff gets affordable, crazy stuff gets expensive.

295 sats \ 1 reply \ @petertodd 16 Oct 2022

Keep in mind that this is a RISC-V processor, rather than ARM, so it's not directly competing with Raspberry Pi for the segment of the market that wants to use RISC-V.

Also while hardware is still a lot harder and more expensive to develop than software, it's not impossible. A little $10 board like this is something a single individual could develop on their own with only a few thousand of dollars worth of equipment.

169 sats \ 0 replies \ @rijndael OP 16 Oct 2022

I’m excited to see low cost riscv dev boards. Would be great if in the not too distant future we could build real systems that are open from the ISA up through the application code. Something I think bitcoiners should pay attention to.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @irusensei 16 Oct 2022

Pine is a company that goes like “there is cool hardware in the world lets throw them to the wall and see if it sticks”. Lots of interesting hardware with stuff like PCI-E adapters on SBCs but you’ll have a rougher experience than what you’d have with Raspberry Pi’s or just plain amd64 hardware.

Nothing wrong with that and I actually favor RockPros over pis but don’t expect to have a library of software as big as the one for RPis.

43 sats \ 0 replies \ @sancristrader 16 Oct 2022

Just yesterday i was investigating PineTime watch and PinePhone and to my disappointment I found out that many parts have only very poor Chinese documentation

https://files.pine64.org/doc/datasheet/pinetime/PineTime%20LCD%20Panel.jpg

such as its display panel. For example its touch sensor driver is made by a Chinese company and Pine doesn't even know how to use its I²C interface. Pine64 is Hong Kong based and its suppliers aren't transparent enough for a true open source hardware project.

Librem5 is better, however the Librem5USA model, that is made with relatively well documented and thus open US-made parts is $2000!

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullama 16 Oct 2022

It's crazy that this board, which is a full computer running Linux, costs about $8, and the cable to power it up, a USB-C, costs about the same :)