Introducing a new RISC-V Mainboard from DeepComputing

Framework Team Blog
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This RISC-V mainboard is great for a number of reasons:

  1. Encourages the concept of RISC-V on the desktop
  2. Encourages all the Linux kernel support to be up-streamed to the mainline kernel.
    This is actually a pretty difficult step, and takes time to achieve.
  3. Encourages people to test all the desktop applications with RISC-V. E.g. Firefox, libreoffice etc.
  4. Gets all the OS, Application software and BIOS efforts up to speed with a RISC-V desktop/laptop.
  5. Lays the groundwork for more powerful RISC-V CPUs for the desktop/laptop. There are 64 core RISC-V CPUs in the roadmap.
  6. The video interview with them says they are focusing on improving performance first. Once they have that, they will then focus on power efficiency.
  7. It provides them with something they can easily give a developer that will help with 1-4.

DeepComputing are doing things pretty quickly, they have achieved in months what others take 3 years to achieve.
The FW laptop has allowed DeepComputing to provide a laptop form factor with minimal development work as they only needed to do the main board, and none of the case, screen, hinge or keyboard design.

In summary, I don’t think the cost of it, or the maybe lack of availability of it to end-users is a problem. It is a means to an end in a very quick and efficient manner.
This might be the eventual path to Apple M4 level performance on a RISC-V platform.
I think the next mainboards in the roadmap are what is going to really interest end-users.
All the above info is contained in an interview with the DeepComputing CEO that was done at the Ubuntu summit 2024.

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