Introducing a new RISC-V Mainboard from DeepComputing

Framework Team Blog
146

Still, $130 (assuming the sd card is UHS - 1) is more than it should be

1 Like
148

Something tells me that they’ve used same hardware for the Framework compatible motherboard as in “DC-ROMA RISC-V Laptop 1” and they are selling it with an additional discount for the upcoming board that is based on “DC-ROMA RISC-V Laptop II” hardware.

I saw some demos of their first laptop and it’s suited for development for RISC-V, user expericence will be somewhat close to low-power netbooks, like EEEPC 900.

So I guess I’ll wait this one out till they release the modern board in 2025

In any case, it’s HUGE and great that they did that!

1 Like
149

The 1135G7 mainboard is only that inexpensive because it’s a discontinued item. Framework isn’t making any more of them, just selling out the leftover ones cheaply. Not to mention that it’s currently out of stock, at least in the US. The only 11th gen mainboard that is in stock is the 1185G7 at $349.

2 Likes
150

yeah, I know

151

This is not a mass-produced consumer-ready nor even enthusiast-ready product. They don’t sell it to individual people exactly because from a consumer perspective the current offer may seem like a scam. It’s a prototype, the manufacturing is not yet fully automated and that’s why it’s expensive. It is intended for businesses that want to build products around this. For such customers a few hundred USD premium (which is there probably mostly to cover costs of manufacturing in very low volumes or even doing some stuff manually) for the early access is below their rounding error. It even says in bold red letters “Early Access Program specifically for industry and business customers”. Expecting handcrafted prototypes to be similarly priced as mass-produced stuff is a mistake.

1 Like
152

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.

2 Likes